2 staffers win at NCPA
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on January 30, 2004 2:02 PM
CHAPEL HILL -- The N.C. Press Association honored two Goldsboro News-Argus staff members during its annual awards ceremony, held Thursday night in Chapel Hill.
Photographer Brent Hood received a first-place award for feature photography, daily newspapers with 15,000-35,000 circulation. Hood's picture of three people on a ride at the Wayne County Fair last September, titled "The Big Drop," beat out 46 other entries.
A judge said the picture stood out because of "Expressions! Expressions! Expressions! Nice tight composition and three great faces."
Staff Writer Matt Shaw received a third-place award for news feature writing. His story, "Waiting for a miracle," published in November 2002, was about Johnnie Pollock, a candidate for the Wayne County Board of Education who had been involved in an accident and was in a coma on Election Day. He later died.
A judge said, "The reader is left with a sense that the man languishing in his hospital bed is someone worth knowing, someone worth caring about."
There were 121 entries in the category.
Both Hood and Shaw have won previous NCPA awards, including ones for the News-Argus.
Hood is a Wayne County native, a former commercial photographer and former photographer and sports editor for the Mount Olive Tribune. He joined the News-Argus photo staff in 2000. He is a graduate of Randolph Technical College and continued his education through short courses at N.C. State University.
Shaw is a Chapel Hill native and a University of North Carolina graduate. He has worked for daily and weekly N.C. newspapers as both a reporter and editor. He joined the News-Argus staff in 2001.