Update: Gold Medal for ‘Life in the Digital Shadows of the Syrian War’

I’m delighted to report that the article Life in the Digital Shadow of the Syrian War, written by Naheed Mustafa, won the award for best investigative article at the 2017 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Hurray to Naheed and to the team at OpenCanada.org!

Eva and Catherine at the COPA gala

The article was part of the series The War is Just a Click Away, which I commissioned and edited last year. As I described in an earlier post, the series was part of a project by me and Taylor Owen to look at how to improve discussions of global affairs through collaborations between digital journalists and academic researchers. The project was funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant and support from CIGI, among other sources.

I could not have hoped for a better journalist to work with than Naheed. But I also want to give thanks to the compelling photos by Chloë Ellingson, the receptiveness of Eva and Som and the OpenCanada gang, sharp editorial suggestions from Tyee Bridge, and great research help from Andrés Delgado, Robert Gorwa and John Woodside.

Like many fulfilling projects, this was a team effort.