Announcement
FRONTLINE’s “Un(re)solved” Wins Two Online Journalism Awards
Roman Ducksworth Jr., Peter Francis, Jimmie Lee Jackson and Alberta O. Jones are four of the people whose lives and deaths are explored in 'Un(re)solved,' a multiplatform project examining cold case killings from the civil rights era and the federal government's effort to right wrongs of the past.
LOS ANGELES, CA – Fri., Sept. 23, 2022— FRONTLINE and partners’ 2021 multiplatform project Un(re)solved, an investigation of a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings, was named the winner of two Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) during this week’s Online News Association (ONA) 2022 conference.
On Wednesday, Sept. 21, the project won the OJA for “Excellence in Immersive Storytelling,” an award that, as described on ONA’s website, “honors exceptional efforts in telling stories through digitally focused immersive media.” For Excellence in Immersive Storytelling, judges noted that Un(re)solved “stood out with its strong art direction and comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach,” adding that the “project speaks to the heart while looking at the past, balances information with emotion and at the same time feels like the first draft of history.”
On Thursday, Sept. 22, the Un(re)solved podcast won the OJA for “Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series,” a category that ONA said “honors exceptional efforts in telling stories through digitally focused audio media: podcasts, audio-focused online works, or other emerging media.” “At a time when the honest accounting of our nation’s history on race is threatened, [Un(re)solved] stands out as an important reminder of the power of journalism,” the OJA judges remarked. “Its artistry as audio storytelling lifts up difficult facts and elevates the voices of those who have devoted their lives to finding justice for the dead. It is unsentimental, clear-eyed and willing to focus on crimes that come with no neat ending and no clear heroes. It is essential listening,” they added.
In the Un(re)solved web interactive and augmented-reality installation, which won the “Excellence in Immersive Storytelling” category, audiences enter a virtual forest of quilted memories to learn about four people whose untimely deaths were re-examined under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. From there, Un(re)solved audiences can explore all of the more than 150 names associated with the Till Act, collected in an accessible public forum for the first time: voting rights advocates; veterans; the first Black female prosecutor in Louisville, Kentucky; business owners; mothers; fathers and children.
To create the AR installation and digital interactive components of Un(re)solved, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed-reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker and technologist Tamara Shogaolu. The project was executive produced by award-winning filmmakers Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble; Gideon’s Army) and Raney Aronson-Rath (executive producer and editor-in-chief, FRONTLINE).
The “Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series” award recognized the Un(re)solved podcast. From award-winning reporter and podcast host James Edwards (16 Shots and South Side Stories), the audio series explores the Till Act, interweaving Edwards’ personal story as he reflects on his family’s experience with racist violence.
“Congratulations to Tamara Shogaolu, the creative director behind Un(re)solved; James Edwards and the Un(re)solved podcast team; my colleagues at FRONTLINE; and our partners at Ado Ato Pictures, StoryCorps, Black Public Media and Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project for this great recognition from ONA’s Online Journalism Awards,” says FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath.
“We’re so pleased to see this multiplatform project continue to be recognized for its unique approach to both illuminating America’s racist past, and for honoring the victims and their families who are still searching for justice so many years later,” Aronson-Rath adds.
Un(re)solved was honored earlier this year with a Scripps Howard Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a News & Documentary Emmy Nomination. According to the ONA website, Un(re)solved will be honored with its two Online Journalism Awards during a banquet and ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 24 in Los Angeles.
You can explore FRONTLINE’s award-winning project and listen to the podcast series below:
Un(re)solved (INSTALLATION + INTERACTIVE)
