University of Mississippi students won a total of 22 awards in the annual Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 Mark of Excellence contest, including 12 first-place honors.
The Daily Mississippian won first place as best student newspaper, and NewsWatch won first-place awards for television breaking news reporting and best use of multimedia.
Region 12 includes universities in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. Ole Miss students compete in categories for the largest universities. SPJ regional and national organizations select one winner and two finalists in each category. First-place winners automatically advance to the national contest, where they will compete against first-place winners in the other 11 regions. National winners and finalists are usually announced in May.
First-place honors were awarded to:
Daily Mississippian staff (best daily newspaper, for 3 dates selected by SPJ)
NewsWatch staff (TV breaking news, Ole Miss names new chancellor)
NewsWatch staff (best use of multimedia, Katrina anniversary)
Atomic Mississippi (TV in-depth)
Land of Broken Promises depth report (best magazine)
Clara Turnage (general news reporting, living wage campaign article)
Lana Ferguson/Logan Kirkland (breaking news team entry, Graeme Harris sentencing)
Logan Kirkland (online feature, Land of Runners from Ethiopia project)
Jake Thrasher (editorial cartoons)
Deja Samuel (breaking news photography from flag rally/protests)
Kelly Savage (TV general news reporting, author of flag resolution calls for NAACP recognition))
Joe Rogers (online sports reporting, feature on Croatian tennis players)
Finalists:
NewsWatch staff (TV newscast for flag aftermath show)
Lacey Russell and Maggie McDaniel (TV breaking news, Graeme Harris sentencing)
Waverly McCarthy (TV sports reporting, Who Is Chad Kelly)
Riley Mueller (radio sports reporting, concussion research)
Logan Kirkland (online news reporting, first same-sex marriage in Lafayette County)
Clara Turnage (breaking news reporting, Confederate symbolism conversation in the Grove article, and general news for fraternity assault article)
Dylan Rubino (sports writing, The New Chad Kelly)
Cady Herring (breaking news photography, Dan Jones rally)
Clancy Smith (magazine writing, Land of Broken Promises)
The SPJ Region 12 conference took place on Saturday in New Orleans.
