Ten WUSF News journalists were honored in eight categories in the 2016 Florida Associated Press Professional awards contest Saturday night in Orlando.
Bobbie O’Brien won top honors in the Cultural/Historical Feature category for “Silent Heroes of World War II Brought To Life,” a moving story about how a Largo high school student eulogized a St. Petersburg teen killed decades ago in World War II. O’Brien’s story about a conflict between the Clearwater Aquarium and its neighbors won second place in the General Assignment, long story format.
Steve Newborn, Robin Sussingham and Mary Shedden were part of a collaborative project with WMFE in Orlando that won in the Election Coverage category. The Politically Crucial I-4 Corridor was a seven-part series that looked at the people living in one of the most politically important battlegrounds of the 2016 presidential election.
Reporter Mark Schreiner won second place in two categories: Light Feature, for a story about University of South Florida medical students on Match Day; and Use of Sound for Radio, for a story about the late outdoors journalist Terry Tomalin and USF St. Petersburg students teaching elementary school children how to canoe.
Second-place honors also went to Sussingham in two categories: Hard News Feature, for a story about families struggling to fill out college financial aid forms; and in the sports feature division for a story about headgear for girls playing high school lacrosse.
Cathy Carter, Marc Haze, Daylina Miller, Lisa Peakes and Sussingham all contributed to WUSF’s Art Populi series, which spent last year looking at public art around the Tampa Bay area. The series won second place for Series/Franchise reporting.
Several other journalists recognized during the ceremony are part of WUSF’s Health News Florida project. Sammy Mack and Tom Hudson of partner WLRN in Miami won in the Series/Franchise category for work about PriceCheck Florida, a consumer health care cost collaboration between WLRN and WUSF. Also, Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya, who works for WMFE in Orlando, won in the sports feature division.
The Florida AP Broadcasters contest this year judged 536 entries from 38 different broadcast organizations in the state. A complete list of winners can be found at FloridaAPawards.org.
