New Delhi: The Wire’s five-part multimedia series “Breaking the Nets: An Oral History of India’s Fisherwomen” has been given the ‘Excellence in Online/Digital Journalism, Immersive Storytelling’ award by the Asian American Journalists Association.

The series is co-created by independent journalists Shamsheer Yousaf and Monica Jha, and independent photographer and multimedia journalist Sriram Vittalamurthy.

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) has more 1,600 members across the United States and Asia. It has honoured excellence in journalism since 1987.

The award was presented during the ACJ Awards ceremony held on May 3 at the college’s campus in Chennai. ACJ noted that the series – reported by Shamsheer Yousaf, Monica Jha and Sriram Vittalamurthy – “documents the struggles as well as the triumphs of India’s fisher women.”

The citation praised the series as one that saw “tremendous response across social media.”

It says, “On Instagram, clips from the series did really well, with several posts receiving over 5000 likes. The highest viewed post has over 40,000 likes, and the posts are being commented on more than four months after publication.”

It AAJA notes that many viewers, in particular women, “appreciated seeing these under-reported stories on women in the media.”

“On Twitter, stories on women from indigenous groups in particular resonated with a lot of social media users, and saw sharp comments highlighting their issues to policymakers and government officials.”

The award will be presented at AAJA’s annual convention in Seattle from July 30 to August 3.

“Breaking the Nets” sheds light on the often invisible labour of over 12.3 million women engaged in India’s fishing sector with the help of oral histories and immersive multimedia reportage.

Read the series here.

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