B1. Best overall college news Web site (any news site produced by a group of students at one school):
First: http://unc.news21.com UNC Chapel Hill, News 21
A description from the students’ entry: In 2009, a team of UNC student reporters worked to develop new ways of telling stories online. The project is called News 21, which was an initiative funded by the Carnegie and Knight Foundations, and involved 12 journalism students and recent graduates based at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A team of reporters, designers and developers chose to focus on energy issues in the United States because it is a topic that is both personal and national in scope, because both personal electricity consumption and the population are rising. More people are using more electricity. Conservation efforts aren’t keeping stride. They slow the rise in demand, but don’t nearly meet it. Therefore, the UNC News 21 team wanted their site to be the one-stop-shop for users to explore America’s energy stories, meet the people behind the debate and join the conversation about our future.
Second: http://fnewsmagazine.com/wp/ The School of the Art Institute Chicago, F Newsmagazine
Third: http://www.idsnews.com/news/headline.aspx Indiana Daily, Indiana University
I was at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards; UNC swept every broadcast award category. Those kids have it down.