FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

Former WMUL student claims national finalist award

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Melanie Chapman, a former student broadcaster with WMUL-FM, Marshall University’s public radio station, won a national finalist award in the 2006 Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) National Mark of Excellence Contest in the Radio News Reporting category.

The award was presented during the SPJ National Convention Friday, Oct. 5 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Chuck G. Bailey, professor of radio-television production and management in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University and faculty manager of WMUL-FM, said the former student news director/reporter competed with other broadcasting students from colleges and universities across the nation representing the SPJ’s 12 regions.

“Our radio students have established a tradition at WMUL-FM of being able to successfully compete at the national level with other student-operated college radio stations,” Bailey said. “This recognition for WMUL-FM’s former news director Melanie Chapman in SPJ’s National Mark of Excellence Contest is further evidence of the quality of the work performed by our talented broadcasting students.”

The national finalist award-winning entry in radio was:

Best News Reporting, Category 19: “We Are Marshall Movie Premiere,” written and produced by Melanie Chapman, a recent master’s degree graduate from McConnell, W.Va., broadcast during “The 5:00 p.m. Edition of Newscenter 88” Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006.

Overall, there are 45 categories for print, radio, television and online journalism in the SPJ National Mark of Excellence contest.  There were more than 3,300 entries from schools across SPJ’s 12 regions in the Mark of Excellence contest.  SPJ has been presenting the Mark of Excellence Awards since 1972.

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