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University of Mississippi journalism students learn with the best, thanks to donation

Posted on: March 31st, 2021 by ldrucker

Memphis news station WREG-TV donates anchor desk to ‘Ole Miss NewsWatch’ team

To help prepare University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media journalism students for life after graduation, Memphis news station WREG-TV donated its station’s anchor desk to “NewsWatch Ole Miss,” providing a true real-world broadcast journalism experience on campus.

The university’s student-run broadcast news operation, NewsWatch, also serves Oxford and Lafayette County as its only complete local newscast. It airs at noon Wednesdays and Fridays during the academic year.

Brian Barisa, station manager and fourth-year NewsWatch member, said the significance of the desk donation and the partnership with the Memphis news outlet is immeasurable.

Memphis news station WREG-TV donated its station’s anchor desk to ‘NewsWatch Ole Miss,’ the University of Mississippi’s student-run broadcast. Submitted photo

“This new desk symbolizes the future of NewsWatch and where we will grow in the future,” Barisa said. “This gift allows for us to take leaps and bounds in modernizing our studio and evolving NewsWatch into the current look of TV studios.”

Appearance is not the only thing the future journalists receive while reporting with NewsWatch. Students combine their class knowledge with their on-air experience to learn new techniques in journalism.

“The Ole Miss School of Journalism has taught me storytelling tools and techniques that have helped me through reporting and producing content not just in news-oriented spaces, but also in other outlets of media production,” said Barisa, who plans to continue in the world of collegiate video production after graduation.

Besides producing the student-run broadcast, NewsWatch serves as a learning laboratory and creates opportunities for all students, regardless of experience level.

NewsWatch plays a pivotal role in the complete development of students who are ready to hit the ground running after graduation, said Debora Wenger, interim dean and professor of journalism.

“‘NewsWatch Ole Miss’ is a key part of the hands-on experiential learning, which is a hallmark of our school’s programs,” Wenger said. “Students, whether they are studying integrated marketing communications or journalism, have the opportunity to work for the newscast and a number of public-facing news outlets that are part of our school.

“Students who work for NewsWatch and these other platforms graduate with solid experience on their resumes, which in turn makes them more competitive in the job market.”

The Memphis station not only donates gifts, but sets an example for Ole Miss journalism students and NewsWatch staff members.

“WREG and all of the stations in our area have been wonderful partners in educating our students,” Wenger added. “They hire our graduates, and they are generous with their time and expertise. We can’t thank the station enough for reaching out and providing this donation.”

Ron Walter, WREG general manager, said he is happy to see the desk go to a good home.

“We are proud to support the aspiring young journalists and broadcasters in our area, knowing we may one day work alongside them,” Walter said. “The desk served our anchor teams very well, and we hope it does the same for University of Mississippi journalism students.”

WREG also donated a second station desk to the school for students taking news reporting classes in Farley Hall.

This story was written by Michael Taplin for University Communications. Read the full story here.

Two student journalists from NewsWatch place first in Southeast Journalism Conference competitions

Posted on: March 1st, 2019 by ldrucker

Congratulations to Matthew Hendley and Madison Scarpino for winning first-place awards in Southeast Journalism Conference competitions.

Hendley, a NewsWatch Ole Miss anchor and correspondent, won first place in the SEJC onsite anchoring competition. Judges said the entries were unusually strong this year, and Hendley, a sophomore, came out on top.

Scarpino, a junior, was named Best TV Hard News Reporter for packages that aired on NewsWatch Ole Miss last year about Hurricane Michael and the Journalism and New Media forum after Ed Meek’s Facebook post. Scarpino was social media producer for NewsWatch last semester.

JNM Professor Nancy Dupont is NewsWatch adviser and has worked with both students.

“They’re both incredibly talented student journalists,” Dupont said. “I’m not surprised that Madison took first place in reporting because she’s an excellent storyteller. Matthew is the one of the best at interpreting the news, but I’m so proud of him for taking first place in anchoring, which is a really competitive category.”

The SEJC conference was Feb. 14-16 at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro near Nashville. For the anchoring onsite category, Hendley was given about 10 minutes to read the script, and then he went on the air for about five minutes reading the script and doing a sign-off in a virtual newsroom. It was a mini-newscast with four or five local Tennessee stories, requiring him to switch from one camera to another after the anchor intro.

“It was neat to see another school’s newsroom,” Hendley said, “though I was not a fan of the virtual newsroom…of everything being painted green! But it was another great experience and an honor that I will always remember.”

Abbie McIntosh, NewsWatch Ole Miss student manager, shared a second-place award with Scarpino in the onsite TV reporting team category.

“Having Madison take home the top prize for Best TV Hard News Reporter made me so happy because I know how hard Madison works on her projects,” McIntosh said. “I was able to witness the work that was put into the packages we submitted for SEJC, and I was beaming with pride, not only as her friend, but as her student manager,” McIntosh said. “And having Matthew take home Best TV Anchor made me grin from ear to ear. Matthew is such a character on the desk and I’m so glad everyone else realized that, too.”

Assistant dean, students earn 21 awards at journalism conference

Posted on: February 19th, 2019 by ldrucker

Assistant Dean of the School of Journalism and New Media Patricia Thompson was honored as Educator of the Year at the 33rd annual Southeast Journalism Conference last weekend.

“I had no idea I was even nominated for the award, so it was a complete surprise to me,” Thompson said. “I’m still pretty emotional about it. Journalism has been my passion since I was elected editor of my school newsletter when I was 11 years old. I’ve been teaching here and in charge of student media for almost 10 years, and it has truly been a dream job.”

Middle Tennessee State University hosted the 2019 conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with over 300 students and advisers in attendance.

Thompson was nominated for the honor by current and former students, and she was chosen by a committee of the three most recent recipients of the award. After graduating from the University of Missouri, Thompson worked for The Washington Post and taught at Northwestern University. She was also a part of the San Jose Mercury News staff that was awarded the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for general news reporting.

“Assistant Dean Thompson has been a leader for many years in journalism education,” said Will Norton, the dean of the School of Journalism and New Media. “As the executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, she is the major player in maintaining the quality of journalism education around the world.”

University of Mississippi students also won awards in the two regional contests sponsored by the conference. The Best of the South contest honors the work of student journalists from throughout the previous year, and the on-site competitions gave students the opportunity to compete on deadline during the conference.

In the Best of the South competition, The Daily Mississippian was awarded fifth place for Best College Newspaper. It was the only daily newspaper competing for Best of the South.

“I’m incredibly proud of our staff’s work over the last year, and I think this showing among a field of weekly and monthly papers is a testament to some incredible dedication and hard work over here,” Slade Rand, editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, said. “It was really cool to get that award, even if it is simply a reminder that other people do notice what we do.”

Also in the Best of the South contest, NewsWatch Ole Miss’s Madison Scarpino won first place for TV hard news reporting.

Second place Best of the South awards included Devna Bose for feature writing, Elizabeth Blackstock, Katie Campbell and Jessi Dressler for journalism research paper and Rebel Radio for radio news audio program.

Third place awards included Hayden Benge for news graphic design, DeAndria Turner for radio journalism and Rebel Radio for radio station.

Other individual awards included: Mary Clair Kelly, who won fifth place for TV news feature reporting; Slade Rand, who won sixth place for news writing; Liam Nieman, who won seventh place place for arts and entertainment writing; Jaz Brisack, who won seventh place for opinion-editorial writing and Brittany Brown, who won eighth place for College Journalist of the Year.

“I’ve worked with some super talented young journalists who have graduated and are doing great work as professional journalists, and I know this year’s staff will do the same,” Thompson said. “Every day, I marvel at how hard they work under deadline pressure to produce such outstanding content to keep the community informed.”

In addition to 13 Best of the South awards, the University of Mississippi also won second place for the Grand Championship of on-site competitions with seven individual wins.

“I was absolutely thrilled for our students that won awards at SEJC, especially the on-site awards,” NewsWatch Ole Miss Station Manager Abbie McIntosh said. “Those awards showed everyone and ourselves, that we know how to produce good work under pressure and tight deadlines. Like I’ve said before, everyone puts in hard work and dedication, day in and day out, and to win some awards is a really good feeling.”

Matthew Hendley won first place in the on-site competition for TV anchoring, and Hayden Benge, Hailey McKee and Davis Roberts won first place as a team for public relations.

Second place awards went to Devna Bose for feature writing and Abbie McIntosh and Madison Scarpino for TV reporting.

Third place awards went to Liam Nieman for arts and entertainment writing and Slade Rand for news writing.

This story was written by Hadley Hitson and originally published in The Daily Mississippian.

Two UM School of Journalism and New Media students named as a winners in national journalism contest

Posted on: January 10th, 2019 by ldrucker

Two University of Mississippi student media leaders have been named as winners in the 2018-2019 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Abbie McIntosh and Ariel Cobbert both placed in the Hearst Journalism Awards national competition this year.

In the Television Features category, McIntosh tied for 15th place. There were 107 entries from 60 universities. Cobbert placed 21st in the Photojournalism News and Features category, which had a record 128 entries from 77 universities.

McIntosh is station manager for UM’s award-winning NewsWatch Ole Miss – a daily, student-run live 30-minute newscast.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Abbie the past two years as she was NewsWatch station manager,” said NewsWatch faculty adviser Nancy Dupont. “Then I had the pleasure of having her in my advanced TV reporting class. She has a goal to be excellent in everything she does. In fact, she will overcome any obstacle getting in the way of her success. She is in the top 1 percent of broadcast journalism students I’ve ever taught.”

The two TV packages from McIntosh that were entered in the Television Features category were both from coverage of Hurricane Michael. Three journalism students – led by journalism professors Mark Dolan, Ji Hoon Heo and John Baker – traveled to Panama City in October to report about the hurricane’s impact.

Cobbert, who graduated in December 2018, is former photo editor for The Daily Mississippian and The Ole Miss yearbook. Her Hearst photojournalism entry included her DM coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and photos she took for the yearbook and for her internships. In summer 2018, she had a photo internship at the Daily Press in Virginia, and she had a fall internship at the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Alysia Steele is one of the JNM professors who have worked closely with Cobbert.

“I have watched Ariel blossom over the years,” Steele said. “What I love and respect about Ariel is how hard working she is, and how she takes constructive feedback from a good place and applies it to her work. She has one of the best attitudes I’ve ever seen in a student, and I’m ridiculously proud of her. It’s nice to see her place in Hearst. I can’t wait to see what she does career-wise, because I know for sure she’s going to make an impact in the journalism world.”

The Hearst contest has several more categories with deadlines during spring semester.

Winners were selected from 107 entries submitted from 60 schools nationwide. The first-place winner qualifies for the National Television Championship held in San Francisco next June.

Other top winners, along with the top finalists in the next television competition, will submit additional entries for a semi-final round of judging. Four finalists will be chosen from that round to compete in the championship, along with writing, photo, radio and multimedia finalists.

First Place has been awarded to Grace King from University of Florida. King wins a $3,000 scholarship and qualifies for the National Broadcast News Championship.

The top ten finalists and their awards are:

Second Place, $2,000 award, Lydia Nusbaum, University of Missouri
Third Place, $1,500 award, Matt Lively, Arizona State University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Meredith Sheldon, University Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Claire Going, Pennsylvania State University
Sixth Place, certificate, Claire Kopsky, University of Missouri
Seventh Place, certificate, Tom Austen, Syracuse University
Eighth Place, certificate, Payton Walker, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ninth Place, certificate, Lillian Donahue, Arizona State University
Tenth Place, certificate, Kristen Rary, University of Georgia

The top five winning schools receive matching grants. The University of Florida is in first place in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the first of two television competition of this academic year.

It is followed by: University of Missouri, Arizona State University, Syracuse University, Pennsylvania State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Baylor University, Michigan State University, University of Maryland and the University of Georgia.

The final intercollegiate broadcast winners are announced after the completion of the radio competition and the second television competition. The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively, which will be presented at the National Championships in San Francisco this June.

The television judges are: Julie Chin, news director, KNX Radio, Los Angeles; Lloyd Siegel, former vice president of news partnerships, NBC News, New York; and Fred Young, retired senior vice president of news, Hearst Television Inc., Yardley, Pennsylvania.

The 59th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program added broadcast news to the competitions in 1988. The program also includes five writing, one radio, two photo, and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends.

There are 104 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

The program consists of five monthly writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, one radio and two TV broadcast news competitions, and four multimedia competitions, with Championship Finals in all divisions, with the exception of team multimedia. The program awards up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants, stipends and intercollegiate awards annually.

The William Randolph Hearst Foundation was established by its namesake in 1948 under California non-profit laws, exclusively for educational and charitable purposes. Since then, the Hearst Foundations have contributed more than one billion dollars to numerous educational programs, health and medical care, human services and the arts in every state.

WTVA news director visits NewsWatch students

Posted on: September 21st, 2017 by ldrucker

Mike Raffaele, WTVA news director, met with University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media NewsWatch students last night offering advice about improving the newscast and about getting internships and jobs.