The George-Anne Media Group, a student-led media organization at Georgia Southern University, won a Pacemaker Award for Innovation at the College Media Association conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“The prestigious Pacemaker recognizes overall excellence and distinguishes the top student media produced during a particular school year,” the Associated Collegiate Press said in a statement. “The award started shortly after the association was founded in 1921 and is often regarded as the most-competitive, most-honored award in collegiate journalism.”
The George-Anne Media Group won the award for installing vertical video monitors in the Fielding D. Russell Union that streams and displays student-made content on the monitors 24/7. The George-Anne virtually uploads roughly ten new videos per week to the monitors, putting student-created content physically in front of students, staff and faculty walking through the Russell Union. The videos include the organization’s news-style content, lifestyle content, still photography and other produced elements.
“I believe that the vertical monitors in the Russell Union are making a big impact on campus,” said Elise Taylor, editor-in-chief of Your Newsroom. “With our monitors, we are able to deliver news and content directly to students and inform them in a way that is more convenient for them.”
Students who worked on the award-winning project are grateful for the accolade as well as the experience of developing an innovative way to showcase their work.
“You can’t miss the big bright screens that show our coverage of new businesses opening, sports coverage and even the solar eclipse viewing that happened earlier this year,” said Blake Williams, former George-Anne editor-in-chief. “As we learn how to utilize these monitors more and more, we could be able to show our Your Newsroom show that covers important stories not only on campus, but within the city.”
Thanks to the success of the monitors in the Russell Union, the team will soon install an additional monitor in the Henderson Library on the Statesboro Campus. The setup will include a newsrack for their printed newspapers as well.
For more information on the award and information on the project, go to this webpage.