University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media students just keep winning awards.
The Broadcast Education Association has an annual Festival of Media Arts that garners thousands of entries from faculty and students nationwide. This year, we have two national winners:

Brittany Brown
Long Form Video or Film Documentary Category
1st Place – “Hate in America” – Justin Parham, Scott Bourque, Brittany Brown and Jasmine Putney, of Arizona State University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Iowa were the winners. The winning entry came from the News21 Fellowship Brown received last year. You can watch the documentary at the link above.
Television Hard News Category
Award of Excellence – Ole Miss Alums and Students Deal with Aftermath of Hurricane Michael – Abbie McIntosh, University of Mississippi – This winning entry was the result of a school-sponsored reporting trip to Panama City, Florida this fall, right after the hurricane hit the Florida Panhandle.
“This is a really good showing in a BEA contest,” said UM professor Nancy Dupont, who has been involved in BEA for many years. “It’s tough to win anything from BEA because we’re competing with the best of the best.”
The winners receive their awards in Las Vegas at the annual BEA conference Festival of Media Arts celebration, an event that will be produced by UM School of Journalism and New Media students, including McIntosh, under the direction of professor Iveta Imre.
Regional Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists Awards
The regional AP awards banquet was Saturday in Jackson. The regional SPJ awards banquet was March 30 in Nashville.
We’re proud The Daily Mississippian, NewsWatch and Rebel Radio each won first place awards in best all-around newspaper, television and radio categories in at least one of the two contests.
SPJ includes entries from student media in four states, and AP in two states. Competing against the top student media in our region, The Daily Mississippian won first place for best student newspaper in both SPJ and AP, and NewsWatch won first place awards for best newscast in both contests, and a second place award for general excellence in AP.
As more information becomes available, we will update this story.
AP First-place awards
The Daily Mississippian, General Excellence for newspapers
NewsWatch OleMiss, Newscast
Billy Schuerman, two first-place awards, for Spot News Photo and Sports Photo.
Billy Schuerman also won a prestigious Best of Show, which includes a cash award and is given to the most outstanding student for a specific media platform. Only six Best of Show awards were given out. Schuerman won for photos published in The Daily Mississippian in 2018. This academic year, he is studying abroad in Austria.
Rebel Radio, General Excellence for radio stations
Victoria Hosey, two first-place awards, for Radio Reporter and Radio Continuing Coverage. Hosey graduated in December and is studying and working in China this year.
Tyler Hayes, Radio Sports Story
Andranita Williams, Radio Feature Story
DeAndria Turner, Radio News Story
Abbie McIntosh, TV Reporting
Alec Keyzer-Andre, Sam Gray, Gracie Snyder, TV Documentary
AP Second-place awards:
NewsWatch Ole Miss, General Excellence
The Daily Mississippian, Editorials (a series of three)
Abbie McIntosh, TV News Story
Victoria Hosey, two second-place radio awards for Newscast and a shared award with Will Stribling for Radio Continuing Coverage
Will Stribling, two second-place radio awards for Feature Story and News Story, and the shared Radio Continuing Coverage award with Victoria Hosey
Tags: Associated Press, awards, Broadcast Education Association, featured, Mississippi, Oxford, School of Journalism and New Media, Society of Professional Journalists, University of Mississippi