The Belmont Vision was named the Best College Website at the 2017 Southeast Journalism Conference, beating out 29 universities from seven states.
Members of the Belmont Vision staff traveled to the University of Mississippi to compete in the Southeast Journalism Conference from Feb. 16-18.
Ten students participated in onsite competition as well as accepted awards for work submitted from the past year.
The material submitted spanned from November of 2015 to November of 2016 and included articles, podcasts and broadcast programs created by the Vision staffers.
The Vision came home with nine awards. In addition to winning Best College Website, it also ranked third for the Best College Video News Program for the Bruin Blitz sports program, which posts on Fridays.
“The one I was most excited about was best news site. MTSU beat us last year, and we took it back this year,” said Vision adviser Dorren Robinson.
Other individual awards included:
Kelby Bibler – sixth, news writer
Rebecca Arnold – second, arts and entertainment writer
Taylor Andrews – sixth, feature writer
Samuel Cowan – fourth, sports writer
Kat Miller – fourth, magazine writer
Riley Wallace – fifth, special events reporter
Lexi Brunk – fourth, TV news feature reporter
As well as receiving recognition for previously submitted material, the Vision staff also ranked second for the overall onsite competition award. Staff members competed in 10 categories, including copy editing, new writing and photography.
“The onsite competition is about deadline writing and precision. That’s probably a more accurate predictor of how students will do in the work world,” Robinson said.
Individual onsite awards included:
Riley Wallace – second, current events
Zach Gilchriest – third, feature writing
Sara Scannell – second, arts and entertainment writing
Hunter Morgan – third, sports photography
Melissa Kriz – first, copy editing
Rebecca Arnold – first, media ethics/history
There were a total of 469 entries in the Best of the South, according to statistics from the competition. The next SEJC will take place in 2018 at Harding University in Arkansas.