UK Journalism Ranks Among Top 10 in Hearst Competition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 23, 2012) — The University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications finished 10th in the annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program Intercollegiate Writing Competition for 2011-12.

UK’s win was due to the work of journalism majors writing in the Kentucky Kernel, the independent student newspaper at UK.

The Hearst program consists of five monthly writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, three broadcast news competitions and four multimedia competitions, with championship finals in all divisions.

Taylor Moak, the Kernel's editor-in-chief, will compete in the writing championship in June in San Francisco. Moak qualified for the championship with a top five performance in spot news and top 20 performances in two other competitions. Becca Clemons, recently named editor-in-chief for the 2012-13 school year, took second place in the spot news competition.

"We are very proud of our journalism students," said Beth Barnes, director of the UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications. "The other programs in the top 10 are all regularly acknowledged as top programs nationally, so this puts UK among some very distinguished company."

The top 10 programs in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition, in order, were: Penn State, Indiana, Northwestern, Missouri, Arizona State, Kansas, Oregon, Nebraska-Lincoln, Florida and Kentucky.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of the 109 accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and it is fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

MEDIA CONTACT: Keith Hautala, (859) 323-2396; keith.hautala@uky.edu