Ouachita hosted the 2013 Arkansas College Media Association (ACMA) annual convention on Friday, a conference recognizing the achievements of college publications across the state. The department brought in professionals to hold workshops ranging from print and broadcast journalism to social media. Ouachita’s printed publications won numerous awards, while the online Signal and television programming also won high honors.
“Overall, we won around 70 awards,” said Dr. Deborah Root, chair of the Rogers Department of Communications. “The Signal won second for best paper and website, The Rundown won first, second and third for best podcast and yearbook did well also. It was a good day.”
Dr. Jeff Root, dean of the school of humanities and professor of communications, said several television segments were honored in their first year to compete and that the online competition was growing.
“We had quite a bit more involvement from the online Signal than we had previously, and they did very well. Traditionally this has been a newspaper and yearbook competition, and The Signal and The Ouachitonian always do well, but to win the number of awards we did in both of those categories this year was unusual. The yearbook won multiple awards in several categories and the newspaper had a great day. Our editors should be proud.”
Tanner Ward, a senior business management, finance and mass communications major, serves as editor of The Signal and obusignal.com. Mauri Sparks, a junior Christian studies and mass communications major, serves as editor of The Ouachitonian. Tanner Huffman, a 2012 graduate, was the editor of last year’s yearbook, which was recognized at the conference. Nicole McPhate, a senior mass communications and graphic design major, is the photo editor. Rachel Gilmer, a junior mass communications and math major, is the video production editor.
The Signal received 24 awards overall, including second place for newspaper of the year, second place for website of the year and first place in categories including personality profile, sports column, online feature and online feature photo, among others. The staff swept the online video podcast category with its weekly sports broadcast “The Rundown,” which debuted in February.
“I am so proud of my staff for all the hard work they’ve done this year,” Ward said. “The newspaper and the website have really grown this year, and being named the second best in Arkansas was an amazing honor.”
The Ouachitonian received 36 awards overall, including second place in yearbook of the year and ten first place awards in various design, writing and photo categories. “The Ouachita Show,” the university’s regular television broadcast, won four awards total, sweeping the feature category and winning first in the sports feature category.
“It was a pleasure to host the ACMAs on campus last Friday,” Deborah Root said. “It was an honor to have eleven schools represented on our campus for the ceremony.”
This was the first year the ACMAs were hosted at Ouachita, and the department was supported by alumni who agreed to return to lead the sessions and students who acted as hosts.
“There are a number of advisers who are involved across the state,” Jeff Root said. “We had a meeting so they could see the facilities since most of them hadn’t been here before. We showed them Hickingbotham [Hall] and Walker [Conference Center], where the opening ceremony and closing banquet would be held, as well as Lile Hall, where we held the workshop sessions. They were vey pleased with the facilities and that’s when everything started to come together. It took some time to line up the guests, but they were all folks who we’re close to, and they were all pleased to help.”
Alumni session leaders included columnist and broadcaster Rex Nelson of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, Lannie Byrd of UAMS, Mitch Bettis of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, Sonja Keith of 501Life magazine; Tony Ranchino of KATV and Alyse Eady of THV11. They were joined by Chris Hooten of Hooten’s Arkansas Football, Natasha Durham of Josten’s and Herff-Jones’ Danielle Kloap and Desiree Paulhamus.
“They really offered some good advice and insight to our students, as well as other students who were on campus,” Deborah Root said.
