Syracuse University’s Newhouse School wins Hearst national broadcast journalism competition

Syracuse University’s Newhouse School wins Hearst national broadcast journalism competitionMay 08, 2002Nicci Brownnicbrown@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is the national winner of the intercollegiate broadcast news competition of the 2001-2002 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. In the past five years the Newhouse School has won the competition three times and finished second twice.

Dean of the Newhouse School, David Rubin, describes the broadcast journalism program’s recent Hearst competition performance as “world-class.” “No other program in the country can match our success year in and year out,” he says. “The performance of our students is a reflection of the high standards set by our broadcast journalism faculty, and of the outstanding talent enrolled at the Newhouse School. We prepare students for the profession, and it shows in this competition.”

Chair of the school’s broadcast journalism program, Dona Hayes, says the win is made even sweeter when the caliber of the other competition participants is taken into consideration. “The competition attracts dozens of students from other top broadcast journalism programs and the judges are respected, veteran journalists,” she says. “This is a huge accomplishment on the part of both our students and faculty. Our professors have put extraordinary efforts into crafting a demanding, realistic and thoughtful curriculum. From early on in their time at Newhouse, BJ students are required to look at Syracuse as their broadcast market, to report on stories that media professionals report on, and to enterprise stories on their own. Now we see the results.”

Often called the “Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program holds yearlong competitions in writing, photography and broadcast news. Journalism schools accumulating the most points (earned by their students in each competition) are designated winners.

This year the Newhouse School boasts four out of the 10 finalists in the individual championships for broadcast news. Adam Chodak and Bolton Minnick will join three other finalists in the radio competition. Megan Coleman and Michael Riecke will compete with three others for first place in the television section. The national championships will be held in San Francisco on May 31.

Justin Yurkanin, a photography student in the Newhouse School, is a semi-finalist in the photojournalism section of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. He will find out whether he will be competing in San Francisco when the national photojournalism finalists are announced on May 29.

The finalists will participate in rigorous “spot assignments” for awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

Syracuse University will be awarded a prize of $10,000 for its intercollegiate win.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and consists of six monthly writing contests, three photojournalism competitions, as well as two radio and two television broadcast news competitions. Championship finals are held in all divisions.

Currently, 105 undergraduate accredited schools of journalism in the United States are participating in the program, which awards more than $400,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University is one of the most respected professional communications schools in the nation. Its 53 full-time faculty include industry leaders and internationally known scholars and researchers. The Newhouse School offers degree programs in seven disciplines: advertising, broadcast journalism, magazine, newspaper, public relations, television-radio-film and visual and interactive communications.