Journalism student Blair Wise wins 2025 Kennedy Awards Student of the Year
University of Newcastle journalism student Blair Wise was named Student Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Kennedy Awards, Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards.
The proud Dunghutti man, original from Kempsey, was recognised for a body of work comprising three stories.
The first, a documentary that reported on the student pro-Palestinian movement across Australian universities, also won the 2024 Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) award for best student investigative journalism.
His second piece was a multimedia article for Vice, in which he reported on a trend of young men who had taken illicit steroids after being swayed by online fitness influences. This won best feature story at the 2024 JERAA Awards.
Blair’s third story was written while he was an intern at the Newcastle Herald, after he had won the 2024 Walkley Opportunity Scholarship. This investigative news story reported on a Cessnock DJ who had allegedly scammed numerous local brides.
Blair enrolled in a double degree at UoN, combining a Bachelor of Media and Communication with a Bachelor of Developmental Studies. He also served as editor and columnist for the university’s student media website Yak Media.
As a freelance journalist, he has reported for Vice on First Nations events, university issues and youth drug use. He has also reported for AAP as a fact-checking journalist.
Blair says he is driven to be a journalist to tell the stories of people who are often overlooked, discriminated against, or misunderstood.
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