Defending with Pride: Voices podcast wins at the 2023 MEAA SA Media Awards!

Defending with Pride: Voices, the multi-part commemorative podcast series Megan made for the Shrine of Remembrance has won the ‘Best Radio/Audio Journalism – Feature Based on a Single Story’ Award at the 2023 MEAA SA Media Awards!

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Walkley Foundation administer “an enduring benchmark of excellence for media professionals across Australia”. The annual Awards “recognise and reward excellence” and are the “pre-eminent Awards for journalists in South Australia”.

Judges’ comments: “Megan’s podcasts used sensitive, empathetic interviews and high production values to convey the pain and resilience of Australian military service men and women impacted by discrimination. Megan clearly built a high level of trust with the talent, and used the powerful interviews she got as a result to weave a nuanced picture of past military culture and its long legacy. The resulting work is a compelling contribution to ongoing public truth-telling about a powerful national institution.”

The Voices podcast was made to accompany ‘Defending with Pride: stories of LGBTQ+ service’, a special Shine exhibition exploring the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in Australian military service. It was the first of its kind for an Australian war memorial.

Megan was also a finalist in the ‘Best Freelance Journalist’ Award category for a body of work (3 x podcast series) she made to accompany the Shrine’s trio of military service and identity exhibitions in 2022:

The Awards ceremony was held in Adelaide on Saturday 8 July, 2023.

Read more at the South Australia Media Awards website and the media release issued by the Shrine of Remembrance.

Listen to Defending with Pride podcasts here.

Grateful thanks to each and every speaker – this award is for you!