OSU sports media students present best of web awards

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The sports website of The Arizona Republic in Phoenix has been named the Best of the Web in judging conducted by the sports media program at Oklahoma State University.

Newspaper sports web pages were judged on their “CANE” criteria: content, appearance, navigation and engagement.

“The Arizona Republic provides a website that demonstrates both quantity and quality of sports coverage,” said Wayne Wanta, the Welch-Bridgewater chair in sports journalism at OSU. “The wealth content doesn’t overpower the reader because the page is attractive and well organized.”

The Arizona Republic edged out The Dallas Morning News and The Miami Herald. Other top newspapers in the judging were The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Oklahoman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Best of the Web award was created to recognize newspapers that are utilizing opportunities offered by the Internet.

“Sports websites are among the most popular destinations on the Internet,” Wanta said. “We want to encourage newspapers to further develop website technologies by highlighting those newspapers that have been doing creative and interesting content.”

Judging was conducted by students in the sports media program. Groups of judges were responsible for evaluating newspapers in five regions: Northeast, South, Midwest, Midlands and West. Three rounds of judging eliminated all but 30 newspapers. From this group, judges selected the top five newspaper sports webpages, and included five others for special recognition. OSU faculty members gave final approval to the valuations.

The judging process took three months. “It was an exhaustive process and we wanted to ensure that all newspapers, both large and small, were fairly evaluated,” Wanta said.

Several newspapers with circulations under 125,000 also were recognized: Tulsa World, Sioux Falls (S.D.) The Argus Leader, Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic, Hendersonville (N.C.) Times News and Farmington (N.M.) The Daily Times.

OSU has the only program in the United States that offers a bachelor’s degree in sports media. OSU also is home to the Center for International Sports Media, a network of more than 20 universities from around the world that offer sports communication courses. The center provides opportunities for participants to share teaching materials and research ideas. The program falls under the OSU School of Journalism and Broadcasting, which is one of 24 departments in the College of Arts & Sciences at OSU. To learn more visit http://cas.okstate.edu.