Category Archives: Awards

      
 
 
 
 

Awards, scholarships recognize outstanding environmental journalism students

Students in our environmental journalism classes and working for the Knight Center and Great Lakes Echo garnered top recognition at the School of Journalism’s 2021 Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to all.

Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Journalism

  •  Weiting Du, Taylor Haelterman and Chioma Lewis

Len Barnes AAA Michigan Fund Award

  • Jonus Cottrell, Taylor Haelterman and Indri Maulidar

Rachel Carson Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Environmental Journalism

  • Chioma Lewis

Mickie L. Edwardson Endowed Scholarship

  • Apoorva Joshi and Marie Orttenburger

Michael A. and Sandra S. Clark Scholarship

  • Claire Moore and Leigh Anne Tiffany

Edward J. Meeman Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Environmental Journalism

  • Lillian Young

Knight Center Service Award

  • Taylor Haelterman

      Chioma Lewis

      Jonus Cottrell

      Weiting Du

      Taylor Haelterman

      Apoorva Joshi

      Indri Maulidar

      Claire Moore

      Marie Orttenburger

      Leigh Anne Tiffany

      Lillian Young

Knight Center’s Ph.D. researcher wins paper awards at 2020 AEJMC Conference

Leigh Anne Tiffany

Knight Center researcher, Leigh Anne Tiffany, received two paper awards at the 2020 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference this August.

Tiffany, a second-year Ph.D. student in Michigan State University’s Information and Media program, received the Top Theory Paper Award and second-place Top Student Paper Award from the Communication Theory and Methodology Division.

Her award-winning paper, titled “The Journalism-Public Relations Role Continuum,” proposes three new theoretical models for addressing the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners, specifically how to delineate these closely connected professions. The desired outcome of this theoretical paper is to increase interdisciplinary research between journalism and public relations scholarship, as well as provide guidance for ways to better clarify these fields in future research.

Knight Center’s Cepak, Van Witsen, earn doctorates

Two doctoral students affiliated with the Knight Center earned their Ph.Ds. at the end of the spring semester.

Tony Cepak and Tony Van Witsen successfully defended their dissertations on topics related to environmental and science journalism.

Tony Cepak

Cepak’s dissertation used oral history, archival and ethnographic fieldwork to explore the long- term picture-making projects of Jack Corn and Milton Rogovin in Appalachian coal fields during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Corn, a photojournalist, and Rogovin, a social documentary photographer, both worked to disrupt popular discourse and advance mining photography past the stoic, soot-covered aesthetics of the early 20th century.

His dissertation, “Views of the Valley of Despair: The Photography of Jack Corn and Milton Rogovin in Appalachian Coal Communities (1956-1979),” examines the intimate and powerful imagery they created that repositions coal mining from being celebrated as a material vital to economic and social prosperity, to illuminating the exploitive and devastating effects mining had on miners, their families, their communities and the land.

Tony Van Witsen

Van Witsen’s dissertation, “How Daily Journalists Verify Numbers and Statistics in News Stories: Towards a Theory,” recognizes that statistics are widely acknowledged as an essential part of journalism but acknowledges that routine news coverage involving statistics leaves much to be desired.

He examined the verification process in detail by combining 1) qualitative interviews with 15 working journalists about their attitudes, decision-making and work practices regarding statistics; 2) a content analysis of statistical information in a sample of stories created by these journalists; and 3) an item-by-item examination of the decision-making processes behind each statistic in each sampled stories.

Appalachian miner and wife. Milton Rogovin, 1962–1987

With a framed portrait of John F. Kennedy at his side, Ed Marlowe, paralyzed from a roof fall in a coal mine, gazes out his window to see who is approaching the house.
Jack Corn, 1969

Knight Center students honored with scholarships, awards

MSU environmental journalism students have won more than $21,000 in scholarships and awards for their outstanding work this academic year, including stories written for Great Lakes Echo and research projects.

The money comes from generous endowments and donations to the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the School of Journalism. The scholarships and awardees are:

Len Barnes AAA Michigan Fund Scholarship;  Kaylie Connors, Claire Moore, Marie Orttenburger, Apoorva Joshi

Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship;  Carol Abbey Mensah, Yue Jiang

Rachael Carson Award;   Apoorva Joshi

Donald K. and Katherine K. Dahlstrom Scholarship;  Kyle Davidson

Michael A. and Sandra S. Clark Scholarship;  Cassidy Hough

Mickie L. Edwards Endowed Scholarship;  Leigh Anne Tiffany, Kurt Williams

Great Lakes Echo Excellence Award;  Marie Orttenburger

Edward Meeman Award;  Cassidy Hough

Kyle C. Kerbaway Graduate Scholarship;  Weiting Du

Eric Freedman Award;  Indri Maulidar