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Nov. 7, 2019
Northwest Missouri State University Student Media students fanned across the country Oct. 31 through Nov. 3 to attend two national college media conventions in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, and returned with a total of 15 national awards from three sponsoring organizations.
The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and College Media Association (CMA) presented awards in three separate contests in Washington, D.C., at the Fall National College Media Convention. CMA presents its annual Pinnacle Awards to student media, and ACP presents its annual Pacemaker and individual awards as well as Best of Show awards to the top media present at the convention.
At the National Student Electronic Media Convention, sponsored by College Broadcasters Inc., in St. Louis, KZLX-FM received three national honors – its first awards at the convention in nearly a decade.
The Northwest Missourian, the University’s weekly student-led newspaper, was named a finalist for the prestigious ACP Pacemaker award, which is considered to be the Pulitzer Prize of college student journalism. Also, Ryan Griesinger, who graduated from Northwest in August with his bachelor’s degree in graphic design, claimed three Advertisement of the Year awards for his work with the Missourian.
Additionally, Dr. Bob Bergland, a Northwest associate professor of mass media, received the Louis E. Inglehart First Amendment Award for his work championing Missouri’s Cronkite New Voices Act, which is part of a national movement to enact state laws extending First Amendment protections to high school and collegiate journalists and their advisers.
Northwest Director Student Publications Steven Chappell, who also serves as treasurer of CMA, said the recognition shows the strength of the University’s journalism and mass media programming.
“If you look at the national list of winning schools, we are one of, if not the smallest school in many of the winning categories – particularly in the big categories like breaking news coverage, where we were competing against schools with thousands of enrolled students and usually daily newspaper publications,” Chappell said. “That we can compete on the national level speaks to the quality of faculty talent in our department, training these students, as well as the talent of the students themselves.”
