Dustin Wilcox, a senior journalism major and media production minor, won a $1,500 award as a finalist at the national championships of the prestigious Hearst Journalism Awards May 20-26 in San Francisco.
Wilcox of Hopkinsville qualified for the national championship by winning fourth place in the audio competition of the Hearst Awards. During the national championship, students received an assignment to complete in San Francisco on deadline. The national championships featured 29 finalists from monthly competitions – 8 in writing, six in photo, five in audio, five in television and five in multimedia. They competed for additional awards of up to $10,000.
Wilcox’s audio entries consisted of a news segment and a feature story. Wilcox earned a $1,000 award for his fourth place finish.The audio contest attracted 67 entries from 41 universities.
“In all honesty, I didn’t expect the recognition at all, which made it all the more exciting when it came,” Wilcox said. “I want to thank journalism instructor Leigh Wright for submitting my pieces on my behalf because I wouldn’t have known to do so on my own.”
Kevin Qualls, JMC department chairman, praised Wilcox for his outstanding work. “This Hearst Award is a harbinger for a prominent career for this young journalist,” Qualls said. “Hearst recognizes what we in the JMC Department already knew: Dustin Wilcox does exemplary work. And we are so pleased to be part of his education.”
Wilcox began working at WKMS, the NPR affiliate on campus, last year and was in the first group of the WKMS Investigative Fellows class in spring 2021. The four-person class, led by Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting’s Jared Bennett, produced multimedia pieces. Under Bennett’s guidance, Wilcox produced the winning news entry about U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. The feature story spotlighted a Trigg County man who calls people around the region to sing birthday greetings.
“These two pieces came to fruition almost entirely because two intelligent professionals — Rachel Graffeo and Jared Bennett — showed me the ropes early in my career,” Wilcox said. “I’ve since taken the skills they imparted on me to produce other features that I can more so call my own.”
Besides the audio award, Wilcox also earned 17th place in feature writing and 20th place in team multimedia/enterprise reporting.
