Missouri Broadcast News Students Win Hearst Journalism Awards
Columbia, Mo. (Dec. 15, 2004) — Matt Talhelm and Lauren Stiglich, both Missouri School of Journalism students, were among the winners in the November William Randolph Hearst Foundations Journalism Awards Program broadcast competition.
Talhelm earned $1,500 for second place in the television finals, qualifying him for Competition Two. The top five winners in both audio and video were selected from among 35 audio and 60 video entries.
The senior from Chambersburg, Pa., submitted three packages. “Leaking Lagoons” spurred a local county to solve a sewer problem that had existed for more than two years. The second package was a live report about the effort Amendment 2 opponents were making to get the the word out about Missouri’s gay-marriage amendment. The other story was a feature piece about a state grant one daycare received to build a new center to help underprivileged children have a place to stay while their parents worked.
Talhelm also is pursuing a minor in Spanish and plans to graduate in May 2005. He has interned at WHAG-TV, the NBC affiliate in Hagerstown, Md. Talhelm has been active in numerous campus and journalism organizations, including Journalism Scholars and Society of Professional Journalists.
“We knew that both Lauren and Matt were winners before Hearst announced,” said Kent Collins, chair of the Broadcast News department. “We knew it in the classroom where they were both anxious to argue points of editorial judgement. And we knew they were winners in the newsroom at KOMU, our NBC affiliate, where they quietly put in long hours to make their stories good enough to be winners for grades and winners for ratings.”
Stiglich was among the top 20 in the television category and will receive a certificate of merit. She submitted three stories to the competition. “Deer Hunting” focused on the increasing number of deer in Boone County. “Beyond the Vote” was a feature-length story about young people in high campaign positions. “Missouri Penitentiary” highlighted tours of the new prison.
Stiglich is from Shorewood, Ill., and is also pursuing a minor in political science. She has interned at WYKT radio in her home town and at MSNBC as the assistant to the on-air talent coordinator. Stiglich is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the student chapter of the Radio Television News Director Association. She is a member of the national leadership honor society, Omnicron Delta Kappa, and plans to graduate in May 2005.
The proven “Missouri Method” allows students to receive hands-on professional training at KOMU-TV, the only university-owned commercial television station in the United States that uses its newsroom as a working lab for students. Missouri has set the standards for journalism education for almost a century.
The School won the overall intercollegiate competition in the 2003-04 Hearst Journalism Awards Program and placed second in the overall writing category.
The 2004-05 broadcast news competitions are held in more than 100 member colleges and universities under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Broadcast News Competition was added in 1988 to the Hearst Foundations Journalism Awards Program that for 45 years has included writing and news photography competitions, and now offers awards of more than $400,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends.
Updated: April 1, 2020