Southeast Missouri State University’s Department of Mass Media hosted the 2016 Missouri College Media Association Conference April 8 and 9, with the Arrow student-run newspaper winning a total of 17 awards, including second in Best Overall Newspaper.

The annual conference brings together school newspaper and yearbook staffs from across the state to learn from others on how to better their publications as well as network with those that have similar interests. More than 150 students and faculty advisers from 22 colleges and universities attended this year.

Jay Forness, MCMA president and the Arrow’s editor-in-chief, along with faculty adviser Dr. Tamara Zellars Buck began planning the event last April. Forness said it took that full year for everything to be just right.

“There was a lot more to being MCMA president than I originally thought,” Forness said. “There were a lot of emails, a lot of talking with people from the community to get help — either through speakers for workshops or hosting different events during the weekend.”

Friday’s events began at Catapult Creative House, Southeast’s student incubator, where a reception was catered by hospitality management students. Media tours followed at the Southeast Missourian, Mississippi River Radio and KFVS12. The Southeast Missourian also sponsored a social gathering at Katy O’Ferrell’s later that evening.

“That really set the tone for how Saturday was going to be,” Dr. Karie Hollerbach, mass media department chair, said.

The next day was packed with more than 20 workshop sessions and panel discussions, which conference registrants had their choice to attend across a six and a half hour period in the University Center. Arrow staff members, Southeast faculty and alumni and professionals in the industry spoke on topics such as photography, social media, broadcast video and visual promotions.

“We had students from the Arrow staff doing a lot for this conference,” Forness said. “We had multiple workshops run by our editors and managers, as well as having people run the registration table, answer questions and run AV equipment.”

An awards banquet concluded the conference, with dinner catered by Chartwells dining service. Kathy Sweeney, an anchor and investigative reporter for KFVS12 with 27 years experience overall in the field, served as the keynote speaker, addressing the changing world of journalism in the 21st century.

The Arrow received 15 divisional awards — three first place, three second place, five third place and four honorable mentions. These awards, which highlight print and online editorial content, are judged in four divisions based on campus enrollment numbers. Southeast is the smallest school in Division I, which spans Lindenwood University, Missouri State University, Saint Louis University, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-St. Louis, University of Central Missouri and Washington University.

“For our weekly paper to be able to stand head-to-head with those larger programs that have more resources, more faculty, more equipment, but our product is as good, if not better, than those programs’ products — that says a lot about what we do in the basement of Grauel at Southeast in the Department of Mass Media,” Hollerbach said.

Buck recognized, too, many of the awards were a reflection of the department’s multimedia journalism option.

“Our curriculum was modified several years ago to focus on multimedia journalism and to encourage our students to stay relevant in their skills, so that they could be ready for the modern workplace,” Buck said. “Our wins seem to indicate that we’re being successful in training them that way.”

Under the advertising division, the Arrow was awarded second place and first place in the categories of “Advertising Design” and “Campus Engagement and Promotions,” respectively. According to Buck, MCMA approved the separation of advertising from the regular divisional categories as well as the addition of a campus engagement category last year to increase participation. The new division comprised all 33 Missouri schools that competed.

Hollerbach recalled she was editor-in-chief of the Arrow when Southeast hosted the Missouri College Newspaper Association Conference in 1989. She and her staff won Best in State Newspaper for the first time that year.

“To be back in that ballroom 27 years later, getting to see this from a different perspective, from the chairperson perspective, from a faculty member perspective, I can’t tell you how much that meant to me,” Hollerbach said.

Buck was editor, herself, for the 1994-1995 school year. As an Arrow veteran, she can relate to the struggles and triumphs of leading a college newspaper and uses that, even now, in her teaching.

“I am super excited to be able to say, once again, we’re one of the best papers in the state,” Buck said, smiling. “We’re innovative, and we know it.”

“We put a lot of effort into putting together a paper every week, and it’s nice to see our hard work pay off,” Forness said. “These awards show we’re doing something right.”