The Broadcast Education Association has recognized the excellent work of University of Montana School of Journalism students in its annual awards competition and given Associate Professor Jule Banville the “Best of Competition” award for an audio documentary that aired on her podcast, Last Best Stories.
Banville’s award comes from the faculty division of the competition, which also recognizes student work. More than 1,530 entries were considered. Banville’s work will be featured at the annual BEA Festival of Media Arts in April in Las Vegas.
UM Journalism School students and projects placing in the student division include:
The Meth Effect, a multimedia reporting project that came out of a class co-taught by JuleBanville and Associate Professor of Journalism Lee Banville, won 2nd place in the Interactive Media and Emerging Technologies Competition, large team division.
Journalism Senior Rosie Costain won 2nd Place with “Accordion Man” in the Student News/Radio Feature competition.
Nora Saks, a student in the Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism graduate program, won the “award of excellence” in radio hard news reporting for her story on two sisters tackling drug use on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The story aired on Montana Public Radio and NPR’s Weekend Edition last spring.
UM News, the weekly news segment produced by senior broadcast journalism students, was awarded 2nd place in the Television Newscast category.
Banville’s winning entry is an audio story about a woman who owns the town of Pray in Montana’s Paradise Valley and can’t find someone to buy it. It can be heard as Episode 11 of Last Best Stories, “Owning Pray.”
Banville’s podcast, which launched in 2015, has been featured in the Missoula Independent, the Missoulian, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Distinctly Montana magazine, and newsletters that include the Flyover Podcast and the Audit. Via the podcast, she was also a guest on NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders.”
Montana Journalism 