JCOM
students win 10 Society of Professional Journalists
awards, including four for Hard News Cafe
By the USU department of journalism and communication
April 11, 2005 | Students in Utah State University's
department of journalism and communication won 10 awards
Saturday in the Society of Professional Journalists
Region 9 Mark of Excellence contest.
The Hard News Cafe was named the best all-around online
student newspaper in the region, which comprises Utah,
Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and El Paso County, Texas.
The Cafe, produced by students of Professor Mike Sweeney,
goes on to the national competition in October against
the top online sites from other regions. The Cafe was
a national finalist in 2001.
Reporters for the Hard News Cafe also swept the online
feature story competition. Denise Albiston took first
place for her examination of post-9/11
security changes at Hill Air Force Base. Doan Nguyen
took second and third place for her stories about a
Brigham
City barber and USU
students who take yoga classes. Nguyen will spend
the summer as an intern at the Deseret News.
Jack Saunders took third place in the sports writing
category for "The Spark That Doused a Fire,"
a story about basketball legend Wayne Estes that appeared
in Utah State magazine.
In the broadcasting competition, A-TV News, the campus
news program produced by students of Professors Penny
and Dean Byrne, was named second-best non-daily newscast
in the region.
Students winning for individual broadcasts were: Samoana
Matagi, second place, general news reporting for a story
on student health insurance; Matagi and Amanda White,
third place, TV sports reporting, for "100 Years
of Aggie Basketball;" Matthias Petry and Joel Featherstone,
second place, TV sports photography, for "Utah
State Aggies beat UC Irvine;" and Petry, honorable
mention, TV sports photography, for a feature on the
last week of the 2003-04 bastketball season.
"We're proud of the high quality of our students'
work," Dr. Sweeney said. "USU journalism students
prove year in, year out, they can compete with any of
their peers."
The awards were handed out at the SPJ regional conference
at the University of Utah. The conference was sponsored
by the Utah Headliners chapter.
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