Slave Lake Wildfires from Global News on Vimeo.
Global News has nabbed an Online Journalism Award (OJA) nomination for its breaking news coverage of the Slave Lake wildfires in northern Alberta. The Online News Association and the School of Communication at the University of Miami announced the finalists Wednesday.
The OJAs, launched in 2000, are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes that honour excellence in digital journalism. Finalists were selected from entries sent by independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites. The full list of finalists can be seen online.
The awards will be held on September 24 at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston.
The coverage was put together by online news producers Karyn Mulcahy and Ryan Ellis, based out of Global Edmonton.
"The Slave Lake fires showed firsthand the effect the internet and social media has had on our changing world," Mulcahy said. "Slave Lake residents, Albertans, and people all over the world turned to the internet to provide instant, up to the minute coverage on the situation. It was our job as online journalists to gather that information and post it as quickly as possible to an easily accessible place."
"Covering the Slave Lake wildfires was a huge challenge, largely because there was so much information coming out so fast," Ellis said about the experience. "At times the situation was literally changing by the minute. I'm incredibly proud of how we were able to filter all that information and distribute it where it needed to go. From photo galleries and live blogs to Facebook and video features, with the help of our colleagues on the field, we were able to get quality information out very quickly. Our online community devoured the news as quickly as we were getting it out, making the entire effort very rewarding."
The Slave Lake fires, which started May 15, destroyed more than 400 homes and buildings at a preliminary estimated cost of more than $700 million.
Click to view the Global News coverage of the Slave Lake wildfires.
© Shaw Media Inc., 2011. All rights reserved.