Lumination TV broadcast wins third in the Southeast at journalism conference
Janel Shoun |
After less than a year in operation, the Lumination network television broadcast has already risen in quality to the third best in the Southeast, as judged by the Southeast Journalism Conference in February.
Lipscomb University’s Lumination Network student news bureau, placed third in Best College TV Station and third in Best College Video News in the Southeast Journalism Conference Best of the South Awards. The students submitted broadcasts for the award that aired in November 2011, just three months after they began producing the show.
The conference judges rated Lumination’s writing quality, production quality and overall quality as superior. Organization of newscast, graphics, accuracy, news judgment and both on- and off-campus coverage were deemed excellent by the judges.
“We’re proud of the tremendous effort these student have made,” said Craig Carroll, chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism. “They’ve built a model of student-generated content from pursuing the stories, developing news packages, and collaboration, synergy and orchestration. They’re adhering to the norms, values and the highest standards of professional journalism, and they are a team that continually re-invents itself to include everyone from senior to freshman.”
After less than two semesters in operation, the Lumination broadcast crew has grown to around 20 students, said Hunter Patterson, the editor-in-chief of the Lumination network.
“That we have come so far so quickly -- after starting from nothing -- that says a lot about how much the students involved are invested in putting a good product out,” said Patterson, who contributes the Tweets of the Week segment to each weekly broadcast.
The Lumination newscast airs on Campus Channel 97 weekdays at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The news show includes sports coverage, weather, entertainment news, student-developed news features and some off-campus coverage.
“The newscast is worlds different now than it was when we started,” says Lumination TV station manager Rachel Carden. “At first, we concentrated so much on teaching people how to use the equipment and training them on camera. Now that we are experienced, we spend more time on enterprise stories that really matter to students on campus. I think I speak for everyone when I say we are proud of how far we have come in such a short amount of time.”
The Lumination Network is a student news bureau established in spring 2010 as part of the restructuring of the university’s communication and journalism department. Student journalists began production of a web news outlet at that time to replace the print newspaper, The Babbler.
Last fall, Lumination students added TV news coverage, which is shot, produced and edited completely by students, most of whom are doing it on their own time, not for class credit.
The Southeast Journalism Conference Best of the South Awards are open to the organization's member schools from eight states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. This year's competition included 433 entries from 41 eligible member schools in 51 categories spanning newspaper and magazine writing, broadcasting, editing, layout, photo and advertising.
Other competitors included area universities Vanderbilt, Belmont, Tennessee State, and Middle Tennessee.