Communication and journalism students win big at SEJC

Several Lipscomb communication and journalism students took away Best of South awards at the Southeast Journalism Conference in Atlanta, Georgia last weekend. Lipscomb took home 13 awards in the competition, which included representatives from more than 30 universities. Lipscomb’s Best of South winners include: Carly Bergthold — 8th place, Best TV News Feature Reporter Logan Butts — 6th place, Best Sports Writer Michael Fox, Kyrsten Turner, Kathryn McKinley, Marlee Vogel, Brynn Watkins — 2nd place, Best Public Service Journalism Brianna Langley — 3rd place, Best News Writer Madeline Smith — 7th place, Best TV Hard News Reporter Erin Turner — 4th place, Best Press Photographer Brianne Welch — 4th place, Best TV Journalist Cory Woodroof — 1st place, Best Arts and Entertainment Writer Cory Woodroof — 5th place, Best Multimedia Journalist Cory Woodroof — 9th place, College Journalist of the Year In addition to the student awards, Lumination Radio and TV also placed: Lumination Radio — 4th place, Best Audio News Program Lumination Radio — 3rd place, Best College Radio Station Lumination TV — 4th place, Best College Video News Program A few of the students also competed in the on-site competitions. Three of those students took away awards: Sam Webb — 3rd place, Best Sports Photography Haleigh Ker — 2nd place, Best Radio News Reporting Cory Woodroof — 1st place, Best News...

‘Nashville’ finds fans, extras at Lipscomb

One of the perks of living in Nashville is the great possibility of running into celebrities anywhere you go around town. Thanks to ABC’s newest show Nashville, local coffee shops, music venues and even grocery stores are now turning into TV sets, giving fans the opportunity for those two seconds of fame they’ve been dreaming of. Nashville supporters are taking advantage of the time they have with the cameras shedding light on Music City. Several Lipscomb students have even been featured in episodes that have been aired for the show. Lipscomb junior Kathryn McKinley made her on-screen debut as a Nashville Journalist. Ironically enough, McKinley is a communications major. Her role was to hold a voice recording while directors and producers called ‘action’ and ‘cut’ for three straight hours. “I actually got a speaking part even though I’m speaking with other people at the same time, but it’s still kind of cool because I can pick my voice out,” McKinley said. Students are also creating traditions out of watching Nashville. Lipscomb senior Katie Underwood said she and her friends gather around their TV every Wednesday at 9 p.m.  to view the show. “We love watching the show because we get to point out different places we’ve been to,” Underwood...
Geena Davis, local leaders advocate for change of women’s roles in media

Geena Davis, local leaders advocate for change of women’s roles in media

Geena Davis says the media’s role in reshaping the image of women in society is simple: “If they see it, they can be it.” The problem is that the media is not doing its part in representing women and men equally, Davis says, and when women are portrayed in television and film they, often are sexually provocative or stereotyped characters. Davis, who has embarked on a mission to change that and offer more hope and empowerment for young women in popular culture, brought her message to a gathering at Lipscomb’s Andrews Institute.  That institute partnered with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Thursday for “A League of Their Own,” an event starring the acclaimed actor and also featuring Deborah Taylor Tate and female local media leaders to discuss the role of women and girls on screen. Davis — who starred in movies like A League of Their Own, Beetlejuice, and Thelma & Louise — founded her institute in 2004 after watching children’s entertainment with her daughter and realizing the lack of female characters present in TV programming and family movies. Davis’ institute, which focuses on research, education and advocacy, conducted the largest body of research on gender prevalence in the media and discovered that only 17 percent of characters in family films are women. Davis noted those few female characters often are portrayed in stereotypical or hyper-sexualized ways. It’s not just popular media.  Davis said women are not fairly represented in most areas of society, noting that the U.S. ranks 90th on the list of countries that have female representation in government. “It’s astounding,” she said. “The fact is that women...

Students stress over Singarama

As opening night for Singarama approaches next weekend, student groups are striving to amaze the audiences with a showcase of their talent, staging and story lines. Singarama is Lipscomb’s annual event that brings social club members and their friends together for a performance competition. This annual tradition has been one of Lipscomb’s main events for nearly half of a century. Joe Muchmore, a senior biology major from Boulder, Colo., has been in Singarama the past two years and will be a host again for this year’s production. He said participants are really feeling the “crunch” of doing the show prior to spring break instead of after, as its been in previous years. “It’s definitely a little more stressful trying to get everything together,” he said. “Just trying to get the lyrics memorized and learn the songs in such a short amount of time… it’s harder to get it ready for the final performance. In the past years, the two weeks up to the show we had everything pretty much ready and were just rehearsing, whereas now we’re still trying to learn how to do everything.” Muchmore said hosts and hostesses are currently focusing on “being confident with the harmonies, so that when the show comes, we can hit it strong and not be iffy. I think that’s really crucial for a good sound.” He said the cast is feeling nervous excitement about the performances. “Right now, it’s definitely stressed more than excited, but it’s a stressed excited,” Muchmore said. “It’s because we’re a week away, and we haven’t even worked everything out yet. We’ve got a lot of work...
Lumination wins big at journalism conferences

Lumination wins big at journalism conferences

Spring has been full of honors for Lipscomb journalists and Lumination Network. Honorees from the Lumination staff attended the Southeast Journalism Conference in February and the Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 conference at Lipscomb this past weekend to receive their awards. The Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC) held its 25th annual convention in Troy, Ala. on Feb. 19, 2011. The conference was a learning experience for the students as well as a competition. Twenty professional journalists from magazines and newspapers around the country judged entries submitted prior to the conference. The SEJC judges named 126 of the 331 applicants the “Best of the South.” Three Lumination Network writers were honored at the conference, as well as the overall website being named the seventh best college website amongst the 33 eligible schools in the area. Lumination’s managing editor Hunter Patterson, a junior journalism major from Waverly, Tenn., was awarded second place in the category of Best Multimedia Journalist. Rachel Carden, a junior multimedia production and journalism double-major from Smyrna, Tenn., placed ninth in the News Reporter portion of the competition. Carden was extremely pleased with the level of hospitality that Troy University showed the conference attendees, as well as how well manicured the campus was upon their arrival for the event. The final honoree from Lipscomb was junior multimedia production major Ryan Malone, from Wellington, Fla. Malone snagged fifth place in the College Journalist of the Year category, and is multimedia manager for Lumination Network.   As for the most recent event, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region 12 conference was held at Lipscomb University. The Lipscomb SPJ chapter and...