WKU student wins Hearst National Multimedia Championship
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Western Kentucky University senior Rhiannon Johnston won the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s 2024 National Multimedia Championship this week in San Francisco, California, the university says.
According to WKU, Johnston is an advertising and photojournalism major from Louisville, Kentucky and received a $10,000 award for her first-place finish. Johnston, who also received a $1,000 award for Best Multimedia Story of the Year, is WKU’s 17th Hearst individual national champion since 1985 and third multimedia champion since 2015.
WKU junior Brett Phelps, a photography and strategic marketing major from Bardstown, Kentucky, finished third in the National Photojournalism Championship and received a $5,000 award.
Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program includes five writing, two photo, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, 105 member universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
Johnston and Phelps were among 29 finalists who competed June 1-6 in the 64th National Writing, Photojournalism, Audio, Television and Multimedia Championships.
WKU’s School of Media & Communication finished sixth in the Hearst program’s 2024 Overall Intercollegiate Competition.
WKU says it has placed in the top eight overall for 31 straight years with four overall championships in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018. In the 2023-2024 Hearst program, WKU finished second in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition, fourth in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition and 10th in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition.
WKU says its students have won 17 Hearst individual national championships since 1985 — photojournalism in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016; multimedia in 2015, 2023 and 2024; writing in 1985; and radio news in 2006.
