OXFORD, Miss. – Several students, faculty and alumni of the University of Mississippi took home top awards in radio and television news reporting from the recent 2012 Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Awards ceremony.
The staff of NewsWatch at the UM Student Media Center won Best Newscast for their 2011 election day coverage, and Stephen Quinn, a junior journalism major from Ashburn, Va., won Best Feature Reporting for a story on Smithville six months after the April 2011 tornado. The NewsWatch staff also won second place in Best News Reporting and Best Sports Reporting, and third place in Best Weathercast.
Nancy Dupont, associate professor of journalism, said she was blown away when the Ole Miss news team won Best Newscast.
“Our students compete against really good programs,” said Dupont, who joined the Ole Miss faculty in 2006 after spending 17 years as a broadcast journalist. “But one major difference is that our students do the news live. There’s no do-over. There’s no chance for perfection. They work harder to get it right and this will make them better professionals in the long run.”
More than 130 TV and radio broadcasters attended the 27th annual awards ceremony in Jackson. Ronnie Agnew, a UM alumnus and executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, was the guest speaker.
Ole Miss alumni walked away with several awards, too.
Elizabeth Googe (BA ’11) of WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg won first place in Public Affairs Reporting and first place in Achievement in Division II television. Courtney Ann Jackson (BA ’10) of WDBD-TV in Jackson won third place in Feature Reporting in Division I television. Meg Pace (BA ’07) of WAPT-TV in Jackson won first place with her team for best franchise reporting in Division 1 television. Sandra Knispel (MA ’03) of Mississippi Public Broadcasting won several first-place awards for her coverage of events including the 2011 tornadoes and floods.
The ceremony ended with Dupont being named incoming MAPB president, succeeding Craig Ford, assistant news director and anchor at WTVA-TV in Tupelo.
“It’s amazing for an educator to take the helm of this prestigious organization,” Dupont said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to jump in and mingle with the professionals, but it is also a great chance for students to meet with MAPB members who are at the top of the game.”
Dupont has served as chair of the Radio-Television Journalism division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and chair of the news division of the Broadcast Education Association. In 2010, she was selected to be part of the inaugural class of academic fellows of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. She has published extensively about 19th century Mississippi newspapers and other topics in journalism history. Dupont earned her Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1997.
NewsWatch, broadcast from the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center, airs live from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and provides students with hands-on experience as anchors, producers, assignment editors, reporters, camera operators, directors, audio engineers and graphic designers.
For information, visit the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center.