Southeastern television, print students win Mark of Excellence Awards


Contact: Tonya Lowentritt
Date: April 18, 2012

 

     HAMMOND – Students at Southeastern Louisiana University's television station and student newspaper won seven 2011 Mark of Excellence awards at the annual Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 spring conference held recently in Lafayette.

     Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) promotes the free flow of information and works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists. This year's event received almost 4,000 entries from all universities in Region 12, comprised of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.

     Students at the Southeastern Channel, the university's educational cable station, won five television awards. The awards included first place for "Television Feature Reporting" for "Twitter's Birthday," a segment produced by reporter Scott Cardinale of Springfield for the student newscast "Northshore News." The Channel also won first place for "Television News Photography" for videography of the story "Church Expansion Troubles" shot by Nick Elliott of Mandeville and Rachel Eastridge of Baton Rouge for "Northshore News."

     By virtue of winning first place regional awards, Cardinale, Elliott and Eastridge qualified for the national SPJ Mark of Excellence competition. National winners will be announced Sept. 20 at the "Excellence in Journalism 2012 National Convention" in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., a joint endeavor of the SPJ and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

     Also receiving awards at the conference:

--"Northshore News," second place in the "Best All-Around Television Newscast" category;

--Trey Mongrue of Baton Rouge, second place for "Television Sports Reporting" for a story on baseball player Jonathan Pace for the sports show "The Big Game;"

-- Hunter Robinson of Luling, second place for "Television Sports Photography" for videography for his feature story about track star Adonson Shallow for "The Big Game;"

--Rande Robinson of Hammond, second place for "Sports Photography" for the story "Swamp Bowl IV Gets Down and Dirty" for "The Lion's Roar" student newspaper; and

--Tony Romain of Slidell, third place for "Sports Photography" for the story "Lions Soundly Defeat Savannah State, 63-6" for "The Lion's Roar."

     "We're extremely happy for our students and pleased that they continue to win awards," said Southeastern Channel general manager Rick Settoon. "This is well-deserved recognition for their talent and excellent work ethic and reflects the outstanding training they receive from channel staff members and instructors in the Department of Languages and Communication."



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