UWM Student Journalists Win 2014 SPJ Awards

Media Milwaukee won a 2014 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Digital-Only Student Publication and UWM student journalists snagged ten additional awards in the regional SPJ competition, which includes universities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The students’ work will be recognized in April at the SPJ Region 6 Spring Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Evan Vogel and Mary Jo Contino are award-winners for Radio News Reporting and Radio Feature stories, respectively. Evan and Mary Jo produced their pieces in JAMS 204 Newswriting and Technology, the entry-level journalism class.

JAMS 320 Integrated Reporting students won five Mark of Excellence Awards, including two for Helen Koth’s video stories using mobile journalism and iPads. One of the 320 awards is for a multimedia project on the 2014 election that included audio and print contributions from all students in the class; the others 320 awards are for print/online stories.

Winning 2014 Media Milwaukee entries:

JAMS 320: Voices of UWM Voters: A Campus Divided

Madeline Power-Luetscher, Sean Cornell and Ryan Artmann: Sexual Assault on the UW-Milwaukee Campus: The Messy Realities

John Gingrass and Helen Koth: Intimidation, Disease Prevention Cited as Reasons for New Sleeveless Gym Policy

Helen Koth for two video stories: The Students of Architecture and The Culture of Ultimate Frisbee

Mary Jo Contino: Wintertime Fresh at Mitchell Park Domes

Evan Vogel: Job Fair Draws Hopeful Students in Hard Times

In addition, UWM PantherVision won three Mark of Excellence Awards, and two former PantherVision students, Kali LaCount (WISN-TV Milwaukee) and Chris Verhyen (WEAU-TV Eau Claire), will speak during the Region 6 conference luncheon in Bloomington about their prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award.

Winning 2014 PantherVision entries:

Erin Nordloh: Ruining the Ruins, Television General Reporting

Jenna McGlin, Kali LaCount, Emily Topczewski, Cole Stevenson, Maria Corpus, Danielle Stobb, Amanda Porter, Michael Kohl: Lockdown, Television General Reporting

Jenna McGlin, Kali LaCount, Emily Topczewski, Cole Stevenson, Danielle Stobb, Maria Corpus, Amanda Porter, Michael Kohl: Ready, Or Not?, Television In-Depth Reporting

SPJ Region 6 includes Marquette University, UW-Madison, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and many more schools with big journalism programs. UWM students will find out at the spring conference if they placed first, second or third. Special thanks to JAMS Digital Media Specialist Jeff Loomis for his work on the new Media Milwaukee WordPress site. Congratulations to all!