montanajournalism Awards, Feature, J-School, Student

Behind the Lens, Bronte Wittpenn Wins Hearst Award; Captures Story of Generations

The Bakken oil boom brought more than just economy to northeastern Montana, it also increased the amount of human trafficking on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Bronte Wittpenn, a current senior, realized this when she took Native News last spring and wanted to try to tell that story. However, her research revealed that the trafficking was related to the larger issue of domestic and sexual violence, which had been prominent on Fort Peck for generations.

Bronte Wittpenn sits atop her car preparing to take a picture.
Photo by Jesse Flickinger.

Wittpenn’s resulting multimedia story, “A Brutal Tradition,” recently won 9th in the Hearst Awards’ Multimedia II and News category. Her video and photos accompanied a written piece produced by her reporting partner Jesse Flickinger, who traveled with her to Fort Peck. During interviews, they had to ask their characters challenging questions, asking to them to talk about personal experiences with sexual assault.

“It was something we’d never done before on a journalistic level — it was very intense,” Wittpenn said. “But it was also like, wow, this woman is so strong. She’s letting us in because she wants to use this traumatic event as a tool to help heal people and to advocate for victims.”

Wittpenn discovered the story’s main character, Toni Plummer-Alvernaz, when she was working for the Montana Native Women’s Coalition and trying to generate more awareness of the issues and resources for the victims. Plummer-Alvernaz’s mother, also a victim of domestic abuse, supported her emotionally but didn’t enter the activism arena. The story of three generations came together with Plummer-Alvernaz’s daughter, who has been following in her footsteps, determined to break the tradition of abuse.

“Bronte and Jesse conducted good interviews and did a great job connecting the dots,” said associate professor Jeremy Lurgio, who co-teaches Native News with assistant professor Jason Begay.

Flickinger’s written piece was a finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards for the in-depth reporting category. And while Wittpenn’s excited to receive recognition for her multimedia piece in the Hearst Awards, she appreciated the enthusiasm of Plummer-Alvernaz and her daughter once they saw the finished project.

“Toni even said that the multimedia piece allowed for some donations to come through the coalition,” Wittpenn said. “So I’m under the impression that the piece did some good, and as a student, as a journalist, that makes me feel good.”

“Bronte has a good talent for visual narratives,” Lurgio said. “She built a strong story from something that wasn’t inherently a visual story and made it compelling.”

Wittpenn’s most recent multimedia project, “Living Under A Lawsuit,” has been entered into next years Hearst Awards competition. She produced the story as part of the Pollner Seminar, taught by experienced editor and photojournalist Sally Stapleton.

“I think that the critiques you get from the professors here are really valuable,” Wittpenn said. “Really intimate critiques, sitting down eye-to-eye, is something that I realize gets harder and harder to get once you graduate.”

After graduation in May, Wittpenn hopes to get her EMT license and volunteer locally before taking her camera on a South American adventure in the fall. Her previous travels include Morocco, France and a year abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Wittpenn said those experiences have helped her become a better journalist by making her feel comfortable adapting to situations where things don’t go as planned.

“In your heart, know that it’s okay for things to change,” Bronte said with a laugh. “You gotta go with the flow!”

Follow the latest stories behind Bronte Wittpenn’s lens via Instagram and Twitter, or check out her full multimedia portfolio on her website.

By Jana Wiegand
montanajournalism Awards, J-School, Student

15 J-School Students Win Awards from the SPJ

A week ago, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) released its Mark of Excellence awards, and 15 UM journalism students were announced as category winners in Region 10, encompassing Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Yet even more J-school students received acknowledgment for their work, recognized as finalists in those same categories.

SPJ logo

“The wide range of projects that we’re being noticed for includes the entire spectrum of journalism, covered in these awards, and that’s pretty cool,” Ray Ekness said, professor and director of student success.

Professor and director of faculty affairs, Dennis Swibold agreed. “It just seems like the whole gamut of what we teach is getting national honors,” he said. “If we’re not just good, but good at lots of things, that proves we have a well-rounded program.”

SPJ set their standards high and stated that in their contests, if none of the entries received rose to a level of journalistic excellence, they would refrain from giving out that award. However, UM students rose to the challenge and received recognition in categories that covered photography, reporting, writing, radio, online and television pieces. Six of these students were selected for at least two different projects, and some even received awards in different mediums.

“To see it happening across the range is very rewarding. We’ve encouraged them to be more than one kind of journalist and it shows,” Swibold said. “Students are becoming ambidextrous and proving that they work well across different mediums.”

Swibold cited senior Sojin Josephson as the apex example for accomplishing exactly that. Josephson won in the sports writing category and was a finalist in the television feature and television general news reporting categories. Her winning piece, “Kicking and breathing: Daniel Sullivan’s body quit football, but Sullivan couldn’t quit the game,” which she wrote for the Montana Kaimin, will go on to compete at the national level.

The 14 other winners also compete at the national level against students from different regions and recognized in the same category.

Not only were students’ individual projects honored, but the SPJ recognized UM’s Student Documentary Unit and the UM News class for their collective work.

“In class, students aren’t just talking about doing journalism, they’re going out there and doing it—class work is extended beyond class,” Swibold said. “I’m proud to see the fruits of last year’s labor pay off. There’s a lot of excitement in the department right now. We’re small, but we know the students and we’re very accessible to them.”

The UM School of Journalism is currently ranked 8th in the nation and celebrated its centennial birthday in 2014. National winners in the SPJ 2015 Mark of Excellence Awards will be announced later this spring, and will be honored at the Excellence in Journalism convention in New Orleans, running from September 18th-20th.

The complete list of Region 10 SPJ awards results is available on their website.

montanajournalism Events, J-School, Student

ACLU Executive Director Reveals the Lives Behind the Laws

When Anthony Romero joined the list of guest speakers for the President’s Lecture Series at UM, the dean of the School of Journalism, Larry Abramson, asked for the honor of introducing him. Romero has been the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) since September 2001, and Abramson had spoken with him over the years while working on stories for NPR.

“I did a lot of work on privacy and surveillance issues, and the ACLU is pretty central to that,” Abramson said. “Since he’s the head, they’d often give him to me when I called.”

The ACLU also defends freedom of speech issues, which makes them handy resource for journalists. Media coverage of the ACLU’s projects shows that the benefits can go both ways.

“The moments when I really despaired were when I felt like no one was listening, that the huge, important issues were not getting the attention they deserved,” Romero said. “The most important thing is to engage in these issues, especially for students, because these issues determine your future.”

quote reading "When you want to glaze over rhetoric and statistics, imagine all those faces and don’t allow yourself to fall into the cynicism."

During his lecture, Romero focused on the civil liberties pertaining to the current state of the prison system in America. Romero shared the stories that he learned from visiting prisons like the Los Angeles Country Men’s Jail, which he rated worse than Guantanamo Bay. He said the problems were worse than just overcrowding and violence, but included issues such as restrooms that were inaccessible to disabled detainees and outing gay prisoners by making them wear powder-blue jumpsuits. As one such man told Romero, “Every day’s open hunting day here.”

“Prisons are very strange things and that’s why I force myself to go to them. It’s our tax money put to our purported use, like building roads or bridges, but prisons are such removed from the public psyche and public sight that we have to crack open these black boxes so that they’re less opaque,” Romero said. “I often find my sleep troubled after I’ve been there.”

Romero also spoke about how the prison system lacks opportunities for people to redeem themselves, especially if they’re poor. Even a one-time, minor crime could stick someone in an endless cycle of growing dept and imprisonment. He said, “It’s hard to imagine a more Kafka-esque, Catch-22 type situation.”

Yet his motive for talking about so many specific people remained the same. “I wanted to talk about real people and use their stories to paint a picture of what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed,” he said.

“I like reading legal briefs because lawyers are like journalists in that they like to tell stories,” Abramson said. “The ACLU’s gotten engaged in the issues, fostered national debated and they speak true to power. I think students can learn from them and take things one step further.”

However, while the ACLU takes a stance on the issues, it doesn’t take a stand on political parties. Romero said that working across political boundaries and tackling issues from multiple viewpoints was crucial to their progress. Romero warned the audience to be wary of whistle-dog metaphors like ‘act tough on crime’ that can imply situations are intractable or that something is inherently wrong with the individuals swept under those labels.

“When you want to glaze over rhetoric and statistics, imagine all those faces and don’t allow yourself to fall into the cynicism,” Romero said.

“Anthony’s a very good speaker,” Abramson said. “He made some very eloquent arguments, and I think he found a vein of sympathy in the Missoula community.”

By Jana Wiegand