Southeastern Channel wins national award for Covid coverage
Thursday, April 30, 2020
by: Tonya Lowentritt
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HAMMOND – The Southeastern Channel has won national acclaim for its coverage
of the coronavirus impact on the Northshore.
“Northshore News Update: Coronavirus on the Northshore” has won a national College
Coronavirus Coverage Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists in conjunction
with the Associated College Press, Society for News Design, College Broadcasters,
Inc., and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The Southeastern Channel was honored from over 700 entries from 258 universities
across the nation as one of three broadcast winners for newscasts during the past
month. Other winners were Cronkite News at Arizona State University and the Northwestern
News Network at Northwestern University of Chicago. Honorable mentions were Annenberg
Media at the University of Southern California, the University of South Dakota, and
Appalachian State University.
The CCC Awards recognize excellence from college journalists for covering COVID-19
on their campuses and in their communities amidst campus closures and continuing online
classes at home, said Southeastern General Manager Rick Settoon.
Settoon said the judges, all professional journalists including those from CNN,
praised the Southeastern Channel as “expertly adapted to excel in this difficult climate,
resulting in a strong, smooth newscast. They have been consistently good every week.
The stories, the story choices, the diversity, the mix- all were excellent.”
“We’re extremely honored to be recognized as best in the nation by the prestigious
Society of Professional Journalists, the world’s largest journalism organization,”
said Settoon. “We’re so proud of our students who’ve stepped up big time to serve
their communities during this crisis while having to complete online classes at the
same time.”
The weekly newscast provides timely information on the coronavirus, specifically
for Northshore residents. It is a condensed newscast that spotlights critical services
for those in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Livingston and Washington parishes provided
by specific parish governments, school systems, hospitals, law enforcement, and business
organizations.
The information provided spans everything from coronavirus testing and school
food distribution to small business disaster loans. Also included are phone interviews
with parish and state officials, such as parish presidents Robby Miller of Tangipahoa,
Mike Cooper of St. Tammany, and Layton Ricks of Livingston, and state representatives
Richard Nelson of Mandeville and Randal Gaines of LaPlace.
Others interviewed so far include Dr. Robert Peltier, chief medical officer for
the North Oaks Health System, Director Bill Joubert of Southeastern’s Small Business
Development Center, and Melissa Bordelon, CEO of the Greater Hammond Chamber of Commerce.
Student reporters from the Southeastern Channel’s national award-winning newscast
“Northshore News” have conducted interviews.
Lorraine Weiskopf of Covington covers St. Tammany Parish. Although she graduates
in May, WXXV-TV Ch. 25 (FOX/NBC) in Gulfport, Miss., has already hired Weiskopf as
a news reporter.
“I was thrilled to win this award, especially with many big-name universities placed
alongside us,” Weiskopf said. “My team and I have put a lot of work into this, and
I am so happy to see that it paid off.”
“I feel so honored to play a role in this program, and for us to win is another
level of excitement because I know how hard we work each week to produce excellent
content,” said reporter Gabby Cox of Hammond, who covers Tangipahoa Parish.
“To be up against so many other universities and college broadcasters and to
come out on top is such an awesome feeling,” said Kaylee Normand of Mandeville, who
covers Livingston parish for the show. “We have all put in so much time and effort
to make every aspect of the shows perfect, and it’s really just rewarding to win this
and see our hard work paying off.”
Since the students are forced to work from home during the pandemic, and thus
are unable to shoot interviews and footage to avoid face-to-face contact, their reports
lean on phone interviews and graphics with timely information in the form of websites,
phone numbers, URLs, and times and locations of the vital services provided in each
parish.
“This show is important because each week we strive to get the best and latest
information to give to the people in our community,” Cox said. “The feedback that
we receive from our viewers makes it all worthwhile because I genuinely feel like
we are being helpful during a time that most of the world feels helpless.”
“We are gathering information about things that are happening within smaller
communities on the Northshore,” Normand said. “Most news stations are covering things
that are going on in the entire state right now, but I feel like we narrowed that
down to particular parishes, and we are giving those residents all of the information
about what’s going on in their backyards.”
“It takes a lot of extra work and a lot of phone calls throughout the day, but
it makes for an interesting and informative show,” Normand said. “And that is the
most important thing that residents need right now. They need to hear something that
they haven’t already heard before.”
The students feel strongly that working on the coronavirus update in addition
to the regular newscast provides real-world training that prepares them well for a
career, Settoon said.
“Northshore News is fantastic because it allows you to take away as much as you
put into it,” Weiskopf said. “It’s a student-run newscast that provides unlimited
opportunities for us to develop shooting, writing and editing skills for news. It
also helps us understand the production necessary behind a newscast. When we create
live shows, there are many opportunities to operate cameras, teleprompter, audio and
visuals. Students can learn everything so they can be well prepared for jobs in the
TV news industry.”
New episodes debut at 4 pm each Friday and air throughout the day every day of
the week on the Southeastern Channel, which can be seen on Spectrum 199 cable throughout
the Northshore for a potential viewing audience of 250,000 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany,
Livingston and St. Helena parishes.
Live streaming of the 24-7 Southeastern Channel broadcast can also be seen on
Roku and Apple TV along with thesoutheasternchannel.com, which offers video on demand
of all episodes at http://thesoutheasternchannel.com/programs/covid-19/. The Coronavirus update can also be accessed through the Southeastern Channel accounts
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
In its 17 years of existence, the Southeastern Channel has won over 400 national,
international and regional awards, including 17 awards from the Emmys.
CUTLINES
1) SOUTHEASTERN STUDENT FROM TANGIPAHOA PARISH RECOGNIZED FOR CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE – Southeastern Louisiana University student Gabby Cox of Hammond was recently recognized
for her coverage of the coronavirus in Tangipahoa Parish on the Southeastern Channel’s
show “Northshore News Update: Coronavirus on the Northshore.” The Southeastern Channel
won a national College Coronavirus Coverage Award given by the Society of Professional
Journalists in conjunction with the Associated College Press, Society for News Design,
College Broadcasters, Inc., and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
2) SOUTHEASTERN STUDENT RECOGNIZED FOR CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE IN LIVINGSTON PARISH – Southeastern Louisiana University student Kaylee Normand of Mandeville was recently recognized for her coverage of the coronavirus in Livingston Parish on the Southeastern Channel’s show “Northshore News Update: Coronavirus on the Northshore.” The Southeastern Channel won a national College Coronavirus Coverage Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists in conjunction with the Associated College Press, Society for News Design, College Broadcasters, Inc., and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
3) SOUTHEASTERN STUDENT FROM ST. TAMMANY PARISH RECOGNIZED FOR CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE – Southeastern Louisiana University student Lorraine Weiskopf of Covington was recently recognized for her coverage of the coronavirus in St. Tammany Parish on the Southeastern Channel’s show “Northshore News Update: Coronavirus on the Northshore.” The Southeastern Channel won a national College Coronavirus Coverage Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists in conjunction with the Associated College Press, Society for News Design, College Broadcasters, Inc., and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
