UM students were named Grand Champions for the Onsite Competitions at the Southeast Journalism Conference last weekend, winning seven awards.
Including awards from The Best of the South competitions, students at the University of Mississippi took home a total of 24 awards at the 34th annual Southeast Journalism Conference last weekend.
The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg hosted the 2020 conference, and nearly 300 students and advisors were in attendance.
Students won awards for two regional contests. The onsite competitions gave students the opportunity to cover an assignment on deadline during the conference, while the Best of the South honored the work of student journalists from throughout the previous year.
The University of Mississippi took home seven awards for the on-site contests, and 17 awards for the Best of the South.
In the Best of the South contest, Rebel Radio won second place for best radio station and third place for best audio newscast.
In the Best of the South contest, four students won first place: Griffin Neal for best feature writer, Will Stribling for best radio journalist, Georgia Huddleston for best advertising design and Devna Bose for best multimedia journalist.
Second place winners in the Best of the South include Kenneth Niemeyer for best special event reporter, Skye Spiehler for best TV journalist and Hayden Wiggs for best radio feature reporter.
Third place winners include Daniel Payne for best news writer, Camryn Sidley for best TV news reporter and Lasherica Thornton for best journalism research paper.
First place winners for the onsite contest include Niemeyer for news writing and Madison Scarpino for TV anchoring.
Second place award winners for the onsite contest include Neal for feature writing and Sarah Biedermann, Karsyn King and Hannah Williamson for public relations.
Third place winners for the onsite contest include Matthew Hendley and Lydazja Turner for TV news reporting, Payne for design and page layout and Stribling for radio news reporting.
Additional wins include Gita Viswanathan and Jesus Escobedo with fourth place for best advertising staff member in broadcast commercial, Billy Schuerman with fifth place for best press photographer, Katie Dames with seventh place for best opinion and editorial writer, Josh Clayton with eighth place for best sports writer and Payne with 10th place for College Journalist of the Year.
