College of Journalism’s Student Innovation Award down to the final four

Wednesday 11 December 2013, 11:50

Cathy Loughran

is an editor of the BBC Academy blog

We are proud to announce the four short-listed entries for the College of Journalism’s second Student Innovation Award.

A cutting edge exploration of the possibilities of ‘drone journalism’, a powerful documentary project about ethnic tensions in Kosovo, a multimedia history of nuclear power, and a highly interactive piece of election coverage, stood out as much for the strength of their storytelling and originality as any technical innovation.

The four entries that will compete for the top award are:

Drone Journalism UK - Daniel Easterman, Goldsmith College, University of London

This ambitious initiative by postgraduate student Daniel aims to experiment and evaluate how small unmanned aircraft, or drones, can be used to enhance journalism in the UK. Lessons are already being drawn from coverage of stories like Scottish deforestation.

Gone Fission - Jason French, University of Winchester

Created with the New York Times's Pulitzer Prize-winning Snow Fall in mind, Jason uses video, stills and interactive content to trace the nuclear story from the dawn of the atomic age to the Fukushima disaster, asking what it all means for the UK’s nuclear future.

Crossing the Bridge - Joshua Longmore, Bournemouth University

As Belgrade and Pristina began to ‘normalise’ relations through this year’s Brussels Agreement, Joshua travelled to Kosovo to capture, in a variety of media, raw individual stories that tell of a continued ethnic divide.

Eastleigh Interactive - Anja Elen Elkenes, Kate Drummond, Sam Ashton and Jason French (again), University of Winchester

Comprehensive coverage of the Eastleigh by-election culminated in a webcast on the night to a peak audience of more than 1,000, a live outside broadcast via Skype at the count, and post-results interviews with the main candidates. Highlights packages were also available online.

The winner will be chosen by our three judges: Jonathan Baker, head of the BBC College of Journalism, Olivia Solon, associate editor of Wired.co.uk at Conde Nast, and Philippa Thomas, the BBC News presenter and recently a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard.

We will publish the result here on 18 December.

Read about the first Student Innovation Award winner in 2012

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