Congratulations to two University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media students who recently placed in the Top 20 in the prestigious national Hearst journalism competition in the team digital news/enterprise category.
Rabria Moore and Billy Schuerman were winners led by editor/adviser Ellen Meacham, according to Patricia Thompson, former director of the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center at Ole Miss.
Thompson said the project tied for 16th place in the Hearst contest with a project from Elon University. The Top 5 winners in that category were students from Western Kentucky, Syracuse, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Oregon.
The project, about water supply problems in the community of Taylor, Mississippi, was published during the spring semester of 2021, and this is one of several major awards it has won since then, Thompson said.
Rabria Moore is pictured in the photo.
Moore is entering her senior year at UM and is The Daily Mississippian editor-in-chief for 2022-23.
Schuerman graduated in 2021 and just completed his first year in the visual communication master’s program at Ohio University. He spent winter break as a photographer and writer at a newspaper in Colorado and has a photo internship this summer at the Virginian-Pilot, Thompson said.
Moore, 20, is a Durant, Mississippi native entering her senior year at the university studying journalism and political science.
“I was very excited to find out I received a Hearst award for this project,” Rabria said. “When I started this project, I didn’t think about winning any awards. My main goal was to tell a story about a woman who’s been fighting for access to water, and hopefully bring attention to the issue of water access, especially in Mississippi. I’m happy to receive the award, but I definitely take more pride in knowing that the story has reached a broader audience.”
Moore said working on this project was different from others.
“For months, I was able to visit Ms. Ilean’s home to hear about and see the problems she was facing without access to community water,” she said. “I hope others, especially people living in Mississippi, understand that not everyone has access to the same resources. Water is something we take for granted and something we don’t typically think about, but I hope people can appreciate the ‘small’ things that we don’t have to figure out on our own.”
She said learning to listen was one of the things she took away from the project.
“So many times, we think we know someone’s story or situation,” Moore said. “I think listening gives people the opportunity to tell their stories without us injecting ourselves into those stories.”
Billy Schuerman is pictured in this black and white photo.
Schuerman, 23, who is from Houston, Texas, said he was elated to hear that their hard work was recognized in the competition.
“I am more hopeful that this recognition helps provide a future for the community we reported on,” he said. “Awards are secondary to the communities we serve.”
He said the project was meaningful.
“Before we are journalists, we are humans, and this is a human story,” he said. “This was not a project we could just walk into. We dedicated our time to telling a meaningful story about something that really matters. I hope other students can take away that in order to tell the rough draft of history, we must truly dedicate ourselves to the people we serve.”
His advice to other journalists is to find time to do important stories.
“Not everything you work on will come through,” he said, “but when you have an opportunity to really do something important, it’s important to take it head on.”
He oversaw news operations at Hearst-Argyle TV stations in 26 markets throughout 22 states, according to Hearst.com, as well as the Hearst-Argyle Washington, D.C., News Bureau, which services the company’s television news departments. He had served as vice president of news upon Hearst-Argyle’s formation in August 1997 through the combination of Hearst Broadcasting and Argyle Television, Inc.
Hank Price is president and general manager of WVTM 13, the Hearst Television NBC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama. He also serves as director of leadership development for the Meek School of Journalism & New Media.