UM journalism graduate earns
fourth place Hearst feature award

By Lina Miller
J-School Web reporter

Jacob Baynham

Jacob Baynham, a 2007 J-School graduate, has received a fourth place Hearst award for his feature story about methamphetamine use on the Crow reservation

The award is the first this year for the University of Montana J-School in the prestigious Hearst awards, often called the Pulitzers of college journalism. In seven of the last 10 years, UM has finished in the Top 10 in the year-long competition.

Baynham’s story, “The Devil’s Dandruff,” was published in the 2007 Native News tab produced by print and photo students in an honors class.

“The reservation doesn't have many police officers and very little funding to combat this problem, which some are calling an epidemic,” Baynham said in an e-mail interview. “Different police jurisdiction also makes it easier to sell drugs on the reservation, as there are fewer police on thereservation than in other parts of the state.”

Baynham, along with photographer Adam Sings in the Timber, spent a week on the Crow reservation in southeastern Montana looking for sources.

“It was challenging to find people directly involved with the drug who were willing to talk because of the paranoia meth brings,” Baynham said. “But we kept talking to people, and slowly found some addicts that would tell us their story.”

The Hearst Journalism Awards, funded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, are meant to encourage and support excellence in journalism and journalism education in universities around the country. Students can compete in six monthly competitions in writing, three in photojournalism, four in broadcast news and one in multimedia. With championship finals in all divisions, except for multimedia, the program offers up to $500,000 in awards and grants.

“My goal in journalism is to promote awareness to inspire change,” Baynham said. “I hope that this award means that more people will read the story to learn about the problems of drugs, poverty and lack of opportunity on Montana's Indian reservations.”

Baynham, now freelance writing in Asia, was notified of his win via e-mail after professor Carol Van Valkenburg, editor for the Native News Project, submitted the story on Baynham’s behalf. There were 128 entries from 72 schools across the nation, and Baynham’s fourth place win earned him  $750. The UM J-School receives an equal amount.

“The award came as a pleasant surprise one day when I checked my e-mail on the Thai/Burmese border,” Baynham said. “The money will help me keep traveling and freelance writing, which comes as a relief.”

Baynham spent the past summer painting houses to save money for his recent venture. He is currently in Southeast Asia, writing stories and taking photographs to freelance to American publications. 

He hopes to work his way west over the next year, freelancing enough to keep up his travels until the summer of 2008. Though Baynham doesn’t know where the road will take him over the next year, he said it will involve people and writing.

“My future ambition in journalism is to bring people together from different parts of the world,” he said. “I want to write a story so that someone thousands of miles away can read about someone they've never met and feel compassion for them. That compassion is what makes us fulfill our potential as humans.”

Return to J-School home page