Excellence in Online/Digital Journalism, Immersive Storytelling
ABOUT THE WORK: The series, which appeared as a weekly instalment on The Wire, saw tremendous response across social media. On Instagram, clips from the series did really well, with several posts receiving over 5000 likes. The highest viewed post has over 40,000 likes, and the posts are being commented on more than four months after publication.
Many viewers, in particular women, appreciated seeing these under-reported stories on women in the media. On Twitter, stories on women from indigenous groups in particular resonated with a lot of social media users, and saw sharp comments highlighting their issues to policymakers and government officials.
Monica Jha is an independent journalist based in India. She reports on marginalization, organized crime, and ecology. She specializes in investigative reporting and longform storytelling. Her recent investigations include illegal shark fin trade from India to East Asia, and the crimes of the sand mining mafia in the Indian state of Bihar. Her works have won the Stop Slavery Media Award (2020); Ramnath Goenka Award (2024); SOPA Award (2024); Society of Environmental Journalists’ Outstanding Investigative Reporting Award (2023); and the Fetisov Journalism Award (2021). She was a finalist for the True Story Awards (2021); SOPA Awards (2022 and 2020); Red Ink Awards (2022 and 2017); and the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize (2015). She was also long listed for the True Story Award 2024 and the One World Media Award (2021). She has received reporting grants from the Environmental Reporting Collective (2023); Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and Oxpeckers (2021); the Pulitzer Center (2021); and the Impact Journalism Grant (2019). Jha has also conducted programs for Thomson Reuters Foundation to train journalists to report on human trafficking and modern slavery.
Sriram Vittalamurthy is an independent photographer and multimedia journalist based in Bangalore, India. His documentary work examines the experiences of rural and marginalized communities across India, with special focus on environmental and social justice. His recent five-part multimedia oral history documenting India's fisherwomen is currently longlisted for the 2025 One World Media Awards in two categories: innovative storytelling and women's solutions reporting. Previous work has been recognized through shortlisting for the European Commission's Lorenzo Natali Media Prize (2015), longlisting for One World Media Awards (2021), and support from the Pulitzer Center Gender Equality Grant. Through visual storytelling, Vittalamurthy has documented critical social issues including surveillance systems deployed at the Kumbh Mela religious gathering; COVID-19 vaccine distribution by village health workers in tribal areas; the criminalization of alcohol brewing among indigenous communities; and social unrest from the Kosi River diversion project. His photo essays have also explored the sacred bath ritual highlighting caste disparities, jockey culture in South India, community resistance to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project, and India's tiger conservation unit's technological approaches to wildlife protection. Vittalamurthy's professional background includes positions at Deccan Herald and The New Indian Express in Bangalore, and as desk editor at CNN-IBN in New Delhi from 2007-2010. Since 2010, he has worked independently, developing multimedia narratives that have appeared in publications including Rest of World, London Evening Standard, Mint, The Wire, FactorDaily, and Fountain Ink. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering and a Postgraduate Diploma in Television Journalism.
Shamsheer Yousaf is an independent journalist based in Bangalore, India. He focuses on longform multimedia and investigative stories in environment, science, and technology. For these stories, he has been involved in reporting, writing, shooting, and editing photos and videos, and producing multimedia stories. His investigation into India’s illegal export of shark fins to East Asia was supported by Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and Oxpeckers, and won an SEJ Award for Investigative Reporting. His investigations into the crimes of the sand mafia in India became part of a 2023 global report — this report won a SOPA Award 2024 and a related report won him a nomination for True Story Award 2024. Earlier, his story on people’s resistance to the world’s largest proposed nuclear power plant received a grant from The Society of Environmental Journalists, USA, and was shortlisted for the Lorenzo Natali European Prize for Journalism 2015. He also won the Red Ink Award 2015 in the Science & Innovation category and two Special Mentions for the Red Ink Award 2019 in the Crime and Science & Innovation categories.
Honorable Mention: Alex K. Fong and Stephanie Zhu, “Mass incarceration devastated S.F. Japantown. For the first time, we know how much,” San Francisco Chronicle
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