UA Senior Wins National Journalism Multimedia Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Daniel Roth, a senior telecommunication and film major at The University of Alabama, has been named a winner in the “Best Use of Multimedia” category for the 2013 national Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.

Roth, a Birmingham native and 2013-14 video editor for The Crimson White campus newspaper, was honored for his multimedia package “Stepping Through,” which examines racial progress at UA during the 50 years since desegregation and the remaining challenges.

“Daniel is one of the best collegiate videographers in the country, and I’m thrilled the judges recognized his talent nationally,” said Mark Mayfield, associate director of UA’s Office of Student Media and editorial adviser to The Crimson White. “ ‘Stepping Through’ is an important documentary for many reasons, but, most of all, it reminds us that as far as we think we’ve come in race relations on college campuses, we still have a long way to go.”

The video, approximately 18 minutes long, includes interviews with the campus newspaper editor-in-chief during the 1963 integration, the first black athlete to receive a scholarship to UA, the sports information director from coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s tenure and others.

Roth, along with fellow Crimson White staffers Abbey Crain (Bachelor of Arts, journalism, ’14, Huntsville), Matt Ford (Bachelor of Arts, journalism, ’14, Tuscaloosa), Mazie Bryant (Bachelor of Arts, journalism, ’14, Montgomery), Mark Hammontree (senior, education, Mountain Brook), Deanne Winslett (junior, journalism, Madison), Mackenzie Brown (senior, marketing, Vestavia Hills) and Austin Bigoney (senior, political science, Huntsville), also received fourth place in the Hearst Journalism Awards team multimedia competition for entries related to “The Final Barrier,” a September 2013 Crimson White article detailing racial discrimination in the UA sorority formal recruitment process, including follow-up stories on the successful initiation of a number of minority sorority members.