April 28, 2014 — The Society of Professional Journalists gladly recognizes the 2013 Mark of Excellence Awards winners from Region 7. The MOE Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism from a calendar year.
SPJ’s Region 7 comprises Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Honorees received award certificates the weekend of April 25 at the Region 7 Spring Conference in Overland Park, Kan. First-place winners will move on to the national MOE competition among category winners from the 12 SPJ regions.
National winners will be notified in the late spring and will be recognized at Excellence in Journalism 2014 (EIJ14) in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 4 to 6. The awards are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience.
The awards honor the best in student journalism. As such, judges were directed to choose only those entries that they felt were outstanding work worthy of such an honor. If the judges determined that none of the entries rose to the level of excellence, no award was given. Any category not listed has no winner.
School divisions are based on student enrollment, which includes both graduate and undergraduate enrollment: Large schools have more than 10,000 students and small schools have fewer than 9,999 students.
NEWSPAPERS
Feature Writing (Large)
Finalist: “We're the Working Poor” by Jourdyn Kaarre, Lincoln Journal Star, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
RADIO
Radio Feature
Finalist: “A little help from my friends” by Kassi Nelson, KRNU FM, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
TELEVISION
Television General News Reporting
Winner: “Unknown circumstances surround Lincoln homeless man's death” by Haley Herzog, NewsNetNebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Finalist: “Sex trafficking in Nebraska” by Madalyn Gotschall, Time-Warner Educational Access Channel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Television Feature
Winner: “Nebraska's first male color guard member lives his dream” by Jenna Jaynes, Time-Warner Educational Access Channel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Television In-Depth Reporting
Finalist: “Nebraska law enforcement hit by Colorado's legalization of marijuana” by Haley Herzog, NewsNetNebraska.org, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Best All-Around Television Newscast
Finalist: “Star City News” by staff, Time-Warner Educational Access Channel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ONLINE
Online News Reporting
Finalist: “Lincoln's homeless population struggles with cold temperatures” by Casey Sill, NewsNetNebraska.org, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Online Sports Reporting
Winner: “For amateur mixed martial artist, a long road to fight” by Maricia Guzman, NewsNetNebraska.org, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Best Affiliated Web Site
Winner: NewsNetNebraska.org by staff, NewsNetNebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.
Please direct any MOE Awards questions to Awards Coordinator Chad Hosier: awards@spj.org and 317.920.4791.
