Southeastern students win top SPJ awards
Friday, March 31, 2023
by: Tonya Lowentritt 
MARK OF EXCELLENCE WINNER- Southeastern Channel student news reporter Alexis Genovese of Husser holds a cow skull to exhibit one of thousands of vertebrate specimens on display and made available for research at the Southeastern Louisiana University Biology Department’s Vertebrate Museum. A reporter for the channel’s national award-winning newscast Northshore News, Genovese produced a television news feature story on the museum, which was honored with a first-place Mark of Excellence award for “Broadcast Feature Videography” given by the Society of Professional Journalists. Genovese was one of three students winning first-place honors among the eight total awards won by the channel in the Region 12 SPJ competition.
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University students at the Southeastern Channel
won eight Mark of Excellence Awards, including three first-place honors, at the Society
of Professional Journalists’ annual Region 12 conference recently.
The Mark of Excellence Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism from a
calendar year. The Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 includes all universities
in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Southeastern Channel students received the most combined television and broadcast
videography honors out of all universities in the competition. Other universities
competing included the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, the University
of Mississippi, and the University of Tennessee.
Mark of Excellence Awards were judged by SPJ industry professionals who were
directed to choose entries they felt were the best in student journalism. If no entry
rose to the level of excellence, no award was given.
“The Society of Professional Journalists has long been one of the most respected
journalism organizations, so it’s outstanding recognition for our students to have
once again been honored above those at much larger universities,” said Rick Settoon,
general manager of the Southeastern Channel. “We are so proud of them for applying
their talents and hard work to maintain the Southeastern Channel’s high-quality standards
for excellence in student journalism and production.”
First-place winners included Taylor Nettle of Lacombe, who won first place in
“Broadcast News Videography” for her videography in the “Medline Groundbreaking” story
for the Southeastern Channel’s student newscast “Northshore News.” The package covered
groundbreaking ceremonies near the Hammond airport for a new $45 million, 650,000
square foot distribution center for the medical supply giant.
“It feels great to receive an honor like this,” Nettle said. “I enjoyed covering
the Medline groundbreaking and made different creative decisions about how I covered
the story, so it’s exciting to see that some of the creative decisions I made were
recognized.”
As both an anchor and reporter for Northshore News, Nettle not only writes, conducts
interviews, narrates, and does on-camera reporting for her stories, she shoots and
edits them as well.
Also winning a first-place Mark of Excellence award was Alexis Genovese of Husser
in the “Broadcast Feature Videography” category for videography in her Northshore
News story, “Southeastern Vertebrate Museum.”
“Winning this award from such a prestigious organization is a great honor,” Genovese
said. “It helps me feel confident in my work and assures me I have the skills and
the talent to make it in this industry. This is what I’m passionate about, and I could
not be more thankful for this recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists.”
Genovese is also both an anchor and reporter for Northshore News. Her winning
story spotlights the biology department’s research facility for the study of ecology,
evolution, and natural history of vertebrate animals.
In addition to Nettle and Genovese, Jermaine Kelly of Shreveport also placed
first, winning in “Broadcast Sports Videography” for camera work in his “Southeastern
vs. Northwestern State Football” story for the student sportscast “The Big Game.”
“It feels great to have my work recognized,” Kelly said. “This award is important
to me because it means that I’m doing something right and gives me the motivation
to continue what I’m doing.”
Although Kelly has also shot news, he said that shooting live game action like
that in his winning football story requires a different strategy. The approach he
took was to stay ahead of every play and follow the trend of the game.
Winning second-place or finalist recognition was Jordan Kliebert of Mandeville
in “Broadcast News Videography” for videography in his “Causeway Improvements” story
for Northshore News. The story covered new guard rail safety enhancements for drivers
on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
Other Mark of Excellence finalists included Lauren Hawkins of Ponchatoula in
“Television Feature Reporting” and Brian Williams of Baton Rouge in “Broadcast Feature
Videography” for their work in the Northshore News story “Litter Gitter” about a device
developed by local Don Bates to clean up Tangipahoa Parish waterways. Hawkins is currently
a news reporter-anchor for WBRZ-TV Ch. 2 (ABC) in Baton Rouge.
Carson Fryou of Ponchatoula also won second place in “Television Sports Reporting”
for his Big Game feature story on Lady Lion basketball player Morgan Carriere.
The June 28, 2021 episode of Northshore News won second-place finalist recognition
in the “Best All Around Television Newscast” category. Hawkins produced and co-anchored
the show with Trinity Brown of Baton Rouge. Reporters contributing stories to the
newscast were Hawkins, Nettle, Kliebert, Anaclaire McKneely of Amite, Kaylor Yates
of Baton Rouge and Joliette Vincent of Luling.
In its 20 years of existence, the Southeastern Channel has won over 500 national,
international and regional awards, including 23 awards from the Emmys.
The Southeastern Channel can be seen on Spectrum Cable 199 in Tangipahoa, Livingston,
St. Tammany and St. Helena parishes and on mounthermonTV.com for viewers in Washington
Parish. In addition, the live 24-7 broadcast can be seen on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon
Fire, the Spectrum App, and the channel’s website at thesoutheasternchannel.com, which
also offers programs via video on demand. The Southeastern Channel is available on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
