Cronkite Students Dominate BEA Awards Competition

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University won more Broadcast Education Association student journalism awards this year than any other school in the country. Cronkite students took home 19 broadcast and multimedia journalism awards, nearly twice as many as the second-place school. Six were first-place awards, also nearly twice as many as any other school. The Cronkite School also won the most Best of Festival awards in the BEA competition. These awards, the highest honor given in individual categories, were in Interactive Multimedia for a graduate student project on the history of Arizona and in Television Feature News Reporting for a story about a reformed gang member who now teaches youngsters boxing. Two Cronkite students were named best anchors, with Kylee Gauna coming in first in the Television Weather Anchor category and Siera Lambrecht winning in the Television Sportscaster category, making Lambrecht the first woman to win the Best TV Sports Anchor award in the Sports Division. Other Cronkite students took top honors for long-form documentary, television hard news reporting and television feature news reporting. Cronkite faculty also were recognized, with Cronkite NewsWatch Executive Producer Melanie Alvarez and Cronkite NewsWatch Television Production Manager Jim Jacoby receiving an Award of Excellence in the Faculty Short-form Documentary category for their tribute video to Diane Sawyer, which aired at the 2010 Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism Luncheon in Phoenix last fall. Last year, Cronkite also dominated the BEA competition, winning more awards than any other school in the country. In 2010, the school’s nightly newscast, Cronkite NewsWatch, won the Best of Festival award and was named the top student newscast in the country. Students and faculty winners will be honored at an awards ceremony in Las Vegas in April. The 2011 BEA award winners are: CRONKITE STUDENT AWARDS Best of Festival King Foundation Award: Interactive Multimedia “State of Change” Fall 2010 Grad Students http://cronkitezine.asu.edu/stateofchange/index/index.html First: Group Authorship Projects: Interactive Multimedia “State of Change” Fall 2010 Grad Students http://cronkitezine.asu.edu/stateofchange/index/index.html Best of Festival and First: Television Feature News Reporting “Garage Boxing” Natalie Podgorski http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/11/reformed-gang-member-teaches-boxing-to-help-keep-kids-off-the-street/ Second: Television Feature News Reporting “Racetrack Minister” Lindsey Reiser

Third: Television Feature News Reporting “Arizona Burn Center” Kylee Gauna http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/11/for-burn-centers-nurses-rewards-more-than-compensate-for-high-stress/ Honorable Mention: Television Feature News Reporting “Jockstrap Maid” Toby Phillips First: Television Hard News Reporting “Tempe Land Battle” Tony Spehar http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/11/family-fights-tempe-over-land-theyve-lived-on-since-before-statehood/ Second: Television Hard News Reporting “Arizona City Manager Salary Review” Steve Doty Honorable Mention: Television Hard News Reporting “Flagstaff Flood Relief” Steve Doty http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/10/after-wildfires-and-flooding-relief-coming-slowly-around-flagstaff Honorable Mention: Television Hard News Reporting “Abandoned Mines” Mike Pelton Honorable Mention: Television Hard News Reporting “Haiti Amputee Soccer” Aldo Vazquez http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/11/haitian-amputee-soccer-team-visits-the-valley/ First: Long-form Documentary “Stuck in Traffic” Sheree Diehl, Collin McDowell, Aaron Granillo and Jenna Lee Thomas Honorable Mention: Long-form Documentary “Disciples” Alexander Rosen, Jordan Currier and Desiree Salazar First: Television Weathercaster Kylee Gauna First: Television Sports Anchor Siera Lambrecht Honorable Mention: Television Sports Reporting “Desert Hockey” Thomas Miller Third: Radio Feature News Reporting “Spanish Immersion” Siera Lambrecht http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/09/cave-creek-spanish-immersion-program-teaches-language-skills-to-english-speaking-students/ Third: Radio Sports Reporting “Senior Softball” Siera Lambrecht http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2010/10/softball-scores-a-home-run-with-sun-city-seniors/ CRONKITE FACULTY AWARD Award of Excellence: Faculty Short-form Documentary Competition “Sawyer Tribute Video” Jim Jacoby, Melanie Alvarez