KPLU’S “IMPACT OF WAR” SERIES WINS NATIONAL AWARD

KPLU’S “IMPACT OF WAR” SERIES WINS NATIONAL AWARD

Sigma Delta Chi Award in Journalism (Seattle-Tacoma, WA) KPLU has won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Radio Journalism (SPJ), which will be presented by the Society of Professional Journalists at the organization’s Convention and National Journalism Conference in August. This marks the first time KPLU has won a national SPJ award.

The award is for KPLU’s five-part series, “The Impact of War on Children,” which aired on KPLU in June 2008 and reflects the station’s collaboration with NPR. The series was produced under the auspices of NPR’s ongoing project, “The Impact of War.” NPR is reaching out to member stations as a way to bring these important stories to life on the air, since the local stations are in the best position to assess and report on the impact of war in their communities.

“The Impact of War on Children” was produced by KPLU Education reporters Chana Joffe-Walt and Jennifer Wing, and edited by former NPR Senior Editor Vicky O’Hara and Supervising Editor, Danyell Irby. The series examined five families with personal connections to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the son of an Iraqi interpreter for American troops who moved with his family to the Northwest; the communication between deployed parents and their children; how local schools are providing emotional support to kids of deployed parents; and a three-year old Iraqi boy who was brought to the U.S. for surgery after he was shot in the face by Sunni terrorists, and now lives with a host family in Snohomish. KPLU created a website devoted to the five-part series. More information is available at http://www.kplu.org/ChildWar.html.

“Personal stories of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are rarely told from the perspective of children,” says KPLU News Director Erin Hennessey. “Chana and Jennifer found the kids, their families, and their schools to tell these moving and often emotionally-complex stories. And the fine editing of Vicky O’Hara really made them shine. It was a very successful collaboration.”