Contest winners will be announced at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 conference April 6 in Ocean City, Maryland.
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Elon News Network, nine School of Communications students and two alumni were named finalists across several categories of the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards competition.
Below is a list of the finalists:
- BEST AFFILIATED WEBSITE – Elon News Network
- BEST ALL-AROUND TELEVISION NEWSCAST – March 12, 2018 and Oct. 18, 2018 newscasts
- GENERAL NEWS REPORTING – Alex Hager ’19 and Emmanuel Morgan ’19 for “As Silent Sam is toppled, conversation around Confederate monuments continues”
- BREAKING NEWS REPORTING – Anton Delgado ’20 for “Rains from Tropical Storm Michael drench Elon”
- IN-DEPTH REPORTING – Anton Delgado ’20 for “Non-tenure-track faculty fight to unionize at Elon,” “Continuing- and lecturing-track no longer represented by union movement” and “How labor laws would affect a union at Elon”
- SPORTS WRITING – Jack Haley ’21 for “Legacies and legends: Women’s basketball preps for match-up with UNC”
- GENERAL NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY – Stephanie Hays ’18 for “Confederate Memorial Day”
- BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY – Anton Delgado ’20 for “Scenes from Tropical Storm Michael”
- FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – Liam O’Connor ’21 for “Students tailgate at Elon”
- SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY – Jessica Rapfogel ’19 for “Globetrotters”
- SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY – Cory Weller ’20 for “Bryanna Hames’ quest to be more than just a thrower”
- PHOTO ILLUSTRATION – Meghan Kimberling ’20 for “Growing Elon’s ecological footprint through campus sustainability”
- TELEVISION FEATURE REPORTING – Grace Morris ’20 for “Goat Yoga” and “Students prepare their pets for Hurricane Florence”
- ONLINE IN-DEPTH REPORTING – Paul LeBlanc ’18 for “In Belmarsh Prison: Radicalization or De-radicalization?”
- BEST USE OF MULTIMEDIA – Anton Delgado ’20 and Stephanie Hays ’18 for “Battery Man”
- PODCAST – Alex Hager ’19 for Nov. 16, 2018 and Dec. 7, 2018 episodes
Leblanc’s story is the only one on the list that was not completed for Elon News Network. He conducted his reporting during Winter Term as a Pulitzer Center Student Fellow. His 1,200-word investigation on Belmarsh, London’s highest security prison, delved into its approach to deradicalization, including the use of forced containment. It was published by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
SPJ Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards are given in newspaper, TV, radio and online categories. Awards are presented only to those who place in the top three in the region. Regional winners move on to the national competition, at which time they will compete with 11 other first-place regional winners.
Region 2 comprises North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware. Results of the Region 2 competition will be revealed at the regional conference awards luncheon on Saturday, April 6, in Ocean City, Maryland.
Last year, Diego Pineda ’19 won a national SPJ Mark of Excellence Award for General News Reporting for this story about sexual assault. And in 2017, Stephanie Hays was a national winner for Photo Illustration.
In fact, Elon University has had at least one national SPJ Mark of Excellence winner every year since 2012.