BSU students win state, regional SPJ awards

Ball State University students won five first-place awards in the regional Mark of Excellence competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. The work, judged from among entries in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky the weekend of April 26, will go on to compete nationally.

The honors follow 16 BSU awards in SPJ's Indiana state contest earlier in April.

First place Mark of Excellence winners included:
- Teddy Cahill, Ball State Daily News, sports writing.
- The Daily News editorial board for editorial writing.
- Benjamin Dashley, Daily News, general column writing.
- Corey Ohlenkamp, Daily News, general news photography.
- Ball Bearings Online Website, best affiliated website.

The awards were presented at the SPJ Region 5 spring conference in St. Louis. The national winners will be recognized at the Excellence in Journalism conference Aug. 24-26 in Anaheim, Calif.

SPJ State Awards
Elsewhere, Ball State journalists won 16 awards in the Indiana state SPJ contest - including first place for online multimedia, column writing, Page 1 design, best TV newscast and best TV features reporting.

Graduating senior Sarah Phinney was named Indiana Student Journalist of the Year by the organization at its spring convention on April 19.

"Since her freshman year, she has filled her time with internships and college media positions, expanding her knowledge of and experience in television and radio reporting, editing and producing," the SPJ award said.

"The quality of her radio and TV pieces show she has prepared herself well for a career in the field."

Carolyn Case, Erin Anderson, Mikaela Maranhas and Victoria Roderick of Ball Bearings won first place for Best Online Multimedia

Michelle Johnson of Ball Bearings won first place for Column Writing. Johnson has also been features editor for the Ball State Daily News.

Jennifer Prandato of the Daily News won first place for Page 1 design. The newspaper also won second place and Ball Bearings took third, for a Ball State sweep in that category.

In the Student Television division, Chris Renkel, Chris Kosinski and Emily Barker shared a first place for Features Reporting for Ball State Sports Link.

Best TV newscast went to Amanda Richardson, Natalie Wagner, Bryan Shawver, Nicole Griffin and the staff of NewsLink Indiana.

"Viewers would likely be better informed by watching this newscast than most professional newscasts," judges said. 

In SPJ's professional radio division, John Strauss, Daily News adviser and journalism instructor, won first place for Documentary Radio for "Indiana Weekend," a weekly magazine show on Indiana Public Radio.

Lists of All BSU Awards

SPJ Region 5 winners from Ball State:Sports Writing
First Place: “ATHLETICS: Signing Off” by Teddy Cahill, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

Editorial Writing
First Place: Editorial Board, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

General Column Writing
First Place: Benjamin Dashley, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

Sports Column Writing
Third Place: Steven Williams, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

General News Photography
First Place: “Life in Color” by Corey Ohlenkamp, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

Photo Illustration
Second Place: “Teaching Creation” by Bobby Ellis, Ball State Daily News, Ball State University

Best Affiliated Website
First Place: Ball Bearings Online Website, Ball State University


Indiana SPJ Winners
Student Journalist of the year: Sarah Phinney

Best Journalism Website
2nd Place: BSUDaily.com (Ball State Unified Student Media)

Best Online Multimedia
1st Place: Ball Bearings: Carolyn Case, Erin Anderson, Mikaela Maranhas, Victoria Roderick.
2nd Place: Ball State Daily News Staff, Coverage of Beef O' Brady's Bowl.

Column Writing
1st Place: Michelle Johnson, Ball Bearings.

Design Other Than Page 1 or Cover
3rd Place: Ball Bearings - Emma Kate Fittes, Alex Burton, Rebekah Floyd

Feature Photography
2nd Place: Stephanie Tarrant, Ball Bearings.
3rd Place: Corey Ohlenkamp, Ball State Daily News.

Page One or Cover Design
1st Place: Jennifer Prandato, Ball State Daily News.
2nd Place: Emily Theis, Ball State Daily News.
3rd Place: Chelsea Kardokus, Ball Bearings.

Sports Photography
2nd Place: Bobby Ellis, Ball State Daily News.

Sports Reporting
2nd Place: Teddy Cahill, Ball State Daily News.

Student RADIO
Election Night Coverage
2nd Place: WCRD - Payne Horning, A.J. Brammer, Lisa Ryan and Jennifer Farrington

Student Television
Features Reporting
1st Place: Ball State Sports Link - Chris Renkel, Chris Kosinski, Emily Barker

Student Television, Best newscast
1st Place: NewsLink Indiana - Amanda Richardson, Natalie Wagner, Bryan Shawver, Nicole Griffin, and staff.

- By John Strauss
jcstrauss@bsu.edu
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Meridian Health Services Rialzo IV

BSU journalists take first place in online, print Indiana Collegiate Press awards

Ball State's student media organizations won 40 awards in the annual Indiana Collegiate Press Association contest, including 19 first-place honors for best website, news and sports photos and best opinion column.

"We like the clean, simple flow of this site - very easy to follow, and nicely organized," judges said in awarding "Best Overall Website" to Ball Bearings Online. The publication also took first place for Best Overall Website Design and Best Animation / Interactive Graphic.

Ball Bearings magazine won top awards for Best Overall Design, cover design, best single issue, best essay, editorial, sports and news stories, and sports and news photos.

Lauren Hardy of the magazine won a first place for best essay. Judges described her work as, "An extremely well-written piece that goes far beyond even the capabilities of some who have been in the business for decades."

The Ball State Daily News won a first-place award for its "Election 2012" issue.

"The design incorporating election tweets is inspired," judges said. "Nice graphic presentations and good mix of national/local political coverage. Good deadline writing. Good selection of man-on-the-street subjects."

Evie Lichtenwalter won a first place award for non-deadline news reporting. Ashley Dye won Best Opinion Column and Bobby Ellis had the best news photo.

On the advertising side, Daily News designer Beth Wojdyla won a first place for most creative use of ad copy.

The awards were presented April 13 at the collegiate press association's spring convention at Indiana University. The full list of winners is at: http://www.icpaconnect.org/.


- John Strauss



 

Ball State Daily News wins CSPA Awards

The Ball State Daily News online operation won two Silver Crowns and 23 Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including national first-place honors for photography and commentary.

Former Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Dashley took first place for general or humor commentary with his essay, "Distant first: Live your life to the fullest." Dashley also won a first for short newswriting.

Photo Editor Bobby Ellis won a first for sports photography. SungMin Lim won the top award for personality profile and Tyler Poslosky took a first place for sports commentary.

The awards are for work produced in 2011-12. The Gold Circles were among 5,503 entries from college students across the United States.

The Gold and Silver Crown Awards are the CSPA's highest recognition for overall excellence, and the Daily News online operation was among 1,344 student outlets in the Crown competition. The Daily News won Silver Crowns for fall 2011 and spring 2012. A year ago the newspaper won the Gold Crown for online.

In the Crown competition, CSPA this year judged the Daily News and other outlets as hybrid print-online operations, which the collegiate press association said was a category for "publications moving from print to pixels."

The CSPA, operated by Columbia University since 1925, is an international student press association whose awards recognize the best student media work in the country. The group announced the awards at the Spring College Media Convention, which was held March 14-16 in New York City.


Here is a list of all the Ball State awards:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/docs/contests-and-critiques/gold-circle-awards/recipients/2013-collegiate-circles.html

DM4. News feature
2. Bobby Ellis, “Muncie firefighters,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
3. Devan Filchak, “Restoring hope,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM5. In-depth news/feature story
CM. Sarah Boswell, “Poor lifestyles a chronic,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM6. Editorial writing
3. Staff, “Our view: Can’t extinguish compassion,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM7. Personal opinion: On-campus issues
2. Benjamin Dashley, “Letter from the Editor: Keep it clean and classy,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM8. Personal opinion: Off-campus issues
3. Evie Lichtenwalter, “From the other side: Richard Mourdock’s rape remark is ignorant,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
CM. Ashley Dye, “The dysessertation: Mitt Romney says single-parent families trigger gun violence,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM9. General or humor commentary
1. Benjamin Dashley, “Distant first: Live your life to the fullest,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
3. Ashley Dye, “The dysessertation: Do as you please,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM10. First person experience
3. Benjamin Dashley, “Distant first: Loan refunds,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
CM. Victoria Ison, “Kaleidoscope truth: Serve anyway,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM11. Sports commentary
1. Tyler Poslosky, “Poz’s Points: Golfer courageous,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
CM. Steven Williams, “Pitches & throws: Ball State,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM14. Personality profile
1. SungMin Lim, “Family comes first as gay couple,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM17. Entertainment reviews
CM. Michelle Johnson, “Reggie rock: Shut up and play,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM24. Headline writing
2. Staff, bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

DM25. Caption writing
2. Staff, bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

DM26. Briefs writing
1. Benjamin Dashley, “Breaking: Two robbed at gunpoint,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;
2. Evie Lichtenwalter, “Breaking: Armed robbery reported,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.
3. Benjamin Dashley, “Breaking: Oprah to come to Ball State,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

DM29. Single sports photograph
1. Bobby Ellis, “Trick play,” bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

DM38. Typography: Overall look of the entire website
CM. Staff, bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

DM40. News Online Design Web site
2. Staff, bsudailynews.com, Ball State University, Muncie, IN;

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Interesting video campaign for downtown Muncie

IU, Ball State students take top Keating awards

Victoria Ison, Claire Wiseman and Katie Mettler took 2nd, 3rd and 1st place honors in this year's Keating Feature Writing contest.

Katie Mettler of Indiana University won the 26th Annual Thomas R. Keating Feature Writing Program in Indianapolis on Saturday, Nov. 10, with her story of a former karate master now homeless after being seriously injured in a mugging.

The Indianapolis Press Club Foundation sponsors and runs the Keating writing challenge program, which features 10 finalists representing Indiana’s best and sharpest college journalism students.

 Mettler was awarded first place and prize money of $2,500 for her feature story.

 Finishing in second and earning $1,250 was Victoria Ison of Ball State University, and Claire Wiseman of Indiana University earned third place and $750.

The Fountain Square Historic District in Indianapolis was the site and subject matter for the Keating program’s 2012 Writing Challenge. Keating finalists were dropped off at Fountain Square at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning and given four hours to develop and write a feature story. The Indianapolis Star provided space in its newsroom for the finalists to craft their stories.

The program is named in honor of Tom Keating, a popular former Indianapolis Star columnist and Lilly Endowment executive who died in 1985 at the age of 45.

Forty students from colleges around the state entered the contest. A panel of judges chose 10 finalists who competed Saturday.  Besides the top finishers, the finalists included: Kirsten Clark of Indiana University; Ellen Kobe of DePauw University; Michael Majchrowicz of Indiana University; Jake New of Indiana University; Andrew Owens of the University of Notre Dame; Samuel Stryker of Notre Dame and Jessica Wray of Franklin College.

Board members of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation presented the awards and cash prizes Saturday night at the Skyline Club in downtown Indianapolis.

Jeffrey H. Smulyan, chairman, president and CEO of Emmis Communications, was the keynote speaker. He spoke about how the media need to find new business models for their products.

Each Keating finalist also received $100 and a copy of the book “Indiana Faces and Other Places,” a collection of Keating’s work for The Star from 1966-1982.

Since its inception in 1986, the Keating program has donated more than $116,000 to Indiana college and university students.

Note: Read the winning and finalist entries in the contest.

Ball State Daily News wins top CSPA awards

The Ball State Daily News has won 14 first-place Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including the top national awards for sports, news features, commentary and overall design.

The prizes were among a total 91 Gold Circles won by the newspaper this year, including 37 in the Digital Media category for work on its website, bsudailynews.com/.

 The Daily News took first, second and third place in the informational graphics category with work from Evan Backstrom, Chelsea Kardokus and Greg Hudson.

Teddy Cahill took first in sports writing, and Devan Filchak won the top News Feature prize.

 Dylan Buell, the newspaper’s photo editor at the time, won the top award for General or Humor Commentary with his essay on, “What not to bring to Ball State.”

 The first prize in Informational Graphics went to Stephanie Meredith. Chelsea Kardokus, meanwhile, won first-place Gold Circles for Sports Page Design and Typography.

Earlier this year the Daily News won a Gold Crown Award, the highest prize for overall excellence from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, for its online operation.

CSPA is an international student media organization founded in 1925 and based at Columbia University in New York.

 The 29th Gold Circle Awards were among 10,444 entries from across the country.

Complete Awards List: http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/gold-circle-awards/recipients/2012-collegiate-circles.html

Daily News wins SPJ awards

The Ball State Daily News won first place in editorial writing and general column writing in this year’s regional Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Editorial Writing award went to Rhett Umphress, Benjamin Dashley and Sarah Boswell. Benjamin Dashley won first place in General Column Writing.

Other staffers winning awards included Dylan Buell for photography and Daniel Sipocz for in-depth reporting.

Those were among nine Daily News awards in the contest, which honors the best collegiate journalism in the U.S. and this year included more than 4,000 entries in the group’s 12 regions.

SPJ announced the Region 5 winners covering Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, on Saturday at its spring conference at the Marriott Downtown in Indianapolis.

The first-place winners advance to the national competition round, where winners will be announced in late April.

Daily News takes Ind Collegiate Press awards

The Ball State Daily News took 28 awards in the annual Indiana Collegiate Press Association contest on Saturday, including first-place honors in non-deadline news, sports and features photo, illustration and advertising.

Dylan Buell won both first and second place in Best Sports Photo.

“This photo really captures the tension and movement that the play had,” the judge said of Buell’s first-place picture. “The defender feels like he is going to keep moving and fall out of the photo.”

Bobby Ellis won first place in Best Feature Photo for “Reaching Greater Heights,” of which the judge said: “The cool angle of this photo reflects how exciting a rock climbing competition can be.”

Tiffany Ruesser took first place in Best Illustration for her “Super Cardinal,” a Page 1 illustration playing off the “Superman” theme for this year’s Homecoming football game.

“Possibly the best single page in the entire competition,” the judge wrote “Love this illustration, and spoofing the Daily Planet took this page to the next level. Clean, sophisticated and just awesome.”

A records-based reporting project by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Boswell won first place in the Best Non-Deadline News Reporting category.

“Strong use of public records law to show how BSU police deal with complaints about campus police officers,” the judge wrote.

A dozen other Daily News editorial entries won awards in the Newspaper Division I category for dailies printing three or more times per week.

In the Advertising division, Madison Stevens of the Daily News won three first-place awards for Most Creative Use of Ad Copy, Best Ad layout and Best Use of Photography or Graphic Art.

Fellow designer Elizabeth Wojdyla took a first-place award for Best Electronic Ad – Display, and nine other Daily News entries also won awards in the Advertising category.

Crocker Stephenson visits Daily News

Crocker Stephenson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, winner of the Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award at Ball State University, talks with student editors today at the Daily News.

"I write long features, but I love covering breaking news - it's such an adrenaline rush," he said.

Earlier:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter wins Pulliam writing award
(3/15/2012)

Crocker Stephenson, a reporter for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has won the 2012 Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award presented annually by Ball State University's Department of Journalism.

Stephenson is being honored for his Oct. 2 article "83 Minutes of Life Delivers Lifetime of Memories, Grieving for Couple." The reporter will be recognized April 11 at the department's annual luncheon with a plaque and the $1,500 prize, presented on behalf of the Pulliam family, sponsors of the annual writing award.

The award winner also will give his presentation "Finding Story: A Narrative Nonfiction Writer's Journey" as part of the journalism department's professional-in-residence series. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. April 11 in Cardinal Hall in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.

The annual national writing competition, which dates back to 1960, has a distinguished history and legacy. Three past winners have later won Pulitzer Prizes.

Stephenson's award-winning article, part of a yearlong series on Milwaukee's infant mortality crisis, used in-depth reporting and a classic narrative structure to explore the impact one short life had on many people.

Stephenson has been a reporter at the Milwaukee Sentinel (later Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) for 25 years. In recent years, he has written on social issues that impact the lives of children, including child welfare, child abuse and infant mortality.
By Marc Ransford, Media Relations Manager

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Daily News wins online Gold Crown

The Ball State Daily News has won a Gold Crown Award, the highest prize for overall excellence from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, for its online operation, bsudailynews.com/.

The CSPA competition included 182 digital publications. Eight Gold Crowns were awarded, and 30 publications received the second-highest award, the Silver Crown.

The student newspaper's digital operation includes stories and photos from its print edition, online-only content and updates throughout the day and on weekends. Sports writers and other staffers produce streaming video programming, and a social media unit supports Twitter feeds and Facebook updates with breaking news.

Last month the Daily News digital operation won 37 online news awards in the association’s annual Gold Circle competition, including first-place for sports, informational graphics, video feature package and humor writing.

CSPA is an international student media association operated by Columbia University since 1925. The latest awards were presented in New York on Sunday.

Full list of awards:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/recipients/2012-collegiate-crown.html

Daily News wins top digital media awards

The Ball State Daily News has won 37 Gold Circle Awards in online news from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including first-place honors for sports, informational graphics, video feature package and humor writing.

The student journalists took both first- and second-place awards in three categories.

Teddy Cahill won best online sports story with, “Lembo era starts with emotional victory,” and Andrew Mishler won second place with, “Cardinals fall 3-1 to Boilermakers.”

Stephanie Meredith took first place in informational graphics with “Looking back on a decade,” and Mark Townsend won second with “Sports by the numbers.”

In the general humor or commentary category, photographer Dylan Buell took first place with “What not to bring to Ball State” and Benjamin Dashley won second for “An open letter to the person who stole my bike.”

The top video feature package award went to Justin Tyler for his “Midnight showing of ‘Harry Potter.’”

The work was among 4,956 entries from schools across the country and was published on bsudailynews.com, the student newspaper’s website, from Nov. 2, 2010 to Nov. 1, 2011.

Because the awards are dated by the year in which they are presented, these are known as the 2012 Gold Circle Awards for Digital Media.

The CSPA Gold Circles are among the highest awards earned by student journalists in the United States. The association was founded in 1925 and is owned by Columbia University.



Full list of the awards:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/docs/contests-and-critiques/gold-circle-awards/recipients/2012-collegiate-circles.html

Daily News wins Gold Circle Awards

The Ball State Daily News has won eight national first-place awards in the annual Columbia Scholastic Press Association contest, including the top prizes for sports and in-depth news reporting.

CSPA announced its Gold Circle Awards on Tuesday. The Daily News won 45 of them, including a first place, in-depth coverage, for sportswriter Daniel Sipocz for a story on Title IX. Andrew Mishler and Tyler Poslosky shared the first place sports coverage award.

Chelsea Kardokus took first place awards in computer-generated illustration and typography, and designers Jen Minutillo and David Downham won the top prizes for opinion page and op-ed page design.

Earlier this year, the Daily News took 11 first-place Gold Circle Awards in the video and online categories.

CSPA, founded in 1925, supports student print and online journalists, and is affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/gold-circle-awards/recipients/2011-collegiate-circles.html

Down to basics - lite video

A cell phone is about as light as you can go. Here's a test piece I shot and edited on my iPhone 4. Note that you can do a reporter voice track, interview, b-roll and natural sound with these devices.

A simple way to get started is to work with whatever's handy. That could be a point-and-shoot still camera with video capability, and the editing programs that ship with most computers these days.

As a free place to start for PC users, I like Windows MovieMaker. Here's a tutorial from Microsoft that covers the basics:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Getting-started-with-Windows-Movie-Maker

Note that if your camera creates QuickTime files (.MOV extension) you'll need a program to convert those to AVI files. A piece of freeware from Pazera will do a good job:

http://download.cnet.com/Pazera-Free-MOV-to-AVI-Converter/3000-2194_4-10798308.html

Note that most of the default settings will work fine, though you may need to change the audio codec setting from "auto" to "copy original audio stream."


Another iPhone example
This was the first piece I shot with my iPhone, during some down time in Las Vegas during a conference. It's rough, but you get an idea of the possibilities:

Daily News wins top design award

The Ball State Daily News won best overall design of a newspaper and three other awards today in the annual College News Design Contest.

Stephanie Stamm won first place in sports page design for “Cardinal Comeback.” Judges cited “great presentation, use of typography and organization.”

Jen Minutillo and Chelsea Kardokus took second place awards for newspaper page design and the broadsheet: front page category.

This was the 23rd annual contest, which is sponsored by the Society of News Design at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

MORE: http://ssnd.wordpress.com/