Two gold awards for Insights from ARPA 2012

The Uniting Creative team received two Gold Awards — one for best feature (multiple authors) and one for best story on social justice — in the recent 2012 Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) Awards for Excellence.

It also received a Silver Award for best website and a Bronze for best news item.

The Gold Award for best feature (multiple authors) was for “Social media: virtual and virtuous” (including “God goes viral“)  by the Insights team, which appeared in the October 2011 issue of Insights. Judges said the feature was well researched and skilfully rendered. A very balanced exploration of how social media is affecting the life and mission of the church.

The Gold Award for best story on social justice was for “People for sale”, by Lyndal Irons, which appeared in the August 2011 issue of Insights. The judge said the article “opened my eyes to the dimensions of human trafficking of which I was unaware, and I saw it as having a major consciousness-raising capacity, along with a spur to action”.

The Silver Award for best website by Esther Butcher (and the Insights team) was said by the judges to be an attractive and engaging site with lots of content. “The design allows display of the wide range of content without overwhelming the user. Great to see lots of options for sharing the content. Allowing comments on articles encourages interactivity.”

The Bronze award for best news item by Stephen Webb was for “Waste not want not”, which appeared in the June 2011 issue of Insights. Waste Not Want Not is a project to deliver to needy families fresh food that would otherwise be wasted. The judges said it was a credit to Stephen for “unearthing” such a good cause and grassroots initiative that deserves wider exposure.

The Uniting Creative team was presented with its awards at a dinner in Wellington, New Zealand, on September 8.

Uniting Creative provides custom publishing and specialist media consultancy services to churches, not-for-profit organisations and other businesses.

As the communications unit of the Uniting Church Synod of New South Wales and the ACT, Uniting Creative publishes the monthly magazine Insights. See Insights’ online and Uniting Creative.

You can also follow, like or re-tweet Insights on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to Insights’ RSS feed.

ARPA is an ecumenical organisation whose members represent Christian publications and media agencies in Australia and New Zealand.

Other Uniting Church publications were also rewarded for their excellence in the professional field of religious media.