Young journalism graduates feature in Qantas awards

Massey journalism graduates features among the winners and finalists for junior print journalists at this year's Qantas Media Awards, announced on Friday.

Ian Steward won the junior reporter award, while Jenny Macintyre won the junior newspaper feature-writer award and Kiran Chug was a finalist for the same award.

All three students are graduates of the 2006 Graduate Diploma of Journalism programme. Mr Steward now works at The Press, Ms Macintyre works at the Sunday Star-Times and Ms Chug is at The Nelson Mail.

Massey students were also two of the four finalists for the student print journalism award. Pulp magazine, edited by another 2006 graduate, Josie Steenhart, was a finalist in the best magazine cover.

Massey Journalism head Dr Grant Hannis says it was thrilling to see relatively new graduates perform so well in the industry. "The Graduate Diploma in Journalism programme is a highly-regarded, vocationally-oriented programme," Dr Hannis says.

"We work closely with industry to ensure our graduates have the skills the publishers and broadcasters require. This philosophy means we attract high-quality students who go on to secure great jobs."

The graduates' Qantas success builds on the achievements they enjoyed for their student work. Last year, Ms Macintyre won the Qantas student print-journalism prize and in 2006 Ms Chug won Fairfax's Alex Veysey Memorial Prize, awarded to the student who best lives up to the late Mr Veysey's classic journalistic values.