E-cars, autism, climate change, racial discrimination, a religious cult. These were subjects students tackled in the 18th News Decoder Storytelling Competition.
A trophy and the News Decoder logo. (Illustration by News Decoder)
A story about pollution caused when fires destroy cars and devices that are supposed to be ecological took first prize in News Decoder’s 18th storytelling competition.
News Decoder published the article, “Are you storing toxic waste in your home or car?” by Paolo McCarrey on 11 November. McCarrey is a student at The Thacher School in California.
Three stories tied for second place: A personal reflection about the different forms racial discrimination can take in different countries by Aida Sherwani of Connecticut College in the United States; a story about discrimination and ignorance surrounding autism in Tanzania by Ramona-Blessing Mkunna, a student at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa; and an article about the effect of climate change on the wine industry in Belgium and France by Slav Karaslavov, a student at the European School Brussels II (EEBII) in Belgium.
While News Decoder published Sherwani’s article in July, the stories by both Mkunna and Karaslavov were submitted in draft form.
Two other unpublished drafts tied for third place: An article about climate illiteracy by Amaury Chauve, who also attends EEBII and a podcast by Catherine Araba Esaaba Dowuona-Addison, a student at SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College in Ghana, about the religious cult leader Jim Jones, who killed by poison some 900 of his followers in the 1970s.
The judges were impressed.
Of the first place winner, one judge noted that the interviews served as a valuable tool in the investigation. “I also find the argument central to current discussions around climate change solutions, so the timeliness is great,” the judge wrote.
The winners were selected by a three-person jury that included Thadeus Greenson, an award-winning investigative reporter who serves as press education specialist at the First Amendment Coalition in California, News Decoder correspondent Christianez Ratna Kiruba, a physician and patient rights advocate in India who writes about healthcare issues and former News Decoder Student Ambassador Joshua Glazer, now a student at Emory University in the U.S. state of Georgia.
They rated the entries based on set criteria: whether the author interviewed anyone for the story; whether the student reported the story without bias; whether the student considered different perspectives and the judge’s own subjective assessment about the quality of the story.
News Decoder Educational News Director Marcy Burstiner was particularly impressed by the challenging topics students took on. “The entries knock back the notion that young people shy away from complexity,” she said. “Give them room to explore topics that interest them, give them to tools to find experts and reliable sources and they will dive into really complicated issues.”
The entries came from 10 schools in six countries on four continents.
Meeting professional standards
To produce an article or podcast for the competition, the students needed to find an original topic, credible sources and experts to interview. For stories that explored personal experiences, they needed to dive deep into their feelings and into what was happening around them.
“If you didn’t know that the entries were being done by people with no journalism experience you would think they had come from professional publications,” Burstiner said.
For articles to be published on News Decoder, they have to meet professional standards. Students work through News Decoder’s approach, known as PRDR for Pitch, Report, Draft and Revise. The winning stories that were published went through that process. The other stories will be published in the next few weeks, after the students go through that final revision process.
News Decoder also encourages students to write through a global lens, connecting problems in one community with similar problems in other countries.
The contest is held two times a year in honor of the late Arch Roberts Jr., who served with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna after more than 12 years as a staff member with the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. With the backing of an anonymous donor, News Decoder was able to award a total of $800 in cash prizes to this year’s winners. The entries came from students across News Decoder’s network of school partners.
To be considered for the contest, an entry must have been written by one or more students enrolled in a News Decoder partner institution.
Learn more about News Decoder’s school partnership program.
A list of all the winners:
First place:
Paolo McCarrey, The Thacher School (USA) for “Are you storing toxic waste in your home or car?”
Second place:
Aida Sherwani, Connecticut College (USA) for “What’s not talked about when you live overseas”
Ramona-Blessing Mkunna, African Leadership Academy (South Africa) for “The Misconception of Autism in Tanzania”
Slav Karaslavov, EEBII (Belgium) for “From vine to bottle: Europe’s newest climate-caused crisis may significantly alter one of its oldest industries”
Third Place:
Amaury Chauve, EEBII (Belgium), for “Can we tackle the problem of climate illiteracy?”
Catherine Araba Esaaba Dowuona-Addison, SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College (Ghana) for “Paradise on Earth — a podcast”