Arrow recognized at MCMA with 18 awards

The Arrow brought home 18 awards from the Missouri College Media Association’s annual awards ceremony.

Awards were won across a total of seven categories, including design, reporting, special sections, promotions, photography, multimedia package and overalls. The Arrow staff earned four first place finishes, six second place finishes, five third place finishes and three honorable mentions.

The awards were announced through MCMA’s Facebook Live on April 7. These awards are typically given during the MCMA annual conference, which was scheduled for April 3 and 4 in Cape Girardeau, but the conference was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We won more design awards this year than we have in the past — we won some photography awards that we have never won in the past,” Arrow faculty adviser and professor of Mass Media Tamara Zellars Buck said. “At the same time, we were successful in areas that we have a proven track record of success. We had a broader field of wins that reflects the fact that our students are specializing in new areas and they’re also continuing to perform well in some of the old categories.”

The Arrow’s special section, Budget Breakdown, won two first place awards for its coverage of Southeast’s budget and the plans officials have to reroute it; one for investigative reporting and the other for special section.

“Our Budget Breakdown special report was such a huge collaborative effort and I’m super proud we were able to get recognized for that,” Zach Tate, Arrow Editor-in-Chief and MCMA president, said.

Awards are given based on content produced from 2019 as a whole, recognizing the best collegiate staffs and student reporters in Missouri. **

“Whenever we have success, it demonstrates continuity in our programming and in our production,” Buck said. “Our students can’t just be good once, they have to regularly produce good content — that takes effort and that takes patience and it takes pride.”

A full list of the awards won by the Arrow is available below.

· First place, Investigative Reporting: Arrow Staff, “Budget Breakdown”

· First place, Photo Page: Zach Tate, “Sikeston Jaycee Rodeo”

· First place, Feature Page: Ally Bruemmer and Lucas Irizarry, “Esmie Gonzalez: offensively gifted”

· First place, Special Section or Supplement: Arrow Staff, “Budget Breakdown”

· Second place, Campus Engagement/Promotions: Patrick Buck Jr., Yasodh Kudarala Lekamalage and Sam Wakitsch, “What’s Up SEMO?”

· Second place, Best Overall Newspaper (Division 1): Arrow Staff

· Second place, In-Depth News Reporting: Zach Tate, “Vaping dangers increase across nation”

· Second place, Investigative Reporting: Zach Tate, “DPS discovers camera hard-drive issue after parking lot hit and run”

· Second place, Sport Page: Lucas Irizarry, Oct. 23, 2019 Sports Section

· Second place, Photo Page: Jelani Days, Intramurals

· Third place, Campus Engagement/Promotions: Arrow Staff, “First Amendment Day”

· Third place, News Photography: Brooke Holford, “Winter Commencement 2019”

· Third place, Feature Photography: Jelani Days, “Campus Outreach slip ‘n’ slide at Parker Field – April 17, 2019”

· Third place, Page One Design: Zach Tate, Sept. 11, 2019 Page 1

· Third place, Feature Page: Zach Tate and Christian Edwin, “The face of Redhawks defense”

· Honorable Mention, Campus Engagement/Promotions: Arrow Staff, “Shoeboxes of Caring”

· Honorable Mention, Feature Page: Brooke Holford, Toslin Taylor and Christian Edwin, “Discovering the Divine”

· Honorable Mention, Multimedia Package: Lucas Irizarry and Ally Bruemmer, “Esmie Gonzalez: offensively gifted”