ONA Weekly #320: SmartNews Commits $60,000 In Cash Prizes For OJAs

By on August 5, 2020

SmartNews funding cash prizes for OJA winners

We are pleased to announce that new support from SmartNews will award a total of $60,000 in cash prizes over three years for winners of the General Excellence category in the Online Journalism Awards. “The General Excellence category represents ‘the best of the best,’ and the awards not only recognize the outstanding work of the winners but provide inspiration to all who aspire to quality journalism,” said Rich Jaroslovsky, vice president of content and chief journalist at SmartNews. Learn more.

Get ready for ONA20 Everywhere

We’re 57 days away from ONA20 Everywhere! Registration launches Aug. 19 with a weeklong special for ONA members only. Subscribe to ONA20 News to be the first to know about the conference pass options, schedule, networking opportunities and what else to expect from our global journalism innovation festival.

Dataviz that provides context

We’ve been living by numbers lately—how many cases of the coronavirus disease there are in our communities, how represented we’ll be in the next election, how much diversity there is in our industry. It has left us craving better ways to process information. So we went in search of data visualization that provides context, to make the numbers more impactful and relatable.

  • Coronavirus infection trajectories: This visualization from Information is Beautiful breaks down cases worldwide, showing where rates are rising and falling across countries and comparing to other infectious diseases. 
  • Outbreaks in U.S. prisons: The Marshall Project’s animated graphics gives readers the ability to find out how many COVID-19 cases are happening among prisoners and staffers in specific states, as well as how many have died. 
  • Contributing to the California drought: A large amount of the produce consumed in the U.S. is grown in California—which has seen less and less rainfall over the last 30 years. The New York Times illustrates how much water different kinds of produce require to grow, and what that means for California. 
  • Space junk: As debris accumulates in space, the possibility of collisions and return to Earth’s atmosphere increases. The BBC Science Focus created a stunning graphic to show how much is out there and how far it is from our planet. 
During ONA Insights: Emerging Tech, Sarah Schmalbach from the Lenfest Institute and Michael Krisch of the Brown Institute discussed an automated approach to tagging and personalizing data for audiences. Register to watch the session.

Resources and recordings from ONA Insights: Emerging Tech

Last week’s ONA Insights: Emerging Tech featured lively discussions ranging from the ethics of producing journalism in VR to ideas for building inclusive games. Session recordings and resources are now available — register for access to revisit your favorite conversations or tune in to ones you missed. Highlights included a talk with “Godmother of virtual reality” Nonny de la Peña on her career, Alex Wallace of Verizon Media and Paul Cheung of Knight Foundation on industry trends and Glow up Games’ Mitu Khandaker and Latoya Peterson on building inclusive gaming experiences. 

Grants to innovate with immersive media

The 2020 Journalism 360 Challenge is open and accepting applications for early-stage projects that experiment with immersive journalism. Explore our FAQ to learn more about the challenge, like whether you can collaborate with another organization, who reviews applications and how we’re defining immersive journalism.

Upcoming events

Career opportunities

ONA’s Career Center is an excellent resource for jobs, fellowships and internships in digital journalism. Recent postings include:

On our radar