Journalism professor and Sidelines faculty adviser Leon Alligood (far left) and Sidelines staff winners (left to right) Caleb Revill, Andrew Wigdor, Hayden Goodridge and Anthony Merriweather.
The Southeast Journalism Conference brought 336 journalism students and their advisers to Middle Tennessee State University, Feb. 14 to 16.
The students represented 32 universities and colleges from seven states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. While on the campus, the students attended sessions with award-winning investigative reporters like Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel and Kate Howard of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting along with presentations by College of Media and Entertainment faculty members Ken Blake, Stephanie Dean and Tom Neff. In addition, students participated in onsite competitive events in writing, photography and video production, among others.
A highlight of the three-day meeting was the Friday night Best of the South Awards dinner. The keynote speaker was MTSU alum Phil Williams, a nationally respected investigative reporter for NewsChannel 5 in Nashville.
Sidelines won first place in three categories: Best Special Event Writer (Andrew Wigdor), Best Multimedia Journalist (Anthony Merriweather) and Best Website. The newspaper also received a fourth place for Best Arts and Entertainment Writer (Hayden Goodridge) and seventh place for Best Feature Writer (Caleb Revill).
The conference ended Saturday with “Shut Up and Dance,” a musical tribute to First Amendment issues led by Dean Ken Paulson and a career panel featuring three recent MTSU graduates: Marissa Gaston, Justin Beasley and Emily West.
MTSU’s participation in SEJC meetings dates to the earliest years of the organization. The university hosted the second SEJC gathering in 1988. Leon Alligood, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Sidelines faculty adviser, was instrumental in bringing this year’s conference to campus. Alligood is the current SEJC President.
The College of Media and Entertainment is home to the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, the Center for Innovation in Media, NPR station WMOT and student-run radio WMTS, the school newspaper, Sidelines and MT10, the student-run cable channel.
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