Four students place in Hearst contest;
UM print program jumps into 3rd place

By Katrin Madayag
J-School Web Reporter      

photo by Garret W. Smith

Tristan Scott, 3rd place, feature writing

photo courtesy of Chelsea DeWeese

Chelsea DeWeese, 5th place, in-depth reporting

photo by Garret W. Smith

Heather Hintze, 14th place, radio news

photo by Garret W. Smith

Dylan Tucker, 20th place, in-depth reporting

Three print journalism students have won Hearst Journalism Awards for their stories in Native News last year and a broadcast student won for a radio piece, moving the UM Journalism School into third place in the print portion of the yearlong competition.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program recognizes the work of undergraduate journalism students. The competition includes 13 separate contests in writing, photojournalism, radio news and television news during the year, and concludes in April. The Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication oversees the program and gives awards and scholarships for contest winners.

Print students Tristan Scott, Chelsea DeWeese and Dylan Tucker wrote their award-winning articles for Native News, a J-School class that publishes a tab focused on the seven Indian reservations in Montana. The 2005 issue, titled “Perceptions,” examined race relations on the reservations.

Heather Hintze, a 21-year-old broadcasting major from Whitefish, won for a radio feature on daycare in Missoula.

Now a crime reporter for the Missoulian, Scott received third place for feature writing and a $1,000 scholarship for his article, “Urgent Care.”

Scott, a senior, focused his story on the Blackfeet Reservation’s problems with inadequate health care and the lack of funding for members on the reservation.

DeWeese’s article, “Finding the Funds,” won fifth place for in-depth reporting.  She received a $600 scholarship for her story, which focused on the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s lawsuit against the Roman Catholic mission school, St. Labre Indian School Educational Association.

“The story itself came a little bit as a surprise,” said DeWeese.  She and her photographer, Dianne Bentz, had spent the semester researching a different story idea.  When she heard the lawsuit mentioned on the radio, she decided to make the change.

DeWeese and Bentz charged “full steam ahead,” she said, contacting new sources and setting up new interviews.

DeWeese, 25, grew up in Gardiner, a tourist town right outside Yellowstone National Park, and never experienced the level of poverty she found at the reservation during her stay.

“Visiting the reservation was one of the most life-changing experiences I’ve had,” DeWeese said.  The economic disparities on the reservation struck “as soon as you drove over the borderline,” she said.

She now works as the reporter on the city government, school system and environment beats for the Sedona Red Rock News in Arizona.  DeWeese’s project and Native News helped her gain greater insight into tribal sovereignty and environmental issues, her main beat.

“I’d encourage any student to try Native News,” DeWeese said. “It’s a growing experience as a reporter and a person.”

At the Fort Peck Reservation, Tucker examined racism between the tribal council and Indian contractors in his 20th place winning story for in-depth reporting, “Fee to Work.”

Tucker, 28, also said he stumbled upon a completely different story idea than the one planned when a small brief in a newspaper on a recent tribal council meeting caught his attention. One man had refused to pay a council-mandated fee for Indian contractors not levied on non-Indians.

Instead of staying in a hotel, Tucker and Louis Montclair, his photographer and a resident of Fort Peck, spent a week with Montclair’s family.  Tucker immersed himself in the reservation, conducting about two or three intensive interviews per day that lasted for two or three hours each. 

“You really just go and get all you can,” Tucker said. 

He and Montclair even stayed at Fort Peck for a couple of extra days “just to make sure we had everything,” he said. Despite taking 21 credits that semester, Tucker wrote up the story in two days.

This semester, Tucker is interning with New West, writing features and working on a few projects.

The acknowledgment of the three journalists’ work for Native News demonstrates the tab’s importance in Indian reporting and the Indian community, which is oftentimes underrepresented, Tucker said. While he enjoyed “the whole experience of seeing another culture, it’s really good to have recognition,” he said.

Hintze drew upon her own experiences to produce her 14th-place piece, a 3-minute radio segment for KMSO-FM called “Affordable Daycare.” 

For her class last fall, Hintze had to find a project that involved “looking for an idea that related to the entire community,” she said. While working at a drop-off daycare center, Hintze said she realized that UM students use these centers the most.

She decided to see where and what the daycare options are in Missoula – full-time, part-time and drop-off care, Hintze said.

The best solutions that she found for student parents were daycare centers that charged an hourly rate, which is more accommodating, said Hintze.

Denise Dowling, an assistant professor on the broadcast faculty, submitted the two best projects from the class. 

But Hintze’s project brought her more than an award.  “I got a better understanding of daycare if you want to raise children in Missoula,” she said.

While she would like to graduate early, Hintze said she also wants to stay and take the broadcast Documentary-Editorial class. 

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