Frontpage Milwaukee has won a national award for online, in-depth collegiate journalism.
The Society of Professional Journalists has given a first-place Mark of Excellence award to FPM's "Tarnished Badge" series that investigated Milwaukee police officers with criminal records.
Students in JMC's Advanced Reporting class wrote the series with officer personnel cards, mug shots, criminal complaints, arrest-detention reports, and other open records.
The students are Bradley Wooten, Ryan Cardarella, Amanda Mauch, Susan Bence, Erica Pollnow, Michael Graber, Dan Polley, Erin Petersen, Shannon McKenna, Robin Fuchs, and Joe Petrie. They found that officers were avoiding prosecution through deferred prosecution agreements with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office.
"It's a great honor for the students," said Jessica McBride, UW-Milwaukee journalism lecturer. "They ended up with an important story that educates the public."
Stories from the series can be read at: www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/Investigative_projects.aspx
The SPJ contest had more than 3,400 entries in 39 categories. For more information, go to: http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=800#800
JMC students won second place in a national "green" transit campaign competition.
The "Green Means Go Campus Challenge" commissioned 12 college teams to create integrated communications programs aimed at 18-25-year-olds.
Working with the Milwaukee County Transit System, 21 UWM JMC students created the "Think Green Now Thank Yourself Later" campaign that can be seen at: www.myspace.com/gogreenninja.
UWM students Leigh Jursik, Kelley Olson, Michael Worzalla, and Kristine Schumann traveled to Washington, D.C., in May for the competition sponsored by The American Public Transportation Association and EdVenture Partners.
"Placing second in the country speaks volumes about the caliber of UWM Journalism and Mass Communication advertising and public relations students," said Becky Crowder, JMC senior lecturer.
For more about the campaign and the students, go to: http://www.ridemcts.com/news/index.asp?id=1142
Frontpage Milwaukee stories won all three regional awards in the Online In-Depth category of the annual SPJ Mark of Excellence competition:
Online column awards were presented to two Frontpage Milwaukee columnists, Edgar Mendez (second place) and Rebecca Kontowicz (third place).
The Frontpage Milwaukee entries were written by students in JMC 500, 504, and 602 as well as regular staff.
Collegiate journalists submitted more than 3,400 entries from 2007 to SPJ's regional competitions.
"Tarnished Badge," a series on Milwaukee police officers with criminal records, will advance to the national round of judging. National winners will be announced in mid May.
For more information on the Society of Professional Journalists, which has a student chapter at UWM, visit www.spj.org
JMC students have won eleven awards from the six-state Northwest Broadcast News Association for entries from 2007:
First Place
Investigative: Wireless Theft
Chris Eckert, reporter
Brandon Krause, photojournalist
Shannon Gooch, photojournalist
Kristi Schilling, photojournalist
Honorable Mention
Hard Feature: Super Star
Martha Boehm, photojournalist and reporter
Honorable Mention
Photojournalism: Piano Man
Ryan Klund, photojournalist
Paul Lewis, reporter
Honorable Mention
Series: Super AD Winner
Martha Boehm, photojournalist and reporter
Honorable Mention
Soft Feature: Piano Man
Paul Lewis, reporter
Ryan Klund, photojournalist
First Place
Talk/Public Affairs: Ask the Chancellor, Fall edition
Cheryl O'Brien, host
Rachel Juergens, director
Paul Lewis & Simeon Ball, producers
Honorable Mention
Talk/Public Affairs: Super Winner
Martha Boehm, producer/host
Theresa Lee, director
Honorable Mention
Documentary/Special: Margaret Ann's Place
Rachel Juergens
First Place
Best Newscast: UWM PantherCast 12-4-07
Brianne O'Brien and Andy Seefeldt, producers
Meghan Phillips and Nate Lisko, anchors
Honorable Mention
General Reporting: Walid Shoebat Visit
Matt Schultz
Honorable Mention
Sports Play by Play: Volleyball vs. Green Bay
Dan Barutha, Kyle Duerstein
Rosenberg is a broadcast journalism graduate of UWM and a past president of the Broadcast Club.
Digital cable subscribers can find a Broadcast Club story about Rosenberg on Time Warner's Wisconsin on Demand channel 1111 in the UWM category.
JMC lecturer Jessica McBride won two awards in professional categories:
Entries were judged by news professionals in other states. For more information: http://www.milwaukeepressclub.org/contests/
http://www.wi-broadcasters.org/events/index.htm
Cheryl O'Brien, a JMC broadcast journalism student, has been awarded a Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation scholarship of $2,000. A senior who has reported and produced for UWM PantherVision, O'Brien is a past president of the Broadcast Club@UWM. She is currently interning at WISN-TV where she has been doing political reporting for "Student Commitment 2008."
UWM's Society of Professional Journalists student chapter received the organization's highest ranking for its activities in 2007. The four-star recognition was achieved by only two of the fifteen chapters in the region. Regional Director Gordon Govier said, "The UW Milwaukee chapter had a very impressive record last year."
http://www.spj.org/chapterhowtoc.asp
Kyle Duerstein hosted a debate between two state supreme court candidates, the first internet radio debate in Wisconsin election history. The Panther Talk Live program, which received extensive media coverage, attracted live listeners, chat room participants, and phone callers on January 28. The program was produced in partnership with Frontpage Milwaukee and WISN 12.
Andrea Platten, president of the UWM chapter of PRSSA, won the "Create a PR Person" contest at the national PRSSA conference at Philadelphia in October. Entrants used a combination of media to depict the tools, talents, and personal characteristics required of a public relations professional.
"Andrea's entry was selected as our winner because we felt it most represented what it takes to be a successful PR person," said Bernie Frazier, vice president of Fleishman-Hillard Inc., the contest sponsor. The campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America received a cash award and recognition at the conference.
A dozen UWM JMC students are contributing news stories, videos, and blogs to Channel 12's web site coverage of the 2008 election campaigns. Faculty members Jessica McBride and Maryann Lazarski are coordinating the students' efforts. http://www.wisn.com/studentcommitment2008/index.html
James Carviou, who will join the Mass Communication master's program in fall 2007, has been awarded an Advanced Opportunity Program Fellowship. The UWM fellowship provides funding for two years of graduate study.
John K. Iglehart, a 1961 journalism graduate, has received the UWM Alumni Association's Special Life Achievement Award. Only eight UWM alumni have received the recognition.
Iglehart is the founding editor of Health Affairs (www.healthaffairs.org), the nation's leading health policy journal. He is also a national correspondent for The New England Journal of Medicine.
Thirteen JMC Students have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and best-known academic honorary society.
Initiated at campus ceremony on April 22 were Lindsey Anderson, Stephanie Brien, Anna Brown, Bridget Fargen, Angela Feltes, Robin Fuchs, Molly Howard, Ashley Kolata, Brandon Krause, Corrine Malone, Shannon McKenna, Sarah Vanderloop, and Bradley Wooten.
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa has chapters at only about 10 percent of American institutions of higher learning, including UWM. For information, go to www.pbk.org.
Christina DeCheck, a JMC minor from Burlington, Wis., has won both of this year's student Bell Project Competition awards from the Business Marketing Association--Milwaukee.
Students from Wisconsin campuses submitted entries in the categories of single-tactic and campaign. DeCheck's winning projects were a poster for a networking event and a campaign for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee.
DeCheck, who is president of UWM's AdClub, will recieve two $500 awards. As the sponsoring department, JMC will also receive two $500 awards.
The National Press Photographers Association has named JMC alumnus Andy Shilts the Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year, one of broadcast journalism's most prestigious national honors.
"To those not familiar with the business, it is difficult to appreciate how big this award really is," said Mark Zoromski, senior broadcast journalism lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Shilts, who graduated in 2002 with an emphasis in broadcast journalism, is a photojournalist at KMSP-TV in Minneapolis. His work has won local, state, and regional awards, including a 2006 regional Emmy.
Shilts started winning awards while he was shooting and editing stories for UWM PantherVision, the JMC department's class-based television newscast.
"The practical experience I got as part of the class that produced PantherVision is really what launched my career," Shilts said. "I honestly didn't know if this is what I wanted to do with my life, but I found my passion in that class."
For more about Shilts' award, including samples of his work and comments from the judges, go to https://www.communicationsmgr.com/projects/1296/erniecrisp.asp
For more information about the National Press Photographers Association, visit www.nppa.org
Katelyn Crabb has won the Chevrolet Super Bowl College Ad Challenge. Her ad, written in JMC 201 last fall, was broadcast during the Super Bowl on February 4.
Crabb's entry topped 820 others from 230 other colleges and universities. The announcement was made during a CBS primetime program, "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2007," on February 2.
The finalists were featured in an eight-part web "reality series." The videos are posted on the CBS site: www.cbs.com/specials/superbowls_greatest_commercials/chevy/
The accounts of Crabb's success have ranged from a feature in USA Today to a piece on CBS Early Morning that included video at UWM.
An Associated Press story appeared in hundreds of newspapers. The New York Times and Fox 6 covered the story as well.
For more coverage, go to: www.frontpagemilwaukee.com
UWM broadcast journalism students have won top awards in the Milwaukee Press Club's statewide Excellence in Collegiate Journalism competition and in the regional Society of Professional Journalists contest.
Reporters for UWM PantherVision, JMC's class-based student television newscast, won first place awards in all four of MPC's television categories. Student reporters for UWM PantherCast, JMC's class-based radio news webcast, won first place in MPC's radio feature and sport story categories. The winners are:
The students will be honored at the club's Gridiron Dinner on April 28 at the InterContinental Hotel in Milwaukee. Registration information for the dinner is at: www.milwaukeepressclub.org
UWM broadcast students have also received two first-place Mark of Excellence Awards in the regional Society of Professional Journalists competition.
Chris Eckert won the Best Radio News Reporting award for his story on UWM's Hunger Cleanup.
PantherCast was named Best Radio Newscast. Student producers for the newscasts submitted were Paul Lewis, Theresa Lee, Andrew McClintick, Nicole Stewart, Mike Mahan and Leah Ganj-Bakhsh.
The awards were presented at the SPJ Regional Convention in Minneapolis in late March. UWM competed with campuses in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. First-place regional winners are considered for national awards.
UWM students in JMC television news courses and the Broadcast Club @ UWM have won four Eric Sevareid Awards for Journalistic Excellence from the Northwest Broadcast News Association.
The competition was open to universities in six states: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
The students will receive their awards on Saturday, March 24, at the Midwest Journalism Conference which is sponsored by the Associated Press, the National Press Photographers Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Television Academy, and other organizations.
Sports Reporting: "Going for Gold" reported by Julie Roy and photojournalists Josh Rosenberg and Sheila Schumacher. The story profiles JMC alum Dave Tamburrino, a two-time Olympic speed skater, who now coaches Olympic hopefuls.
Hard Feature: "Bio Research" reported by Jason Bean and photojournalist Mega Nayak. The feature describes the important biological research a UWM student is doing in the depths of Lake Michigan.
Television Photojournalism: "Bio Research" was also honored in this category.
Best Talk/Public Affairs Program: "Ask the Chancellor," a twice yearly production of the Broadcast Club @ UWM. The program allows a live audience of UWM students to ask Chancellor Carlos Santiago questions in an informal setting.
JMC Senior Lindsay Caldwell, a member of the UWM women's swimming team, was named the Horizon League's Women's Scholar-Athlete of the Week and Swimmer of the Week for the week of February 5.
http://uwmpanthers.cstv.com/sports/w-swim/spec-rel/020607aab.html
UWM broadcast journalism students have swept the news and sports reporting categories in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association's statewide collegiate journalism contest.
Student reporters for UWM PantherCast and UWM PantherVision won a total of seven awards, capturing first place in each of the sports and news reporting categories:
RADIO
Best News Story, First Place
Chris Eckert, Hunger Cleanup
Best News Story, Second Place
Theresa Lee, Bell Ringers
Best Sports Story, First Place
Chris Eckert, Beach Volleyball
Best Newscast, Third Place
UWM PantherCast, Mike Mahan and Leah Ganjbakhsh producers
TELEVISION
Best News Story, First Place
Mike Hawes and Angela Feltes, Car Share
Best News Story, Third Place
Jason Bean and Mega Nayak, Bio Research
Best Sports Story, First Place
Tim Elliott and David Van Goethem, Horizon Championship
The students will receive their awards at the WBA Student Seminar/Awards Luncheon on February 24, 2007, in Madison.
PantherCast is a radio newscast produced by students in the department's radio news reporting class, and PantherVision is weekly television newscast produced by students in the department's television reporting and news management classes.
Matha Boehm, a UWM broadcasting student, has been awarded a Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation scholarship of $2,000.
Boehm, a senior who is active in the Broadcast Club, SPJ, Habitat for Humanity, and other organizations, has interned at both WUWM-FM and WITI-TV.
In May she will be going on an International Scholar Laureate Program trip to Australia to learn about that country's media system.
Milwaukee radio legend Bob Reitman, who recently retired from WKTI, was interviewed by PantherCast reporters Theresa Lee and Ryan Klund about his career, his new weekly music show on WUWM, and why he wants to hear from college students. A portion of that interview can be heard by logging on to PantherCast at http://panthercast.blogspot.com/
Entire Ten-Minute Interview