Students in the Meek School’s Student Media Center won 11 awards in the annual Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press contest for college journalists. The five first-place awards were given to NewsWatch Ole Miss; Lana Ferguson; Alana Mitius; Clara Turnage and Malachi Shinault; and Matthew Hendley and Joseph Katool.
NewsWatch Ole Miss won first place in the TV newscast category for its Dec. 1 show about the NCAA sanctions against the football team. Judges said the journalism students hit a “home run” with the newscast and had comprehensive coverage of a story that impacted the Oxford campus.
Junior Abbie McIntosh serves as the station manager for NewsWatch. She said it was a huge deal for the staff to win best newscast in addition to receiving second place for sportscast.
“That NCAA show was a monster, and our staff pulled together as a team to bring our audience the news they wanted to know,” McIntosh said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the work we did that day, and it means the world to be recognized for our hard work.”
Lana Ferguson won first place for feature writing for her story about an Oxford church’s efforts to help a Texas community rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. Alana Mitius won first place in the radio feature category for a package about a debate competition. Clara Turnage and Malachi Shinault won first place for multimedia for their report about campus activist Correl Hoyle. Matthew Hendley and Joseph Katool won first place for their radio coverage of the NCAA sanctions ruling.
“It’s always exciting to see the work produced in the Student Media Center get recognized,” said Ferguson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian. “So many student journalists create great content day in and day out, so it’s nice knowing it makes a difference and know people are looking at it. I’m proud of my staff and the other media outlets.”
Second places were awarded to Ethel Mwedziwendira, for newspaper layout and design;
Lana Ferguson and Clara Turnage, for breaking news, for coverage of the arrest of a student for election sign vandalism; NewsWatch Ole Miss, for sportscast or sports program, for its live reports about NCAA sanctions; Abbie McIntosh and Marlee Crawford, in the documentary category, for a package about Orange, Texas, recovering from Hurricane Harvey; DeAndria Turner, in the radio sports category, for a recap of the Ole Miss versus LSU football game; and Italiana Anderson for radio news, for a package about the Hurricane Harvey relief effort.
Rebel Radio station manager Austin Hille said he is proud of his staff and the high-quality coverage it’s produced this past year.
“Rebel Radio is honored to receive such prestigious recognitions from the Associated Press,” Hille said. “These awards simply reflect the hard work our reporting staff puts in each day.”
Unlike in previous years, this year there was no “best newspaper” or “newspaper general excellence” category.
The awards were presented Saturday at the Louisiana-Mississippian convention at the World War II museum in New Orleans. Representing the Meek School were Lana Ferguson, Matthew Hendley, Ethel Mwedziwendira and Collin Rivera.
