Al Jazeera English named 'Best Digital Team’; wins award for Yoga show

Al Jazeera English named 'Best Digital Team’; wins award for Yoga show

NEW DELHI: After the announcement by the United Nations about marking of 21 June as the International Day of Yoga, this ancient practice appears to have picked up on the media as well.

 

While the event on 21 June in Delhi will be telecast live, a series is being produced by an international channel into the history of Yoga.

 

And now Al Jazeera English online has won an award for the Best Use of Photography for its Portrait of a Yogi, which was a photographic exploration of the power of yoga to unite people across cultural and physical divides. The photo gallery was commended for its innovative and dynamic approach to photography, which had dramatically added to a user’s experience when visiting the site.

 

The award was one of three awards won by the channel at the prestigious Online Media Awards in London. The other awards were for Best Technical Innovation and Outstanding Digital Team.

 

The Best Technical Innovation and Outstanding Digital Team of the Year went to the Palestine Remix Project, which was a network wide initiative that allowed users to access some of Al Jazeera’s best documentaries on Palestine. The project also had interactive maps and timelines, which allow users to truly understand the Palestinian issue and to contextualize it.

 

Palestine Remix was awarded for demonstrating how technology was applied in a way that is creative and mould-breaking.

 

The awards were judged by an independent panel from the British Journalism Review for the outstanding digital team award, Al Jazeera English online beat Vice News, Channel 4 News online, the Huffington Post, the Guardian and BBC News Online. The Online Media Awards, now in its fourth year, identify the cleverest, boldest and most original purveyors of news and views from around the world.

 

Al Jazeera English head of online Imad Musa said the awards were the culmination of years of hard work from members of the entire newsroom. “This recognition by our peers is a testament to Al Jazeera’s efforts to find new ways of storytelling, and to explain complex issues to a global audience. Our team is small but incredibly passionate about what they create, and it’s great that our peers agree that they are the best digital team in the world. We will continue to push the boundaries of original journalism and innovative design,” Musa said.

 

Senior producer and Palestine Remix Technical project lead Mohammed El-Haddad added, “Winning two awards for the best digital team and best technical innovation is a huge privilege for Al Jazeera. Palestine Remix weaves the latest HTML5 video technology with informative videos to truly involve our audience in the storytelling process. The interactive team alongside our journalists constantly tries and uses new ways to tell a story. Winning these awards has shown Al Jazeera is ahead of the pack for original journalism and using innovative tools.”