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Jana G. Pruden’s story about Maven Maurer, above, the first professional football player to come out as transgender, won the Online Journalism Award for Topical Reporting: Gender and Identity, Large Newsroom.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has won two Online Journalism Awards, one for a feature about the first professional football player to come out as transgender, and the other for a personal story about an experimental brain surgery.
Jana G. Pruden’s piece, titled Her turn to play, won in the category of Topical Reporting: Gender and Identity, Large Newsroom.
The piece profiled Maven Maurer, who as Mike Maurer was a Grey Cup winner and MMA fighter. The story gave readers an intimate view into Maven’s journey – her fears, her vulnerabilities and, ultimately, her courage.
Anna Mehler Paperny’s essay, titled Holes in my head, wires in my brain, won in the Personal Narrative category. The piece used illustration, animation and video to bring readers inside Ms. Paperny’s experience with deep brain stimulation to treat her chronic depression.
Digital storytelling editor Laura Blenkinsop and a team including Timothy Moore, Mark Medley, John Sopinski and Bryan Gee contributed to the piece.
The Globe and Mail was also named a finalist in three other categories.
The Globe’s coverage of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in February was nominated for Breaking News, Large Newsroom. The Globe mobilized a large team of reporters to Tumbler Ridge and in bureaus across the country after an 18-year-old shot and killed eight people, including five children at the town’s school, before killing herself. It was one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings.
Jennifer Yang, Melissa Tait and Timothy Moore were named finalists in two categories – Excellence in Science Reporting, Large Newsroom, and Feature, Large Newsroom – for The two halves of Maryam.
The piece told the story of Maryam Fatima, a baby who developed catastrophic seizures and whose doctors proposed a treatment that would destroy half her brain to save her life. The piece offered both an intimate portrait of a family’s agonizing decision and also a deeply reported look at the science behind the procedure.
The awards are run by the Online News Association and recognize excellence in digital journalism around the world. The winners will be honoured at a ceremony in New York on Oct. 1.