UNC project nominated for SXSW Interactive Innovation Award for 5th consecutive year

For the fifth consecutive year, a UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media project is a finalist in the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards.

"Edge of the Sound" — an interactive website that features student-produced video narratives of the people near the southwestern edge of North Carolina's Albemarle Sound — is one of five projects in the student innovation category, which recognizes students who have created exceptional interactive technology projects or startups.

The project marks the 11th consecutive summer that UNC J-school students have traveled to document a North Carolina location as part of the Carolina Photojournalism Workshop (CPJW). The workshop is led by professor Pat Davison and includes industry professionals who serve as coaches.

In 2014, "Heart of the High Country" — which tells the stories of people in the North Carolina mountains — won the third consecutive SXSW Interactive Award in the student category for a UNC J-school project. "Living Galápagos" — an interactive multimedia website that explores the impact of mankind on the Galápagos Islands— won in 2013, and "Coal: A Love Story," which explores modern culture’s complicated relationship with coal, won in 2012.

For 2015, SXSW Interactive re-branded the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards, which showcase the evolving and broadening scope of the digital industry by more fully embracing its ever-widening variety of platforms, software, apps and devices. Awards categories were updated to reflect the increasingly multifaceted and diverse ecosystem of technological achievement.

The winners will be announced March 17 in Austin, Texas.