Mass Communications students win multiple awards in regional contests
Campus News Wins NATAS Award in College Newscast Category, wins most of the SPJ Awards
Campus News, MSUM’s student produced newscast, took home a Crystal Pillar Award in the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Upper Midwest Chapter Student Awards of Excellence in the newscast category. Campus News was the only newscast honored with a Crystal Pillar out of six nominees from five different schools. The NATAS-Upper Midwest region includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and western Wisconsin.
Two students also won Crystal Pillars for individual news stories. LaurelLee Loftsgard won in the Light News category for “Toy Train Collectors” and Robert Swansen won in the photographer category for “The Advocate.” Recipients were announced at a ceremony on Sunday at the Theaters at Mall of America.
Campus News also won numerous awards over the weekend at the Midwest Journalism Conference in Minneapolis. In the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Awards, MSUM students took home first place in both the Television Breaking News Reporting and Television Feature Photography categories. First place winners in each category advance to the national round of judging. Campus News also won second place in the newscast category. In all, MSUM students won 11 awards in the television categories, the most of any school in the contest. SPJ Region 6 includes the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Campus News also took home several Eric Sevareid Awards, which are given out each year by the Northwest Broadcast News Association. LaurelLee Loftsgard won first place in the Student Photojournalism category for her “Toy Train Collectors” story. The Campus News Sportscast also won an Award of Merit in the college sportscast category. The NBNA region includes the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Campus News airs weekly on Prairie Public Television at 7:00 AM during the spring semester and is repeated on the cable access channels in both Fargo and Moorhead.
Watch the award-winning newscast.
“Dairy Farming” Wins Best Documentary Award
“Dairy Farming,” a 2012 television documentary produced in the broadcast documentary class at MSUM and broadcast on Prairie Public Television, won first place in the student documentary category in the Northwest Broadcast News Association’s Eric Sevareid Awards. The documentary takes a look at the rewards and struggles the come with a life devoted to dairy farming.
“Doing It Downtown” Named Best Online Student Publication by SPJ
“Doing It Downtown,” the mass communications department’s newest student publication, won first place for Best Independent Online Student Publication in the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Awards. The multimedia blog-style magazine is published daily during Dr. Deneen Gilmour’s MC 405/Writing for the Web class. Student editor is Meredith Wathne.
Lane Zyvoloski won first place for Online Feature Reporting for her photo-and-word essay, “Being Queen: My Life in Drag,” which looks at a group of young Fargo-Moorhead men who become drag queens on certain Saturday nights.
“Doing It Downtown” came to life four years ago as downtown Fargo-Moorhead morphed from a place where pesky panhandlers hung out to a place where nightclubs, coffee houses and a vibrant music scene flourished. The publication brings fresh content to new readers using Pinterest, SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter and Storify.
Lane Zyvoloski’s awards winning story.
Horizonlins.org Honored by NBNA and SPJ
Horizonlines.org received an Award of Merit in the student website category in the Northwest Broadcast News Association’s (NBNA) Eric Sevareid Awards and took second in the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Awards for Best Independent Online Student Publication. Kaitlyn Teske, who took photos for horizonlines, also took home two awards for her work on the online magazine, including first place in the Feature Photography category.
Horizonlines.org is an online magazine produced each spring by the students in MSUM’s Journalism Workshop class. The winning issue is titled “To Be Different.” Students interviewed and photographed families, couples, and individuals who have unique stories to tell, including a Vietnam war veteran, a lesbian couple, and a Special Olympics competitor.
Northwest Broadcast News Association Eric Sevareid Awards MSUM Winners
Documentary/Special
1st – Documentary Class, “Dairy Farming”
Photojournalism
1st – LaurelLee Loftsgard, “Toy Train Collectors”
Award of Merit – Robert Swansen, “The Advocate”
Sportscast/Program
Award of Merit – Campus News Sportscast from 4-30-11
Website
Award of Merit – www.horizonlines.org
Spot News
Award of Merit – Kim Kressin, “New Year’s Fire”
General Reporting
Award of Merit – Kristin Kirtz, “Sweet Study”
Society for Professional Journalists MSUM Winners
Best Independent Online Student Publication
1st: Doing It Downtown
2nd: Horizonlines.org
Online Feature Reporting
1st: Doing It Downtown – Lane Zyvoloski
2nd: Doing It Downtown – Meghan Feir
3rd: Doing It Downtown – Jasmine Maki and Lane Zyvoloski
Feature Photography
1st: Horizonlines.org – Kaitlyn Teske
2nd: Horizonlines.org – Kaitlyn Teske
Breaking News Reporting
1st: Advocate – Bryce Haugen
Feature Writing
1st: Advocate – Jasmine Maki
2nd: Advocate – Becki DeGeest
General News Photography
1st: Advocate – Lane Zyvoloski
2nd: Advocate – Jessica Fleming
General News Reporting
1st: Advocate – Charly Haley
2nd: Advocate – Meredith Wathne
3rd: Advocate – Kayla Van Eps
Best All-Around Television Newscast
2nd: Campus News
Television Feature Photography
1st: “The Advocate” – Robert Swansen
2nd: “Toothpick Bridge Competition” – Robert Swansen
Television News Photography
2nd: “MSUM Cancer Research” – Megan Havig
3rd: “EMT Class at M-State” – Kristi Larson
Television Breaking News Reporting
1st: “Apartment Fire” – Kim Kressin
Television General News Reporting
2nd: “The Study Drug” – Zach Denzer
Television Feature Reporting
2nd: “Pow-wow at NDSU” – Zach Denzer
Television Sports Photography
2nd: “Dragon Dribblers” – Garrett Matteson and Andreas Foreid
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Upper Midwest Chapter Student Awards of Excellence
Newscast:
Campus News
Photography:
“The Advocate” – Robert Swansen
Light News:
“Toy Train Collectors” – LaurelLee Loftsgard