Lumination one of top four student TV, radio stations in Southeast

Janel Shoun-Smith | 

Lipscomb University’s Department of Communication and Journalism recently earned 10 awards in the Southeast Journalism Conference’s 2013-2014 Best of the South contest, including fourth place in the best radio station and best television station categories.

Lumination Radio also won second place in best audio news program and Lumination TV won sixth place in best video news program.

The awards, chosen from 440 qualified entries from 35 universities, were announced at the conference’s 28th annual convention, hosted by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Feb. 20-22.

The Southeast Journalism Conference comprises 51 universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It was created to encourage greater interest in student journalism and to form closer ties among journalism schools in the Southeast United States.

With 10 awards, Lipscomb tied for eighth in number of awards won in the contest and trailed only Tennessee State University among the state’s institutions. Lipscomb earned more honors than universities such as Florida A&M University, Mississippi State University, Middle Tennessee State University and Belmont University.

“Our winners represent an endorsement of the superior work our student journalists produce at Lipscomb University,” said Alan Griggs, chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism. “They, and others like them, combine the best qualities of enterprise, creativity and production values with a sense of healthy curiosity in pursuit of the highest standards of journalism. 

Overall, 169 students from 34 universities were ranked in the 30 “Best of the South” categories in print, radio, video and online media.

Lipscomb’s individual winners were:

  • Kelly Dean, ninth place, Best Television News Feature Reporter
  • Michael Fox, fourth place, Best Multimedia Journalist
  • Janice Ng, 10th place, Best Feature Writer
  • Sydney Poe, fourth place, Best Television Journalist
  • Savanna Schubert, fourth place, Best Television Hard News Reporter
  • Kyrsten Turner, ninth place, Best Feature Writer

Jimmy McCollum, associate professor of communication, accompanied nine students to the conference. Each student participated in the conference’s on-site competition. Three  students won awards:

  • Cory Woodroof, second place, news writing
  • Erin Turner, third place, news photography
  • Kyrsten Turner, second place (tie), media law

Lipscomb’s Lumination student newscast airs weekdays on Campus Channel 97. The news show includes sports coverage, weather, entertainment news, student-developed and news features in addition to some off-campus coverage.

The Lumination Network is a student news bureau established in spring 2010 as part of the restructuring of the university’s communication and journalism department. Student journalists began production of a web news outlet at that time to replace the print newspaper, The Babbler. In fall of 2011, Lumination added TV news coverage, which is shot, produced and edited completely by students, most of whom are doing it on their own time, not for class credit.

In 2012, just three months after its establishment, the Lumination Network placed third in the best college TV station category and third in the best college video news category in the Best of the South Awards. In 2013, the news network won third place for best college radio station and sixth place for best college television station.