Stories, photo illustration cited as best of 2007 by Black Journalists group

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Proving that the Black Press is still a viable news source, the Florida Courier took home five first-place Griot Drum Awards last week from the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists (TBABJ).

Journalists and broadcasters working at news agencies with circulations less than 100,000 and more than 100,000 were recognized for outstanding reporting and photography in 2007 showcasing the life, times and stories of Blacks in the Tampa Bay area. The Florida Courier competed in the print category for circulations less than 100,000 and received more award nominations than any other media entity in the competition.

The Tampa Bay organization is an affiliate of the National Association of Black Journalists. It is made up of journalists and broadcasters from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Pasco, Polk and Manatee counties. TBABJ hands out Griot Drum Awards annually. A griot is a West African storyteller whose duty is to keep an oral tradition and history of a village or family.

Cherry takes home 4 first-place awards
Florida Courier Publisher Charles W. Cherry II accepted four first-place awards for the newspaper at TBABJ’s annual banquet held Nov. 20 at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg. The awards are as follows: • Investigative Reporting, for the “American Recession, Black Depression” series, which was published in December 2007. The series explored what Blacks must do to survive the economic downtown.

• Sports Feature, “New Name, Same Winning Spirit.’’ The story was a fall preview of Bethune-Cookman University’s football program.

• Commentary, “Black Colleges Deal with Mission Creep.’’ The award was for a column written by Cherry on the historic missions of HBCUs.

• Photo Illustration, “The Iraq War: What Would MLK Say?” As a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his holiday weekend in January 2007, the newspaper published hundreds of headshots of soldiers who had died thus far in the war.

Editor receives community award
Senior Editor Jenise G. Morgan took first place in the Community/Public Affairs category for a story titled “Complete Systems Failure,” which explored the efforts of nearly 200 organizations in Pinellas County. The organizations came together in May 2007 to collaborate on how to stop the vi

olence and close the achievement gap among Black youth in the county.

“Newspapers are collaborative ventures. You can’t produce a single page alone,” Cherry II said. “This is a tribute to everyone in our organization, including our family board of directors who finance our operation, our salespersons, office staff, writers, graphic designers, our printer, the folks in circulation who make sure the paper gets where it’s going every week, and everyone in between.”

Cherry II also said that reports of the newspaper industry’s death are premature.

“Newspapers still matter, especially in the Black community,” he said. “We have more than 180,000 readers statewide who expect us to inform them, make them think, and show them pictures of good-looking people every week. They expect high-level professional journalism from a Black perspective. I’m glad that Tampa Bay’s Black journalists recognized what we’ve been trying to do. Recognition from your peers makes it that much sweeter.”

CBS anchor tells of life after stroke
Mark McEwen, former anchor of the “CBS This Morning,” was the keynote speaker at the Griot Drum Awards.

McEwen, who most recently was an anchor at WKMG-Channel 6, a CBS affiliate in Orlando, discussed his recovery from a 2005 stroke. McEwan has written a book, “Change in the Weather: Life After Stroke,” in which he recounts his ordeal. (Read his story in next week’s Florida Courier.)

ABC Action News anchor Deiah Riley was the banquet host. The evening included a presentation on “Midtown Through Our Eyes,’’ a photo essay on St. Petersburg’s predominantly Black neighborhood taken by students in grades 4 through 9. Dancers from the Soulful Arts Dance Academy also performed.

3 students receive $1,000 scholarships
The TBAJB also recognized three Tampa Bay students, awarding each with $1,000 scholarships. The recipients were chosen among high school or college students of color studying journalism or preparing to study journalism in college with a connection to the Tampa Bay area.

The students are senior Jacqueline Haberman, an intern at WUSF, the public radio station at the University of South Florida; Erik Maza of Bradenton, a University of Florida senior who recently returned from Guatamala, where he was among a dozen student writers and photographers documenting stories of hunger and malnutrition; and Christina Ramos, a 2008 graduate of Wharton High School in Tampa. She is in her first semester at the University of Central Florida.

For a list of other 2008 award winners, log on www.tbabj.com.