Athens, Ga. – High school journalism programs across the state recently were recognized at the 2011 Georgia Scholastic Press Association Awards Ceremony at the University of Georgia Tate Student Center. More than 200 awards were presented for high school newspaper, yearbook, broadcast and literary magazine journalism.
Roughly 500 high school students and advisers attended the annual ceremony and were addressed by keynote speaker Perry Parks, the regional editor of Patch.com. “You are the best chance we have to keep good journalism alive,” he said. “Technology is changing at such a rapid pace, and you have a grasp of the technology and an understanding of journalistic principles.”
Parks has been involved in journalism for years and has been a newspaper editor, college professor, journalism textbook author and is now the regional editor of Patch.com, a series of community-based news websites across the nation. He said the business model of Patch is the future of journalism. “People don’t go out to get news anymore. The news has to come to them,” he said, encouraging students to grasp new means of journalism. “People who understand that are succeeding in journalism now.”
Kinsey Lee Clark, a senior at Clarke Central High School in Athens, was named the 2011 Georgia Champion Journalist, the highest honor given to a scholastic journalist. As editor-in-chief of the ODYSSEY Newsmagazine, Clark has used reporting, design and numerous other skills during her time on the staff. She has covered a student diagnosed with cancer, school computer security systems and her own personal bullying story, all while maintaining leadership for a 30-person staff.
Her adviser writes, “Undoubtedly, Kinsey brings an amazing amount of passion and dedication to the written word, to those with whom she works and activities surrounding our program.”
The All-Georgia, the top award given in the state, is for publications that performed best overall in their category. The ODYSSEY Newsmagazine of Clarke Central High School was named the All-Georgia newspaper/newsmagazine. TheEpiphany of Collins Hill High School (Suwanee) was named the All-Georgia literary magazine and The Legend of WaltonHigh School (Marietta) received the All-Georgia yearbook award.
Along with over 200 individual awards, General Excellence awards were given to the top entries in each school publication. Schools and publications receiving awards include:
Yearbook – Whitewater High School (Fayetteville), Vision; Mount Paran Christian School (Kennesaw), Teleios; North Hall High School (Gainesville), Trojan; Northview High School (Duluth), Mnemosyne; Frederick Douglass High School (Atlanta), Polaris; Woodstock High School (Woodstock), The Saga.
Literary Magazine – North Forsyth High School (Cumming), Threshold; Clarke Central High School (Athens), Iliad; Chattahoochee High School (Alpharetta), Chrysalis; Eagles Landing High School (McDonough), The Muse: Paper Trail.
Broadcast – Grady High School (Atlanta), Grady News Now.
Newspaper -Grady High School (Atlanta), The Southerner; Starr’s Mill High School (Fayetteville), The Prowler; Lakeside High School (DeKalb), Lakeside Legend;
North Springs High School (Atlanta), The Oracle; Pebblebrook High School (Mableton), BrookSpeak; Johns Creek High School (JohnsCreek), The Chariot; Lee County High School (Albany), The Panoptic.
Newsmagazine – Decatur High School (Decatur), Carpe Diem.
For a complete list of awards, see http://www.gspa.uga.edu/.
Organized in 1928 by the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Georgia Scholastic Press Association assists Georgia high school media programs and students by encouraging the production of quality publications and broadcast programs through instruction and contests. There are 120 GSPA member publications for the 2010-11 school year, representing some 3,000 students across the state.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, digital and broadcast journalism, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.
