Msnbc.com has won the National Press Club’s Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award for its outstanding online journalism and multimedia coverage of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake. In addition to complete coverage of the earthquake by reporters from msnbc.com and NBC News, msnbc.com followed up by focusing on Haiti's amputees, telling the story through the eyes of a young boy who lost his left leg when his house collapsed and then learned to walk with prosthesis. The boy was among 4,000 Haitians who lost limbs in the earthquake.
“We’re thrilled to be recognized again by the National Press Club for our ground-breaking journalism and multimedia presentation of the earthquake in Haiti,” said Jennifer Sizemore, editor-in-chief of msnbc.com. “The most gratifying thing about this award is it truly is recognition of the value of the investment we make in original, compelling reports.”
In March 2010, msnbc.com launched “Haiti’s Amputees: Building a Life Worth Living.” This unique multimedia project was presented as a blog with daily, monthly and quarterly dispatches of photos, videos and text stories. The msnbc.com crew on the ground in Haiti focused on the plight of Schneily Similien, a 4-year-old who lost his leg, to help tell the story of the estimated 4,000 amputees created by the earthquake.
The blog built a bridge from msnbc.com’s audience to Haiti by inviting U.S. amputees to send letters of support that were translated and read to amputees there. The site also highlighted essays written by veterans of the Iraq war who have lost limbs.
The Joan M. Friedenberg award recognizes original reporting that takes advantage of technology to provide a thorough and graphically attractive online report. The award-winning report included the following stories:
• Haiti’s Amputees: Building a Life Worth Living:
• A child's hope for a new limb, new life:
• Schneily’s long road leads to a new leg:
• Slideshow: For young amputee, Haiti brings one disaster after another:
The National Press Club, a Washington institution for more than a century, will present the 2011 awards at a dinner Wednesday, Aug. 10, in Washington, D.C.
Media contact Gina Stikes
212.664.7403
Gina.Stikes@msnbc.com