UM Student Media, Students Score Big at Journalism Conference Awards

University of Mississippi print and broadcast journalism students proudly display awards won at the Southeast Journalism Conference competition.

Winning top honors in several categories, University of Mississippi journalism students dominated the annual Southeastern Journalism Conference competitions.

The weekend conference, hosted by Georgia State University in Atlanta, had two separate awards ceremonies. Best of the South awards honored student work published or broadcast from November 2013 through November 2014. Onsite competitions involved students working on deadline in 17 categories.

Combined, UM students won 26 honors. Ole Miss also placed first in the Onsite Championship Team category for the fourth time in five years.

“We are so proud of our students,” said Patricia Thompson, Student Media Center director and assistant professor of journalism. “They devote many hours each week to their work, and winning awards is nice recognition for their dedication.”

Onsite competition first-place winners were Cady Herring of Olive Branch for photography, Sierra Mannie of Canton for op-ed writing (read her winning piece at http://thedmonline.com/field-of-schemes/), Ellen Whitaker of Vicksburg for design, and the team of Suduhamsu Upadhyay of Oxford and Gabriel Austin Crystal Springs for television reporting.

Second-place onsite winners were Sarah Parrish of Mandeville, Louisiana, for copy editing, Payton Green of Easton, Connecticut, for current events and Shawna (Mackenzie) Hicks of Athens, Alabama, for ethics. Lacey Russell of Tupelo won an honorable mention for feature writing.

In Best of the South, first-place winners included Upadhyay (best TV journalist), Adam Ganucheau of Hazelhurst (best special event reporter/editor for coverage of the James Meredith statue incident) and Herring (best press photographer).

“This means that Sudu and Cady, both sophomores, picked up first-place awards in both Best of the South and onsites,” Thompson said.

Taking second place were Clara Turnage of New Hebron (best feature writer) and Miriam Creswell of Grenada (best journalism research paper).

Third-place winners are Lacey Russell of Tupelo (best news writer), Allison Moore of Brentwood, Tennessee (best news layout designer), Dylan Rubino of Tuscaloosa, Alabama (best sports writer), and NewsWatch (best college video).

NewsWatch placed fourth as best TV station. Other fourth-place finalists were Ian Cleary of Brandon (best editorial cartoonist) and Gabriel Austin of Crystal Springs (best TV news reporter). Sixth-place winners include Browning Stubbs of Memphis (best multimedia journalist), Amy Hornsby of Starkville (best advertising staff member) and The Daily Mississippian (best college newspaper and the only daily that won in this category).

Kendyl Noon of Bellaire, Texas, won ninth-best for TV feature reporter. TheDMonline.com won 10th place as best college website.

Judges chose from 523 entries from 33 universities in the Best of the South contest.

UM administrators extended their congratulations to Thompson, journalism faculty and the students.

“When our students are competing against students from other Southeastern universities on deadline and winning more awards than other students, I conclude that the adviser of the Student Media Center and the faculty are doing a good job of preparing these students to be media professionals,” said Will Norton, dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “My congratulations to the students, their professors and the adviser of the Student Media Center.”

Provost Morris Stocks concurred.

“Congratulations to Pat Thompson and her students,” Stocks said. “She has made the Student Media Center a model for the rest of the Southeastern schools.”

For more information about the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, visit http://www.meek.olemiss.edu.

Courtesy of Edwin Smith Ole Miss News Desk