Clancy Balen has been awarded Best New Journalist at the 2024 Tasmanian Media Awards.
Mr Balen, who has been working as a journalist for two-and-a-half years, was one of the many winners on the night working for the ABC.
“I’m a relatively new journalist so just getting a story across the line feels like a lot,” he said.
Mr Balen was nominated for a body of work, four stories hand-picked to showcase a range of projects he had worked on across different platforms.
“To be able to get to the end of a process and be like ‘wow, that feels like a story that I’d be really happy to share with people’, that’s what I’m most proud of,” he said.
The Best New Journalist Award is sponsored by the University of Tasmania to help support quality journalism and foster strong relationships between the University and the Tasmanian media community.
“The University of Tasmania is committed to ensuring that our school-leavers and life-long learners of all ages have access to the exciting opportunities a career in the media offers,” Professor Alana Mann, Head of Discipline (Media) said.
Evident at the awards night is the ongoing strength and future of Tasmanian journalism. The judges noted “Clancy’s use of new media platforms, seamlessly integrating multimedia elements to enhance the storytelling experience”.
Despite his multimedia versatility, Balen insists on a more traditional tool used by journalists.
“The most important skill that I’ve learned is picking up the phone and talking to people, all the time,” he said.
“You’ll be amazed, when you open up a dialogue, the things that people will tell if you’re honest and you’re empathetic.”
The calibre of entrants was stressed in the announcement of this year’s awards.
“Their exceptional work served as a testament to the promising future of journalism and that the industry is in good hands with this new generation at the helm,” the judges said.
Professor Mann emphasised the importance of local journalism.
“News is not something that happens somewhere else, it happens here in our communities,” she said.“And we need local voices to reflect diverse views and support social cohesion more than ever”.
On the significance of winning the award, Balen said: “I’m very happy to be appreciated and it feels good. I don’t know if I’ll gain anything from this other than a certainty that what I’m doing is heading in the right direction. I want to keep making, I want to keep writing and uncovering strong stories doing good journalism”.
This story was written by Media and Communications student Alexander Poljansek. If you’re passionate about news and story-telling, learn more about our courses.