UW-Milwaukee Journalism Students Win First-Place Regional SPJ Honors

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UW-Milwaukee journalism students have won three first-place regional Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ announced Monday.

The first-place award winners – for best online college news reporting, television news reporting, and television broadcast – now advance to the national SPJ competition. The Mark of Excellence awards “honor the best of collegiate journalism from a calendar year” and are judged by professionals, according to the SPJ press announcement. The student entries competed for the honors with universities from a four-state region: Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

National winners will be notified in late spring. The judges were instructed to honor entries that were “outstanding” work, the release said.

In addition, the Media Milwaukee news site was a regional finalist. And student work from UWM’s Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies Department classes won numerous finalist awards in the regional competition. Student Helen Koth won three finalist awards for video stories produced with mobile media and for a print/online story. Student work from JAMS 320 class swept all three honors in the best online college news reporting category. Two audio stories from JAMS 204 class won finalist honors.

The first place regional UW-Milwaukee winners were:

• “Sexual Assault on the UW-Milwaukee Campus: The Messy Realities” by Madeline Power-Luetscher, Sean Cornell, and Ryan Artmann. Online news reporting.

Madeline Power-Luetscher speaking at a previous media event. Photo by Media Milwaukee staff.
Madeline Power-Luetscher speaking at a previous media event. Photo by Media Milwaukee staff.

• “Ruining the Ruins” by Erin Nordloh, television general news reporting.

• “Ready, or Not?” by the UW-Milwaukee Panthervision news staff, television in-depth reporting.

National winners were produced in JAMS 320 class and JAMS 342 classes supervised by Senior Lecturers Jessica McBride and Mark Zoromski. (See a student Soundslides presentation on Zoromski here.)

The regional finalists were:

Media Milwaukee news site. Digital Only Student Publication category. Produced out of JAMS journalism courses.

“Wintertime Fresh at Mitchell Park Domes,” Mary Jo Contino, radio broadcast.

“Job Fair Draws Hopeful Students in Hard Times,” Evan Vogel, radio news reporting.

Evan Vogel on campus. Media Milwaukee staff.
Evan Vogel on campus. Media Milwaukee staff.

“Lockdown, news staff,” Panthervision. Television General News Reporting.

“The Students of Architecture,” Helen Koth. Online feature reporting.

“Voices of UWM Voters: A Campus Divided,” Online news reporting. JAMS 320 class.

“Intimidation, Disease Prevention Cited as Reasons for New Sleeveless Gym Policy,” by John Gingrass and Helen Koth.