TORONTO, May 8, 2014 /CNW/ - The Canadian Journalism Foundation is pleased to announce Katie May, a digital copy editor with the Winnipeg Free Press, as the winner of the Greg Clark Award for early-career journalists.
The Greg Clark Award is unique in Canadian journalism. It offers working journalists a chance to spend a week gaining insight, gathering strategic information and meeting key decision-makers on a specific issue or beat.
May will spend a week at a Rankin Inlet, Nunavut birthing centre to observe how its particular approach might help solve the maternal health crisis among First Nations women in remote northern Manitoba. "Delivering quality health care — and in many cases, receiving it — is no small task in Canada's remote, northern communities, places where birth rates and infant mortality rates are often much higher than the national average," says May. "I'm grateful for the chance to explore what that means for expectant mothers trying to access pre- and neonatal care and for birthing centre staff trying to provide it. I hope that this experience will help me become a better journalist by more fully understanding health needs far beyond the country's urban centres."
Prior to her current position, May worked as a crime reporter and photographer at The Lethbridge Herald and as a Beaufort-Delta bureau reporter and photographer with Northern News Services in Inuvik, N.T.
The jury considered submissions from across the country and were drawn to the compelling angle of May's application.
"Katie May's proposal fits perfectly with the objectives of the Greg Clark Award," says broadcast journalist Tom Clark, chair of the jury and Greg Clark's great nephew. "Her project is intended to shed light in an area that typically receives little of it. What she will discover on this journey will have implications for all. It's putting resources to work in the interest of good journalism. That's the trifecta we look for, and we look forward to the passion she brings to the task."
The award was created in memory of one of Canada's greatest journalists - a war correspondent, an avid outdoorsman, a humorist, but above all, a great reporter who excelled at storytelling.
May will be honoured at the 17th Annual CJF Awards (#CJFawards), to be held this year at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on June 4.
The CJF would like to thank CNW and the Toronto Star for their generous support of this award.
About The Canadian Journalism Foundation
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes excellence in journalism by celebrating outstanding journalistic achievement through an annual awards program; by organizing events that facilitate dialogue among journalists, business people, government officials, academics and students about the role of the media in Canadian society; by supporting journalism websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French); and by fostering opportunities for journalism education, training and research.
Image with caption: "Katie May, a digital copy editor with the Winnipeg Free Press, is the recipient of The Canadian Journalism Foundation's Greg Clark Award. (CNW Group/Canadian Journalism Foundation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140508_C7413_PHOTO_EN_40139.jpg
SOURCE: Canadian Journalism Foundation
Wendy Kan
The Canadian Journalism Foundation
59 Adelaide St. East, Suite 500
Toronto, ON M5C 1K6
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416-955-0394
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