Women in Media is delighted to announce that the winner of the Caroline Jones Women in Media Young Journalist’s Award for 2022 is Samantha Jonscher.
Samantha is the lead reporter for the ABC in Alice Springs and has also spent time reporting for ABC in Darwin.
She is the sixth recipient of the award since its inception in 2017.
Runner-up is Briana Fiore from ABC’s Great Southern region in Western Australia.
Samantha impressed the judges this year with a multi-platform selection of stories covering domestic violence, Indigenous femicide, and water rights. Her stories were of national significance and showed a deep commitment to elevating the voices of First Nations people while telling their stories with compassion.
Samantha is also a keen visual journalist, overlaying her reportage with powerful images that enhance its value and impact.
Her stories have come about only after years of dedicated work to establish trust with Indigenous communities, made more challenging when communities have a legacy of colonisation and suspicion of media.
Samantha Jonscher is the winner of the 2022 Caroline Jones Women in Media Young Journalist’s Award. Photos: Supplied
This year, Samantha was awarded The Walkley Foundation’s Our Watch Fellowship.
She was last year’s runner up in the Caroline Jones Award for another series of excellent articles on Indigenous affairs, which Caroline described at the time as being “powerful and impeccably objective” and prepared with the utmost “cultural sensitivity”.
Caroline tragically passed away in May, having taken enormous joy in her involvement with the award and its recipients each year.
Judges, including Women in Media Patron Victoria Laurie, former Women in Media national co-chair Cath Webber and Women in Media Canberra Convenor Emma Macdonald, praised Samantha for her dedication to the Indigenous communities she writes about and for producing highly principled journalism.
Ms Laurie said Samantha displayed “a deep understanding and empathy in reporting Indigenous stories in a way that gives the subjects power over their own story”.
The award is supported by the National Press Club and seeks to shine a light on outstanding reportage by female journalists working across our regions.
It is named in honour of Caroline Jones AO, a ground-breaking journalist who joined the ABC in 1963 and became the first female reporter for This Day Tonight. She reported for Four Corners between 1972-1981 before presenting Radio National’s Search for Meaning program. In 1996, she became the presenter of Australian Story.
Samantha has won a $2500 personal development grant and the opportunity to spend a week in Canberra being mentored by Women in Media members working in the Press Gallery and national capital media outlets.
PAST WINNERS
2017 Eliza Goetze | Bundaberg News Mail
2018 Emily Jane Smith | ABC
2019 Virginia Tapscott | Freelancer
2020 Elly Bradfield | ABC
2021 Brooke Littlewood | Farm Weekly