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 Awards, Feature, J-School, Montana Kaimin, Student

Dogged Reporter, Peregrine Frissell Wins Hearst Award For Athletic Investigation

Montana Kaimin web editor and reporter, Peregrine Frissell, had never written a sports story before when he started investigating UM’s controversial compliance efforts with NCAA regulations this past October. After being published in the Kaimin on November 4th, 2015, his story, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” won 7th in the Hearst Awards competition for Sports Reporting.

photo of Peregrine Frissell holding a small monkey.
Frissell takes a moment to pose for a photo while reporting abroad in Nepal. Photo by Peregrine Frissell.

“Peregrine did a great job of looking at athletics on the UM campus beyond just the scoreboard,” said Nadia White, faculty advisor to the Kaimin. “His story looked at NCAA rules and regulations and examined what those mean for student athletes.”

Frissell’s research involved digging into those regulations and interviewing UM athletic officials and the NCAA representatives to whom they report any infringements. Violations included anything from coaches recruiting high school athletes too aggressively to convictions of current athletes who commit off-the-field incidents. Frissell said talking to public representatives of those departments was challenging because they wanted to keep control of the information they told him during interviews.

Kevin Van Valkenburg, the fall 2015 Pollner professor and advisor to the Kaimin, said, that a lot of journalists would have dropped the story when they heard officials use the term ‘minor infractions’. “Don’t let the administration convince you it’s no big deal. Ask the right questions,” he said. “UM mis-reported and mis-understood the facts, but Peregrine understood the bigger picture here, and he pursued that to explain it in context.”

“I needed every minute I got,” Frissell said, since he only had two weeks to get the story to print. “I’m really thankful to get recognized.”

Yet Frissell has plenty of reporting experience, both in Montana and abroad. He’s been a Global Leadership Initiative fellow at UM and completed studies in the UK and Thailand, as well as working as a reporting intern for the Nepali Times. “I arrived a month after the earthquake and spent much of my time outside of Katmandu, covering earthquake recovery,” he said. “The earthquake was tragic, but I enjoyed my experience there.”

Back on the UM campus, Frissell has worked with the Montana Journalism Review (MJR) as both an editor and a reporter, and he’s now pursing political stories on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana as part of the class Native News.

“Peregrine is a dogged reporter. He’s critical and curious, and his instincts are spot on,” Nicky Ouellet said. As a graduate student, she’s overseen his work at MJR and now for Native News. “He’s the type of reporter an editor hopes for—capable of following a tip to create a deeply reported and contextualized story. I’ve enjoyed working with him and can’t wait to see what he pops out in the future.”

Scheduled to complete his journalism degree in May, Frissell said he wants to report in the US for a couple of years and then go back abroad. “I’m still waiting to hear back about potential jobs and internships,” he said.

However, Van Valkenburg has high hopes for Frissell’s future. “He reads a lot and is interested in things of public interest and importance,” he said. “Peregrine will make a great investigative reporter.”

Catch the latest news updates with Peregrine Frissell via Twitter.

By Jana Wiegand