Multimedia Presentations - Pictures of the Year (Kate Chizek)

As I looked at the list of awards for the POYi competition, the multimedia presentations stood out most to me. While I understand that pictures should usually speak for themselves and tell a story, what stood out to me about these stories were the amount of pictures and the use of sound. The story that stood out specifically to me was "The Coulter Family" by Jim Gehrz of Star Tribune.

To be honest, I thought the story was about Ann Coulter's family. I just clicked on it, interested in the political commentator's home life. What surprised me was that the story was about the I35W bridge collapse. The pictures of the family after the incident were devastating. What stood out to me most was the picture of the spectators, taking pictures on their cameras, with the look of shock on their faces (notably the priests at the Archdiocese) . To me, it seemed like September 11 - you don't really know how bad it was until you were there.

Gehrz did a fantastic job of covering the family through their recovery process. The mother, Paula, was most effected by the incident - to be honest, because of the pictures after the collapse, I thought she had died. I literally cried when I saw that she had lived. This recovery process is probably still continuing for the Coulter family, and to get a glimpse of their everyday life - their dogs excited to see their owners again, the daughters trying to get back with high school friends on sports teams, and the family testifying in court about the incident - really touched me. I am glad I took the time to watch!