Kent State’s student newspaper, The Kent Stater, is the best collegiate daily (published three times per week or more) in Ohio, according to the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest.
Alumna Neville Hardman, ’16, and journalism major Kelly Powell, ’18, also received individual honors – first and second place respectively – for best collegiate feature writing, in the contest sponsored by the Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus chapters of SPJ.
The contest recognizes work published in 2016, under Stater editors (now alumni) Emily Mills, ’16, and Jimmy Miller, ’17. Judges praised the Stater’s coverage of the 2016 presidential elections, noting that it was “what election coverage should be and was far more superior than many professional (newspapers’) coverage.” Judges also praised student journalists’ “clear, fair and concise” coverage of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security’s investigation into a Kent State professor, for alleged involvement with the Islamic State.
Hardman and Powell were recognized for work that appeared in The Burr Magazine, Kent State’s general interest student magazine. SPJ recently named The Burr the best student magazine in the country in its national Mark of Excellence competition.