JCOM News

USU Journalism Students Take 10 Awards

LOGAN, Utah — Students in Utah State University's department of journalism and communication won 10 awards Saturday in the Society of Professional Journalists Region 9 Mark of Excellence contest.

The department's student news website, The Hard News Café, was named the best all-around online student newspaper in the region, which comprises Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and El Paso County, Texas. The website (http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu), produced by students of Professor Mike Sweeney, goes on to the national competition in October against the top online sites from other regions. The Hard News Café was a national SPJ finalist in 2001. Reporters for the Hard News Café also swept the online feature story competition. Senior Denise. Albiston took first place for her examination of post-9/11 security changes at Hill Air Force Base. Doan Nguyen took second and third place for her stories about yoga students and a Brigham City barber. Nguyen will spend the summer as an intern working on the website of the Deseret Morning News.

Junior JCOM major Jack Saunders took third place in the sports writing category for "The Spark That Doused a Fire," a story about basketball legend Wayne Estest that appeared in the Utah State magazine.

In the broadcasting competition, A-TV News, the campus news program produced by students of Professors Penny and Dean Byrne, was named second-best non-daily newscast in the region.

Students winning for individual broadcasts were: Samoana Matagi, second place, general news reporting for a story on student health insurance; Matagi and Amanda White, third place, TV sports reporting, for "100 Years of Aggie Basketball;" Matthias Petry and Joel Featherstone, second place, TV sports photography, for "Utah State Aggies beat UC Irvine;" and Petry, honorable mention, TV sports photography, for a feature on the last week of the 2003-04 basketball season.

"We're proud of the high quality of our students' work," Sweeney said. "USU journalism students continue to prove—year in, year out—that they can compete with any of their peers."

The awards were handed out at the SPJ regional conference at the University of Utah, which was sponsored by the Utah Headliners SPJ chapter.