2013 Atlantic Journalism Awards Finalists
Attachments
| Slug/Label | |
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| Date Aired or Published | |
| Media outlet where first aired or published: | Global New Brunswick |
| Name of Program: | Evening News |
| If co-produced, list partner: | |
| Location: | various |
| List awards, grants: | |
| Running time (TV/Radio): | multiple reports |
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Short explanation of the story and how it developed: This year Global New Brunswick would like to nominate Laura Brown for the New Journalist award. Laura is a driven, persistent young woman with an eye for creativity and compelling visuals. She can single-handedly tackle big stories and deliver with a report worthy of the most seasoned veterans. Her work is always thorough, engaging and sincere. She is never afraid to get right into a story-- be it onto the lobster boat or into the heat of the protest. Her work over the past year has provided us with such an array of strong story telling that it was quite difficult to choose which reports to submit with this application. It is with great pride that we nominate Laura Brown for this award and our strong belief that it will be the first of many for her. Lobster fishing highs and lows, June 24, 2013: Lobster fishing had become a rough job not just on the water, but on the land too, with fishermen protesting the increasingly low lobster prices. Laura Brown wanted to learn about the work that went into catching lobster to see why passionate lobster fishermen were so upset with the dropping prices. She found a fisherman that was willing to have her and her camera right on his boat, so she headed out on the water with them at 6am. Her determination to capture an experience got her the entire story of how fishermen head out for hours, pulling up the traps, measuring and banding the lobster and praying there will be enough of a catch to break even. She wanted to build trust with the fishermen for the story so she got her hands dirty too—her job was banding the lobsters. And the time she put into the story paid off. The subjects speak candidly to her and she is able to capture their story perfectly. Laura’s approach to a story about lobster prices is the epitome of enterprise. She wanted people to really understand the story beyond the numbers. Visually, the piece is stunning and Brown offered no shortage of creative angles to shoot from. Snake put down after stranglings, August 6, 2013 In the span of about a minute Laura Brown saw a tweet, grabbed her camera equipment and hit the road. Brown covered what can only be described as one of the year's biggest tragedies, when two young boys aged four and six were strangled by an African rock python that escaped from an exotic reptile store in Campbellton, NB. Brown found the snake owner's number on his Facebook site and sent it to the Global newsroom, where Global ended up having the only interview with Jean-Claude Savoie, the owner of the snake that killed the two boys. Because of this interview, Global was the first outlet to start putting the pieces together in this unfathomable story. The report was an all around team effort. Brown then contacted the RCMP and literally met them on the side of the road between Bathurst and Campbellton, where she filmed the interview on her iPhone. She was live on the scene with footage of the contents of the apartment being retrieved by police. She was able to speak with neighbours, relatives and the RCMP, to get the inside story from a community still entirely in shock. And most importantly, she handled the developing story right through to the funeral with accuracy and sensitivity. First nations are idle no more- Part 3, March 13, 2013: As the Idle No More movement began to take effect, Laura Brown decided she wanted to analyze both the general public and First Nations’ thoughts and feelings on the Idle No More movement. The First Nations family she interviews in this piece are living on the Elsipogtog reserve and felt as though nothing was helping them to further their living situation and break the cycle of poverty. For years they had been told they would be able to move out of their temporary housing unit into a permanent home but they were continuously disappointed. Now they are calling for more accountability from the band council. At first Brown struggled to get anyone to speak to her. But ultimately after much perseverance, she was able to convince a woman that the affect of the report would outweigh her concerns. Really, Brown’s perseverance showed the woman that she really cared, and would do a good job with the story. By getting in a house on the reserve Brown went where few reporters bother to go. She told an important story and she told it beautifully, with interesting shots throughout. This piece was the last in a series around Idle No More. Letter from Jim Haskins To whom it may concern ; It is my honour to recommend Laura Brown for this award . Laura is your prototypical digital journalist. She does everything by herself . Working out of Moncton Bureau , she researches , interviews , shoots , writes , edits and feeds her own material. As a journalist, Laura is amazing for someone who has only been in the business for such a short time . She has terrific news sense, good judgement , excellent story telling ability and is tenacious. Aside from her broadcast duties, Laura is prolific when it comes to filing to the web and social media . As an employee , you really could not ask for anyone better. She has a great attitude and tremendous work ethic. I wish we could clone her ! Sincerely , Jim Haskins Station Manager/News Director Global Maritimes |
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Resources of the newsroom (money and time) available to complete the story: |
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