Alexander Winkler of Auckland University of Technology has won a highly commended citation in the annual Ossie Awards for the best student journalism in Australia, New Zealand the Pacific for a colour piece and his reporting on a major international diplomacy conference.
Winkler was a member of a team of 10 student journalists accredited to the 40th Pacific Islands Forum leaders conference hosted in Auckland the week before the kickoff in the Rugby World Cup in September.
His highly commended citation was awarded for best online story.
He profiled the forum in a commentary on Pacific Scoop entitled "From diplomatic sterility of windowless Forum to vibrant Cloud, a mixed bag" and assisted Chris Chang in a video report.
Winkler also filed a portfolio of portraits and news pictures of key political leaders at the conference.
"His contribution was one of all round excellence as a student journalist – as indeed matched by the rest of the team who all turned in top performances,” said Asia-Pacific Journalism course leader Professor David Robie.
“His success is also their success. Congratulations to Alex and the team.”
Winner in the best online story category was Paul Farrell, from the University of Technology Sydney, who wrote "Dissent on the record", which presented the story of a group of young people who have defied the cultural norms of the society in which they live.
Also highly commended in this category was Queensland University of Technology’s Rachel Kramer for her story "A collection of hastily formed opinions: Senate committee rejects 'flawed changes'."
Winner of the best use of convergent technology was also from UTS with Elise Dalley as the chief reporter and Nicole Gooch in production, for the team producing "Pure Plastiky: A multimedia project about the bottled water industry by students at the University of Technology, Sydney".
The Dr Charles Stuart Prize for best student publication was this year awarded to Sydneysider 2010 at Macleay College. Judges said the breadth of articles was extraordinary and all were finely honed and perfectly fit for publication.
Highly commended was Frock, Paper, Scissors at UTS.
Pacific Media Centre
