NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University students from the Departments of New Media, Journalism, and Communication Arts and English, Foreign Languages and Cultural Studies won three awards in the “Best of the South” at the 2021 Southeast Journalism Conference. Students from 50 colleges and universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee competed for best in broadcast, print and online journalism.
Individual Award winners were Sydney Bulot (Communication/NSU TV News Bureau): Best Television News Feature Reporter – 5th place; and Kendall Caple (English/Current Sauce): Best Arts and Entertainment Writer – 10th place.
A group of students also won a School Award (Communication/Class Documentary): Best Public Service Journalism – 2nd place, for “March 2020,” a short film created at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, directed by Assistant Professor Melody Gilbert. The student producers were Madison Morrison, Sadie LeComte, Olivia Noonan, Caleb Rhodes and Savannah Stevens. To watch a trailer and for more details visit https://march2020documentary.wixsite.com/march2020. The 13-minute documentary was recently selected to screen on the Louisiana Film Channel and can also be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je-FPvxMVNg&t=2s .
According to Dr. Brian Gabrial, interim department chair of New Media, Journalism, and Communication Arts, “As always, we are very proud of our students’ accomplishments.”
Gilbert said she is very pleased about the SEJC school award that honors her students who made a documentary about their lockdown experience.
“Their semester stopped abruptly, and our students turned to people they love to document and discuss relationships, resiliency, philosophy, and self-acceptance in the time of a pandemic,” Gilbert said. “This short film will always help us remember this time period.”
The awards were announced March 26. SEJC’s annual contest highlights the best in regional college journalism.
