Cathy Strong wins top journalism educators award

1970s BJ State Desk reporter Cathy Strong, journalism lecturer at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand,  has been awarded first prize in the Great Ideas For Teachers competition at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication at its August conference in Washington, D.C.

Cathy Strong, Grant Hannis with award

Head of Journalism Dr. Grant Hannis and senior lecturer Dr. Cathy Strong, who teach the Master of Journalism program at Massey’s Wellington campus, were awarded first prize for their paper, “Teaching web-based reporting fast and efficiently.”

The paper described the program’s intensive four-week module on how to report for the web – incorporating text, photographs, audio and video.

The nine-person judging panel said the paper was the number-one teaching idea for 2013 “by far.” There were 54 entries, mostly from U.S. universities.

AEJMC is the United States’ professional association of journalism educators and academics. Its annual conference attracts thousands of delegates.

Dr. Strong travelled to Washington to deliver the paper.

“Papers on very interesting and leading-edge journalism education applied for this prestigious award, so it was humbling that we were selected as the top paper,” she says.

The Association has offered the award for almost 20 years.