Students Land 10 First-Place Honors in National Media Contest

April 2, 2020

Two first-place organizational awards and eight first-place honors among individuals highlight Buena Vista University efforts in the Society for Collegiate Journalists National Contest.

Rather than disclosing the awards in a formal ceremony, as she has historically done, Dr. Andrea Frantz, BVU Professor of Digital Media and SCJ Executive Director, conducted the announcement, both for all participating chapters nationally, and for BVU students, electronically.

“This is an unusual year for the national contest thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Frantz. “Because of the timing of the virus and its impact on college campuses, this was the first year in SCJ’s history in which we announced the awards electronically without sending certificates to winners. The latter will certainly go out eventually, but the SCJ board thought it was important to give student journalists something to motivate and celebrate since they are all at a distance for the rest of the semester in most cases.”

“One of the things that most impresses me with our student media leaders is that they continually aim to raise the bar higher.”

Dr. Andrea Frantz

BVTV earned first-place honors in the Television Live Sports Broadcast category. Additionally, “Sports on the Edge,” by Tanner Frost, Nick Henrichs, and Guy Tannenbaum, a trio of juniors, earned first place in the category Live Radio Sports Show Overall Excellence.

BVU students would add eight first-place accolades in individual contests. BVU efforts earned 12 second-place honors, six third-place showings, and a trio of honorable mention honors.

“I am obviously very proud of BVU’s showing this year,” Frantz continues. “One of the things that most impresses me with our student media leaders is that they continually aim to raise the bar higher, and I think judges for our contest recognized that.”

The following is a list of BVU national contest results:

Organizational Awards

• First Place—Live Radio Sports Show Overall Excellence: “Sports on the Edge” Tanner Frost, Nick Henrichs, and Guy Tannenbaum
• First Place—Television Live Sports Broadcast: BVTV Buena Vista University
• Second Place—Television News Show Overall Excellence: BVTV Buena Vista University

 
Individual Awards

First Place

• First Place—Multimedia News Story: SCJ Media Team (O. Wieseler; T. Brunner; A. Ertz; I. Carlos; D. Meissner; Z. Hess; H. Kramer; and A. Hartman “Buenafication Day 2019: Transforming Our Communities”
• First Place— Multimedia Sports Story: Tanner Frost; Timothy Jeffries; Elijah Zaiger “BVU’s Coaching Carousel”
• First Place—Podcast: Tyler Brunner “Lost and Found Ep. 3”
• First Place—Feature Stories: Olivia Wieseler “Real toys become real life in this eight-year brother collaboration”
• First Place—Radio Feature Package: Andrew Bandstra “Numb”
• First Place—Radio Sports Package: Guy Tannenbaum and Tanner Frost “Final inning of BVU Baseball ARC Championship”
• First Place—Radio Commercial: Omar Guadalupe Alcorta “El Nogalar Promo”
• First Place—Television Commercial/PSA: Mason McGrew “It’s Quiz Bowl”

Second Place

• Second Place—Multimedia News Story: Mason McGrew; Nick Henrichs; and Guy Tannenbaum “Guns in the Heartland”
• Second Place—Multimedia Feature Story: Morgan Krull and Zach Hess “Dragoncillo Puppet Show Comes to Storm Lake”
• Second Place—Multimedia Sports Story: Guy Tannenbaum “Moving on from College Athletics”
• Second Place—Photo Slideshow: Autumn McClain “BVU’s Lucky One”
• Second Place—Podcast: Isabel Haas and Lena Gripp “Immigration and the Iowa Caucus”
• Second Place—Sports Feature Stories: Ella Wiebusch “The Barnes Sisters: Raised for the Rodeo”
• Second Place—Column or Commentary: Autumn McClain “Every Body is a Summer Body”
• Second Place—Radio Feature Package: Timothy Jeffries “Chasing the Dream”
• Second Place—Radio Sports Package: Tanner Frost and Austin West “Women’s Volleyball BVU v. Martin Luther”
• Second Place—Radio Commercial: Tyler Brunner “Morning Call Promo”
• Second Place—Television Commercial/PSA: Mason McGrew “Buddy Beaver BVTV Holiday Show Promo”

Third Place

• Third Place—Infographic: Zach Hess “Press Fought the Law and the Press Won”
• Third Place—Multimedia Feature Story: Allyssa Ertz; Ella Wiebusch; Olivia Wieseler “Truth or Dare”
• Third Place—Multimedia Sports Story: Allyssa Ertz “Josh Cue; Director of Athletic Performance”
• Third Place—Podcast: Tanner Frost “The Entertainment Hour”
• Third Place—Sports News: Autumn McClain “Women’s wrestling: building community and encouraging growth”
• Third Place—Radio Commercial: Tyler Brunner and Job Saunders “HvZ Spring 2019 Promo”

Honorable Mention

• Honorable Mention—News Stories: Autumn McClain “Questions Surround Bertrand’s Early Departure”
• Honorable Mention—Column or Commentary: Olivia Wieseler “Give Snow Some Credit”
• Honorable Mention—Sports News: Allyssa Ertz “Both men’s and women’s basketball coaches resign”