University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications alumni Meghan McGlone and Loren Miranda finished third and 13th, respectively, in the 2023-2024 Hearst Journalism Awards Investigative Reporting Competition.

Investigative Reporting is one of five competitions in the Writing category. The College finished second overall in the category, with first place in the Explanatory Writing and Personality/Profile competitions, and sixth and eighth place in the Feature Writing competiton.

McGlone, B.S. Journalism 2023, was honored for ‘Stop being racist:’ Tickets for loud music nearly 3 times more likely for Black drivers under new Florida law, a Fresh Take Florida news service investigation about the disparity between the number of Black and white drivers who received tickets under a 2022 law that allows law enforcement officers to issue traffic citations to drivers if they can hear music playing from their vehicle from more than 25 feet away.

“In a project made possible by obtaining directly from the state’s vendor under Florida’s public records laws copies of millions of traffic tickets, undergraduate student Meghan McGlone extracted and analyzed all the loud tickets statewide, the first broad review of enforcement of the law since it took effect nearly one year earlier,” wrote UFCJC Michael and Linda Connelly Senior Lecturer in Investigative Reporting Ted Bridis. “She interviewed drivers, lawmakers, law enforcement officers and more. In some cases, she obtained body camera video or dashboard video from police officers and sheriff’s deputies ticketing the drivers.”

Miranda, B.S. Journalism 2024, was honored for her story “Panic in the plaza: New videos show chaos of stampede at UF peace vigil, reveal police secretly investigating suicide-bomb threat,” an investigation into a stampede at the University of Florida during a nighttime vigil for Israelis killed in the Oct. 6, 2023, Hamas attacks. “Knowing there had been campus police assigned to patrol the vigil that night, [Loren] obtained under Florida’s public records law dramatic police body camera video and law enforcement reports. She also interviewed participants, witnesses, victims and experts,” Bridis wrote. “Her reporting represented the most detailed reconstruction examining the chaotic events that night and the law enforcement response on the campus of Florida’s flagship public university.”

Both stories were published on public media station wuft.org.

To view the list of current UFCJC 2023-24 Hearst Journalism Award winners, visit: https://www.jou.ufl.edu/2024/03/04/ufcjc-students-honored-in-2023-2024-hearst-journalism-awards-competition/.

The Journalism Awards Program, now in its 64th year, includes five writing, four multimedia, one audio, two television, and two photojournalism competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. 105 member universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.to participate in the Hearst competitions.

Posted: May 20, 2024
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: Hearst Journalism Awards, Loren Miranda, Meghan McClone, Ted Bridis