Lauren Chapman. Photo by Eric Weddle/WFYI.
WFIU, WTIU, and Indiana Public Broadcasting News (IPB News) earned 19 awards at the Indiana Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Best in Indiana Journalism Contest on April 22. The awards recognize the most outstanding work of the year in Indiana in print, broadcast, and online journalism.
Lauren Chapman, IPB News digital editor, was awarded the Indiana Journalist of the Year for her nuanced and expansive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. IPB News is a collaboration of the state’s nine public media newsrooms and a shared statewide team, which includes journalists from the WFIU/WTIU newsroom.
The judges said Chapman won in a very close competition for “her dogged, relevant, detailed, human coverage of Covid. It’s the story that affected (and still does) almost everyone in her area, the USA and the world.”
IPB News was also honored with first place awards for education coverage, radio sports reporting, radio continuing coverage, radio public affairs, and best COVID-19 initiative; second place awards for medical/science and environmental reporting; and a third place award for sports reporting.
The WFIU-WTIU News team won five awards, including a first place award for radio breaking news coverage on the flash flood in Bloomington last June, a second place award for radio public affairs, and third place awards in coverage of social justice issues, radio continuing coverage, and radio feature story.
WTIU received five awards, with its TV series Journey Indiana winning first and second place awards for sports reporting and second and third place awards for features news videography. WTIU also received a second place award in the documentary category for Singing Winds: The Life & Works of T.C. Steele.
A complete list of SPJ awards follows:
INDIANA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
LAUREN CHAPMAN
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
EDUCATION COVERAGE (Any Indiana station)
1ST PLACE – JEANIE LINDSAY, ALAN MBATHI
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
As COVID-19 Spurs Workers’ Calls for Higher Pay, Kokomo School Staff Continue Union Push
SPORTS REPORTING (Indianapolis market)
3RD PLACE – SAMANTHA HORTON
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
Majority-Women Team Makes History at Indianapolis 500
MEDICAL OR SCIENCE REPORTING (Any Indiana station)
2ND PLACE – LAUREN CHAPMAN, ALAN MBATHI
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
Faith, medicine and COVID-19: Why do religious vaccine exemptions exist?
RADIO SPORTS REPORTING
1ST PLACE – SAMANTHA HORTON
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
Majority-Women Team to Make History at This Year’s Indianapolis 500, Part of Broader Effort
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING (Any Indiana station)
2ND PLACE – REBECCA THIELE, ALAN MBATHI
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
Cook plant emits cancer-causing chemical but state, federal regulators didn’t notify residents
COVERAGE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES (Any Indiana station)
3RD PLACE – MITCH LEGAN
WFIU/WTIU News
Indiana resettlement groups busy with Afghan evacuee cases
RADIO BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE
1ST PLACE – MITCH LEGAN AND GEORGE HALE
WFIU/WTIU News
Bloomington Residents Hurting After Flash Flood
RADIO FEATURE STORY
3RD PLACE – MITCH LEGAN
WFIU/WTIU News
Facing Injustice: Terre Haute, Vigo County to Acknowledge Lynching History
RADIO CONTINUING COVERAGE
1ST PLACE – JUSTIN HICKS
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
Struggles Surrounding Unemployment Benefits in Indiana
2ND PLACE – MITCH LEGAN
WFIU/WTIU News
The needle exchange, credited with stopping Indiana’s worst HIV outbreak, is in jeopardy
RADIO PUBLIC AFFAIRS
1ST PLACE – JUSTIN HICKS
Indiana Public Broadcasting News
2ND PLACE – HOLDEN ABSHIER, BENTE BOUTHIER, BOB ZALTSBERG, SARA WITTMEYER
WFIU/WTIU News
Remembering The 9/11 Attacks 20 Years Later
BEST COVID-19 INITIATIVE
2ND PLACE – WFYI NEWS, SIDE EFFECTS PUBLIC MEDIA AND IPB NEWS
SPORTS REPORTING (Outside Indianapolis market)
1ST PLACE – REUBEN BROWNING, SADDAM AL-ZUBAIDI AND JAKE LINDSAY
WTIU
Journey Indiana: Indy Pickleball Club
2ND PLACE – JASON PEAR AND JACOB LINDAUER
WTIU
Journey Indiana: Defining Success
DOCUMENTARY OR SPECIAL (Outside Indianapolis market)
2ND PLACE – TODD GOULD, RON PRICKEL AND ROB ANDERSON
WTIU
Singing Winds: The Life & Works of T.C. Steele
FEATURES NEWS VIDEOGRAPHY (Any Indiana station)
2ND PLACE – SADDAM AL-ZUBAIDI
WTIU
Journey Indiana: My Own Little World: Brox Glass
3RD PLACE – JOHN TIMM AND JAKE LINDSAY
WTIU