Sun Sentinel wins top prizes
The Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded the South Florida Sun Sentinel its top awards Saturday for coverage of the Parkland school shooting.
The newspaper won 12 first-place honors in the Sunshine State Awards, most of them for exposing failures by schools and law enforcement in connection with the murders of 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
The awards included the top prize, the James Batten Award for Public Service. The newspaper also won top awards for investigative journalism and defense of the First Amendment.
Judges called the Parkland coverage “stunning reporting that exposed deep problems and coverup efforts.” They said the Sun Sentinel “drove important conversations locally and across the country on how schools should protect students. This is truly standout reporting in the face of tragedy and resistance — a time when public service journalism matters most.”
Aside from the three top prizes, the Sun Sentinel’s Parkland coverage won first-place awards for:
■ Breaking news coverage.
■ Non-deadline news reporting.
■ Editorial writing, by Rosemary O’Hara and Martin Dyckman.
■ Front page design, by Lillian Mayor & David Schutz.
■ Multimedia feature, for Voices of Change by Mike Stocker, Doreen Christensen and Yiran Zhu.
■ Infographics and data visualization, for Unprepapared and Overwhelmed, a minute-by-minute breakdown of the Parkland tragedy.
Additionally, staff writer Megan O’Matz won the first-place award for consumer reporting. Her story documented the struggles of Florida Power & Light to respond before 12 people died in a sweltering nursing home after Hurricane Irma.
Staff writers Skyler Swisher, Aric Chokey, Stephen Hobbs and Anthony Man won the firstplace award for presidential election reporting during the midterm elections.
Michael Mayo won the first-place award for blog writing for “The Eat Beat” blog. The Sunshine State Awards are judged by outof-state journalists looking for the best in Florida reporting.