The Daily Mississippian and Newswatch Ole Miss won awards in the Southeastern Journalism Conference Best of the South Competition and the state Mississippi Press Association competition this past weekend.
The Best of the South Competition recognized students and their bodies of work from November 2020 to November 2021. This year, there were 369 entries from 30 colleges.
The Daily Mississippian won first place awards for Best College Website, Best News Writer, Best Arts & Entertainment Writer and Best Newspaper Page Layout Design Team.
Eliza Noe, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, was part of the design team that won. She also received awards for 6th place best feature writer and a 3rd place Mississippi Press Association award for editorial writing.
“I’m very proud of all of the awards we were able to bring home this year,” Noe said. “Student journalism, in general, has been through a lot this year, so I’m also extremely fortunate to have a staff that’s been able to excel during the pandemic.”
The Daily Mississippian also received the following awards at the Southeastern Journalism Conference: Kelby Zendejas, 3rd place for Best Sports Writer; Kenneth Niemeyer, 3rd place for Best Special Event Reporter/Editor; Katherine Butler, 3rd place for Best News Graphic; Hadley Hitson, 4th place for Best News Writer; and Katie Dames, 13th place for Best Op-Ed Writer.
Hitson, who is the managing editor of The Daily Mississippian, was excited about the outcome of both competitions.
“I’m glad that even under hard circumstances this year, we were able to uphold our journalistic standard for content and continue to publish important articles that impact the community,” Hitson said.
At the Best of the South awards, NewsWatch Ole Miss won 3rd place for Best College TV Station. Carter Diggs won 3rd place for Best TV News Feature, and Kaylee Crafton won 6th place for Best TV Journalist.
The Southeastern Journalism Conference was hosted via Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions. It was originally scheduled to be in New Orleans.
The Daily Mississippian also submitted entries to the state Mississippi Press Association contest. The staff received first place in the following categories: Best Website, Best Newspaper Layout & Design, Best Newspaper Front Page, Niemeyer for Best Series or Investigative, Billy Schuerman for Best General News Photo, Josh Clayton for Best Sports News Story, Will Carpenter for Best Feature Story and Nakiyah Jordan for Best Cartoon.
The staff won second-place awards for General Excellence and General News Photo for a photo by Schuerman. Dames and John Hydrisko also won third place awards for editorials.
Noe also wanted to thank the professional staff in the Student Media Center for their assistance and mentorship.
“I don’t know what we would have done without them and their guidance when we needed it,” Noe said.
