UGA Student Part of SPJ Georgia Award for Investigative Journalism
Congratulations to University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication Visual Journalism student Taylor Carpenter for co-winning the 2015 Larry Peterson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism as part of the Georgia News Lab initiative.
The full release:
(SAVANNAH, GEORGIA) – The Society of Professional Journalists – Georgia and the Savannah Morning News will celebrate its first winners of the 2015 Larry Peterson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Larry Peterson Award Workshop and Luncheon at the Savannah Morning News auditorium in Savannah, Georgia.
Savannah Morning News investigative journalist and environmental reporter Mary Landers won the award for her three-part investigative series on the proposed Palmetto Pipeline published in the spring 2015. Landers has been with the newspaper for 18 years.
Five members of the 2015 Georgia News Lab won the student category for their investigative work published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entitled, “Expense allowances for commissioner come with no strings attached,” in the paper’s June 27, 2015 edition. The article exposed the lack of accountability and oversight over expense allowances granted to county commissioners in three Atlanta’s largest counties. The winners include:
Taylor Carpenter, a senior at the University of Georgia, is majoring in journalism with dual emphasis in visual journalism and magazine writing. Carpenter has interned for the Bryan County News, Richmond Hill, Georgia.
Stephen Fowler, a communications major from Emory University, has held various journalism positions including the current executive digital editor position for the Emory Wheel. Fowler is also the communications director for Health Connect South since April 2015.
Jane Hammond is a 2015 graduate of Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, Macon, Georgia, and after graduation joined the Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, as the education reporter. Hammond was an investigative intern for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ciara Frisbie, a senior broadcast journalism at Georgia State University, is news director for GSTV and continues as an investigative intern for WSB-TV Atlanta. Frisbie was also a student representative board member of the Society of Professional Journalist – Georgia in 2014.Jared Loggins was the managing editor of the Maroon Tiger, Morehouse College’s student newspaper and was an intern with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Loggins is now a graduate student studying political science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
This inaugural award is named after Savannah Morning News investigative journalist and political reporter Larry Peterson who died in 2014 from cancer. An endowment from the Peterson family subsidizes these annual awards for excellence in investigative journalism for one professional journalist and one student journalist.
Know as a “dogged seeker of truth,” Larry Peterson spent 15 years at the Savannah Morning News and used his investigative skills and knowledge of the local political system to clearly write and explain the nature of the topics he covered for his readers.
The Society of Professional Journalists – Georgia and the Savannah Morning News launched the Larry Peterson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism in 2015 to recognize exceptional investigative journalism from professional and student journalists in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.