Lynne Shallcross (’15) Wins at ONA Awards

Her voice quavering with emotion, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism alumna Lynne Shallcross (’15) took to the stage in Los Angeles to accept the 2015 Online Journalism Award for best work in the small student project category. She thanked her classmates, her husband, and the professors who helped her complete the winning project: a master’s thesis titled “Mobile Health: Apps for Every Age and Ouch.” She also apologized to the crowd at the Online News Association national conference for not having prepared a speech. She hadn’t expected to win.

In the audience sat more than a dozen of Shallcross’ colleagues and friends who were less surprised than she was by the honor. Her win marks the sixth time in seven years that a J-School student project has won an OJA. Shallcross’ was one of two J-School master’s theses nominated in the same category this year. The other was “Wiped, Flashed, and Rekitted: The International Black Market of Stolen Cell Phones“ by Alexandra Garretón (’15), Chris Schodt (’15), and Jake Nicol (’15).

“I think our students do an incredible job of combining solid in-depth reporting with innovative multimedia storytelling, which is the future of digital journalism,” says Paul Grabowicz, director of the J-School’s New Media program.

Shallcross’ project explores the impact of smartphone health apps. “I coded it myself, and it’s kind of whimsical at the beginning,” she says. “You follow a number of characters through their lifespans to see how health and medical apps are affecting us at every stage of our lives.”

One of Shallcross’ instructors, Assistant Professor Richard Koci Hernandez, described the work as so “delightfully playful” that it’s “hard to look away from.” He added that the story form was inventive, and that creating it was no easy task.

The other nominated project, “Wiped, Flashed and Rekitted,” combines video, animation, text and data visualization in an immersive package that explores the rise of cellphone theft and how the devices are being sold abroad.

Garretón, Nicol, and Schodt traveled to Chicago and to Brazil for their reporting. The trip to Brazil was partially funded by National Geographic, which published one of the videos and some of the data visualizations a week before the awards.

J-School alumni and former fellows were also nominated for two other awards. Past Investigative Reporting Program fellow Caitlin McNally (’13 and ’14) won in the medium feature category with her PBS Frontline documentary “Stickup Kid.” It was produced at the IRP during her fellowship and tells the story of a 16-year-old sent to an adult prison. “Echoes from the Jungle,” a Vietnam War retrospective produced by alumnus C.K. Hickey (’14) for The Virginian-Pilot, was nominated in the medium planned news category.

Alongside the alumni, 10 current New Media students also attended the conference. Thanks to fundraising spearheaded by Grabowicz, many received $500 grants, made possible by a donation from the Yellow Chair Foundation, to help with the cost.

“It was an awesome experience,” says Alice Kantor (’16), who attended the conference for the first time. “It was good to find out what the online trends were,” she says, adding that some of the sessions gave her ideas for her own master’s thesis. Kantor hopes to build an online documentary project this year.

“Every year, the stories are different from the year before,” Grabowicz says. “That’s because the students are experimenting with different ways of presenting story packages.”

The projects are becoming more sophisticated as students who have spent much of their lives consuming digital media become curators of content, Hernandez says. “We’re seeing the birth and dawn of digital natives coming into the storytelling world.”

By Mara Van Ells (’16)