A Philip Merrill College of Journalism senior has won first place in the radio news competition of the William Randolph Hearst Journalism Awards, often referred to as the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism.
Brooks Staley won the prize and a $2,000 scholarship for his work as a reporter for Terp Weekly Edition, a radio news program reported and produced by the college’s broadcast journalism students and hosted on campus radio station WMUC-FM.
Hearst also announced last week that Aaron Kraut, a college senior, won 11th place in the program’s national sports-writing competition, one of several print newswriting contests that Hearst holds throughout the year. Kraut won for “The Gold Standard,” his story on the Terrapin men’s soccer team winning their second national championship in four seasons.
Staley’s entry included packages on a Veteran’s Day commemoration at the Memorial Chapel on campus and another story on a new kind of first-aid bandage developed by university researchers. College lecturer Sue Kopen-Katcef, who teaches the radio reporting class, said that both of Staley’s stories “were rich with sound…and great, tight writing.”
Staley’s winning entry was one of 24 radio and 51 television entries submitted from across the nation for the latest broadcast competition, which included radion and television reporters. As winner of the regular competition, Staley will automatically advance to the semifinal round of competition for selection to the national news reporting contest held each spring in San Francisco.
The contest judges, all professionals in radio and television, are: Fred Young, senior vice president of News, Hearst-Argyle Television, New York; Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in Washington, D.C.; and Ursula Reutin, news director for News Talk 97.3 KIRO Radio in Seattle, WA.
The 2008-2009 broadcast news competitions are held in 110 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs. Information on the contest and winning entries are posted on the Hearst Journalism Awards web site.
