Media and Creative Industries alumna wins accolade for cultural communication
Loughborough University London Alumna, Sofia Gonzalez-Barboza, is a co-winner of the prestigious Joaquín García Monge Award for Cultural Communication.
Alumna, Sofia Gonzalez-Barboza, was recently announced as the co-winner of the Joaquín García Monge Award for Cultural Communication, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Youth in Costa Rica.
Sofia first joined Orgullo Gay as a copy editor in 2017, but soon became a member of the Editorial Team and is now an editorial council member of Orgullo Gay (Pride Magazine). Orgullo Gay (Pride Magazine) won the award for it's work in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in Costa Rica.
Sofia says that her MA in Media and Creative Industries played a role in her success on this project:
“I feel my work for Orgullo and the lessons learned studying within the Institute for Media and Creative Industries (IMCI) are intimately related, as both represent a perfect combination of innovation and the desire for social change. Although I had already joined Orgullo before my year at Loughborough University London, I truly feel my experience in London helped me to hone a series of skills necessary when co-editing such a complicated and interdisciplinary project.”
When discussing her experience of working on this project, Sofia said:
"In my work I have focused on incorporating more queer female and non-binary stories on our pages, and as a queer woman this opportunity has helped strengthen my own voice.
I'm proud to form part of a project invested in collecting LGBTQ+ voices from different parts of the country. Over the years, the project has been able to document many important events, stories and perspectives within the Costa Rican queer community. This magazine is both a diary and a witness and receiving an award that acknowledges such efforts is heart-warming.”
In awarding the prize, the jury commended Orgullo Gay as:
“A platform that promotes Costa Rican values such as respect, tolerance and diversity from an innovative space and with keenly executed design and transdisciplinary content.”
Orgullo Gay started out nine years ago as an activity guide produced for Costa Rica's Pride Parade. Since then, it has developed into an influential magazine in its own right. It now publishes both digital and print editions which are distributed across Costa Rica.
To find out more about Sofia's experience studying at Loughborough University London, please visit our alumni web page.
To read Sofia's published article entitled 'Ethical considerations of machine learning based tools in media research: A case study on BBC Media Action's Klahan-9 project in Cambodia and El Kul in Libya', please visit our IMCI Graduate Papers web page.
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2020 QS World University Rankings and top in the country for its student experience in the 2018 THE Student Experience Survey.
Loughborough is in the top 10 of every national league table, being ranked 4th in the Guardian University League Table 2020, 5th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 and 8th in The UK Complete University Guide 2020.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
Specialising exclusively in postgraduate-level study, Loughborough University London is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers cutting-edge master’s and PhD degrees, as well as business collaboration, research and enterprise opportunities.
The seven specialist institutes at Loughborough University London include: Design Innovation, Digital Technologies, Diplomacy and International Governance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International Management, Media and Creative Industries, and Sport Business. Close industry partnerships with a wealth of leading businesses and creative organisations means teaching and learning is informed by real-life challenges and driven by true industry pressures.