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Projects, students win national honors

It’s awards season for collegiate media, and OU Student Media can barely keep up with the announcements rolling in.

Since mid-March, two projects (Sooner/Crimson Traditions and oudaily.com) have won Gold Crowns, one of college media’s biggest awards, and been named finalists for the Pacemaker, frequently referred to as the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate media.

More than 40 individual awards (including eight first-place honors) have been given to staffers at The Oklahoma Daily, Sooner/Crimson Traditions, oudaily.com and Sower magazine in the Gold Circle and SPJ Region 8 contests. 

The Gold Crowns and Circles were given at the recent College Media Convention in New York City. Seven students and an adviser were on hand to bask in the reflected glory (as well as lead and attend sessions, network and see the sights). The Pacemakers will be awarded at the fall version of this convention, held in October in Austin, Texas.

Visit our awards section to see specifics on these and more Student Media honors.



Daily named state's best paper in division

Oklahoma's Society of Professional Journalists' awards pit the students of The Oklahoma Daily against the state’s professional journalists. At the 2009 awards ceremony in Tulsa, The Daily was named the state’s best newspaper in Division B (circulation of 7,000-24,999), besting both OSU’s student paper and The Norman Transcript.

Student staffers of The Daily won 21 individual awards, including nine first-place honors (more than any other paper in this category), and swept the In-Depth Enterprise Reporting/Individual category. See all 21 awards here and more about Student Media success on our Awards and Honors page.



Yearbooks named Crown finalists

Student Media staff get an early holiday gift: Columbia Scholastic Press Association recently announced that the 2007-08 Sooner/Crimson Traditions package is a finalist for a Gold Crown.

CSPA gives the Crown awards, the highest honor from the organization to collegiate media. More than 1,700 scholastic and collegiate newspapers, magazines and yearbooks were eligible, and nine collegiate books were named finalists. (A third of the finalists are from Big XII schools.) Books will either receive a Silver or a Gold Crown at the March College Media Convention in New York City. This is the fourth consecutive year that the package has been a Crown finalist, and the books took home Golds in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

For a list of all collegiate Crown finalists, click here.

For more on Student Media honors, visit our current and former awards pages.



Sooner, adviser take home national awards

Projects and people in Student Media have once again garnered national recognition. At the 2008 National Media Convention, the 2007 Sooner yearbook/Crimson Traditions package won a coveted Pacemaker award, and Associate Director and Features Adviser Lori Brooks was named the 2008 Honor Roll Yearbook Adviser. Other [m] projects and staff were also recognized.

The Pacemaker, given by the Associated Collegiate Press, is commonly referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of Collegiate Journalism.” The 2007 yearbook package was also one of two books to be awarded a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown this spring.

Current students, alumni and colleagues nominated Brooks for the College Media Advisers award, which honors CMA members with fewer than five years collegiate advising experience. Brooks serves as yearbook committee chair for CMA, presenting sessions and planning all yearbook content for the organization’s two national conventions each year, as well as serving as a national media contact for collegiate yearbooks and judging state, regional and national competitions.

Ten students and three professional staff attended the Kansas City convention, the biggest in the country for college media with more than 400 sessions and nearly 2,000 attendees. Brooks, Director Brian Ringer and Features designer Michael S. Mitra each presented multiple sessions. Sooner Editor Kelsey Witten served on two roundtables with her peers. Mitra and Daily staffer Jerry Wofford were chosen from hundreds of applicants to interview for jobs and internships with professional media at the convention; Mitra met with The Arizona Republic and Wofford with the Associated Press.

Both Sooner and The Oklahoma Daily won Best of Show honors at the convention: Sooner 2008/Crimson Traditions 2007, third place in yearbooks of more than 300 pages, and The Oklahoma Daily, fourth in both four-year broadsheet and four-year special section.           

Sooner and Crimson Traditions also won seven Best of Collegiate Design awards, including first through fourth in the organization category.

For more on these or other awards, visit our awards and honors page.



Oklahoma Daily ranked best in state division

The Associated Press/Oklahoma Newspaper Editors named The Oklahoma Daily the best newspaper in its division (besting professional papers The Norman Transcript and Daily Ardmorite) to win the first-place General Excellence Award. Daily staffers also won seven individual awards. To learn more about these and other Student Media awards, visit our awards and honors page.



Students bring Crown home from NYC

On a whirlwind trip to New York City, Student Media staff garnered a huge honor: Sooner 2007/Crimson Traditions 2006 won a Gold Crown at the College Media Advisers Spring National Convention. The Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which awards the Crown and Gold Circle awards, only gave out two Golds in the collegiate yearbook category. The remaining eight finalists received Silver Crown awards.

Student Media staffers from the books, The Oklahoma Daily and Sower magazine also won 24 Gold Circle awards, which recognize individual achievements. A full list of OU Circle winners is posted here.

Ten students and one adviser from the department attended the CMA convention, which included full-day media professional workshops and more than 200 individual sessions. Lori Brooks (associate director and Features adviser), Breia Brissey and Kelsey Witten (Sooner editor and managing editor, respectively) presented five sessions of their own, on topics ranging from feature writing to student leadership. The group squeezed in some sightseeing, as well, including Central Park, the Empire State Building, Little Italy and every square inch of Times Square. Staff took in as much culture as possible, seeing Wicked, Spring Awakening, Hairspray and The Metropolitan Opera.

In addition to the convention and city exploration, students networked with professionals from The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and more, interviewed for internships (with Rolling Stone) and actually interned (at Hearst Magazines).

For more information on the Crown and Circles, as well as other Student Media awards, visit our awards and honors page.



Students win 20 SPJ awards

The Oklahoma Daily staff took home 20 awards, including 10 in first place, and was named the second-best paper in its division at the spring Oklahoma SPJ Pro Chapter banquet.

The Daily competes against the state’s professional papers in Division B, newspapers with circulations of 7,000-17,999. Visit our awards and honors page for information on individual awards.



Books compete for Crown; students place in Hearst
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association recently announced that Student Media’s yearbook package is a finalist for a 2008 Gold Crown. Sooner 2007/Crimson Traditions 2006 will take home either a Gold or Silver Crown from the 2008 College Media Convention in March in New York City. Student Media split in to two yearbooks in 2004 (Sooner, with a senior focus, and Crimson Traditions, for freshmen) and has won Gold Crowns for each of those packages. The 2007 package is the ninth OU yearbook in a row to win Crown finalist honors.

Also announced recently, two Student Media staffers placed in the prestigious Hearst Journalism Foundation competition. Tiara Etheridge won second place in the Feature Writing for “Taking Mind,” and Ashiq Zaman placed among the top 20 in Editorial Writing for PowerPoint Ineffective.

For more information on these and other Student Media awards, visit our awards and honors page.



Student Media staff win 13 national awards

From three Pacemaker finalists to seven Best of Collegiate Design awards, OU Student Media publications and projects won a variety of awards at the National College Media Convention in Washington, D.C.

Thirteen students and professional staff attended the October convention, which hosts more than 2,000 collegiate media attendees and more than 400 individual sessions. Four students landed nine internship and job interviews with various media companies, including Gannett, the Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News and The Arizona Republic. Watch this space for photos and a story on the trip from a student perspective.

Awards include placing in Best of Show for Crimson Traditions 2006/Sooner 2007, a first place national advertising award and a third-place design of the year award.

For more information on these and other Student Media awards, visit our awards and honors page.



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