Students in Samford University’s journalism and mass communication department competed at the 2019 Southeastern Journalism Conference at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The conference spanned between Feb. 14-16. The conference welcomed college journalists from universities across the Southeastern U.S. It included on-site competitions and an award ceremony.
The competition challenged student’s writing capabilities and focused on multiple writing styles such as news, feature, arts and entertainment, op-ed, and sports writing. Besides writing, other categories encompassed visual storytelling, mainly design, page layout and photography.
Competitions did expand beyond traditional mediums and dipped into broadcast and radio. Students in these competitions created news packages. Other competitions branched into public relations, current events, and media ethics, history, and law.
In total, Samford students won 11 awards, nine were awarded to stories completed off-site and that were created sometime during 2018. Three students won first place in the Best of the South category. The other two awards were for onsite competitions.
Onsite competition winners:
Hannah Hutson
Media Law, 2nd place
Griffin Schou
Current Events, 3rd place
Best of the South competition winners:
Rachel Williams
Best Magazine Page Layout Designer, 1st place
Olivia Halverson
Best Magazine Writer, 1st place
Best Feature Writer, 4th place
Sam Bush
Best Journalism Research Paper, 1st place
Hallie King
Best Multimedia Journalist, 2nd place
Samford University staff
Best Public Service Journalism, 3rd place
Mallory Pettet
Best Press Photographer, 4th place
William Marlow
Best News Writer, 7th place
Collin Reese
Best Sports Writer, 8th place
