IT was a tie last night at the Scottish Student Journalism Awards 2018, with both Stirling University and Glasgow Caledonian scooping four awards each at the prestigious ceremony.
The event, which has been hailed a ‘huge success’, was held at Glasgow’s St Andrew’s in the Square yesterday, with more than 200 students, academics and industry leaders attending.
Glasgow Caledonian won the big prize of the night with Selena Jackson, who also won Feature of the Year, being award Student Journalist of the Year.
Selena said: “I’m shocked, to be honest, but absolutely delighted.
“The feature that I wrote kind of wrote itself, the subject was absolutely incredible, he was such an inspiration. I’m still really shocked I don’t know what to say, but I’m so thankful to the awards and also to everyone else who was nominated, they’re all so talented.”
Selena’s feature was about a double organ transplant recipient who she interviewed. Ryan McDougall of the University of the West of Scotland came a close second as runner-up for this award.
GCU student Stephen Couse won the new Mobile Journalism category, run in association with BBC Scotland, and David Brockett won Sports Story of the Year.
Meanwhile, Stirling University won four accolades.
Student Rozlyn Little won both Scoop of the Year and News Story of the Year for her interview with Luke Mitchell, convicted of the murder of Jodi Jones when he was just 15.
Douglas Matheson won Broadcast Journalist of the Year, while Ryan Peteranna won Column of the Year.
Glasgow Clyde College notched up three wins – with the second year HND class’s Pattern magazine winning Student Publication of the Year, David King and Sara Lovallo taking home the Calum Macdonald Memorial Award and Iain Galbraith winning Arts and Entertainment Story of the Year.
David said: “I’m still in shock, I can’t describe how much this means. To be named twice in the same category is one thing, but to win outright alongside my wonderful classmate and colleague Sara Lovallo is emotional to say the least. “
Napier University won the double, with Jamie Harris scooping Podcast of the Year and his website ENRG Sport winning Student Website of the Year.
The event, organised by Glasgow Clyde College HND Media students, was hosted by BBC political correspondent Glenn Campbell.
Class spokesperson Amy Beaton said: “We are extremely happy with how the night turned out and all our hard work paid off. We enjoyed everything about organising this years awards and a huge congratulation to the runners up and winners. It was a great night and sets the bar for many more to come!”
Speakers on the night were STV news anchor, John Mackay, and veteran music journalist, John Dingwall.
For the first time, the event was run in partnership with the Scottish Newspaper Society and in association with BBC Scotland.
Scottish Newspaper Society director, John McLellan, said: “The Scottish Students Journalism Awards are a brilliant showcase for young journalists, and our congratulations go to all the winners and finalists.
“But it’s also a demonstration of the belief in the importance of journalism that so many talented young people want to be involved.
“Glasgow Clyde College did a fantastic job in pulling the whole award scheme together and we look forward to being involved in an even bigger and better event next year.”
The awards were run in association with BBC Scotland – and the winners from the three BBC categories will be given work experience at the BBC.
BBC Scotland’s Deputy head of News, Peter MacRae, said: “We are very pleased to have been formally associated with this year’s Student Journalism Awards for the first time.
“We were delighted to introduce two new award categories; Mobile journalism and Podcasting; as well as judging the traditional Broadcast Journalism award.
“These new categories are designed to give student journalists the opportunity to demonstrate their readiness to join the news media industry in Scotland. The winners, runners-up, indeed all the shortlisted candidates displayed great story-telling potential. We are confident that the future of Scotland’s journalism is in good hands.”
Guests were last night entertained by a saxaphonist and DJ and enjoyed a hot buffet following the ceremony, where complimentary wine was served.
Glasgow Clyde College lecturer, Karen Bale, who managed the awards with the HND class, said: “We are absolutely delighted with how the evening went and I’m very proud of our students for the hard work they put into ensuring the event was a huge success.
“We would like to thank all the judges, hosts, speakers and sponsors as well as the students who entered the awards. Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.”
The SSJAs were this year sponsored by the Scottish Newspaper Society, The Scottish Sun, SQA, the Daily Record, Glasgow Live, DC Thomson Media, Glasgow Clyde College, the NUJ and Glasgow Clyde College Student Association.
The full list of winners and commended is as follows:
Student Journalist of the Year
Winner – Selena Jackson, Glasgow Caledonian University
Commended – Ryan McDougall, University of the West of Scotland
The Calum Macdonald Memorial Award
Winner – Sara Lovallo and David King, Glasgow Clyde College
Commended – Ryan Carroll, Stirling
Student Publication of the Year
Winner – The Patten, Glasgow Clyde College
Highly commended – EUSci – Edinburgh University
Commended – The Clyde Insider
Student Website of the Year
Winner – ENRG Sport, Napier University
Commended – The Clyde Insider
Scoop of the Year
Winner – Rozlyn Little, Stirling University
Commended – Claire Hutchison, Glasgow Caledonian University
Feature of the Year
Winner – Selena Jackson, Glasgow Caledonian
Commended – Fraser Knight, Glasgow Caledonian
Commended – Sirri Rimppi, Stirling University
Broadcast Story of the Year
Winner – Douglas Matheson and team, Stirling University
Commended– Katie William and team, Stirling University
Column of the Year
Winner – Ryan Peteranna, Stirling University
Commended – Valentina Servera, Glasgow Clyde College
Mobile Journalism Story of the Year
Winner – Stephen Couse, Glasgow Caledonian
Commended – Joe Gardner, Glasgow Caledonian
Podcast of the Year
Winner – Jamie Braidwood and team, Napier University
Commended – Kieran Daly and team, Stirling University
Arts and Entertainment Story of the Year
Winner – Iain Galbraith, Glasgow Clyde College
Commended – Madeleine Dunne, Glasgow Caledonian University
Sports Story of the Year
Winner – David Brockett, Glasgow Caledonian
Commended – Callum Clark, Glasgow Caledonian
News Story of the Year
Winner – Rozlyn Little, Stirling University
Commended – Stephen McCabe, Glasgow Clyde College
For more information, contact The Scottish Student Journalism Award 2018 team at:
Bobby Thomson, ssjaawards2018@gmail.com
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Email: ssjaawards2018@gmail.com
