The BYU Broadcast Journalism program has been placed among the five top university student news programs by the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), ranked along with other schools including University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and Arizona State University.
Rankings are tabulated based on the number of student winners and the quality of the awards from more than 300 schools competing in the BEA Festival of Media Arts over the last five years. The festival is the largest broadcast and media competition for students and faculty in the world, offering multiple news categories that entrants compete for including television, radio, sports, video and more.
“There are thousands of entries that go into this competition every year,” said Chad Curtis, broadcast news manager for the program. “Traditionally we have done very well, particularly in the television categories.”
The program’s ranking reflects BYU’s strong broadcast journalism curriculum backed by experienced professional mentors, a successful internship program and practical coursework that includes running a daily news show at noon on KBYU Channel 11, where broadcast students take roles as the anchors, reporters and producers.
“Our students obtain great hands-on experience because they run the daily news show on the PBS affiliate for Utah,” said Ed Carter, director of the BYU School of Communications. “Most of what they report on is off campus, covering legislature, politics, sports, crime and more.”
The ranking validates the efforts made by the broadcast faculty and students to excel as a program, and provides an incentive for them to continue to improve and become more competitive in the news industry.
“Our students’ performance at this level verifies what we’re doing here and the methods we use,” Curtis added. “It shows that our program is creating professionals who are not merely ready to enter the industry when they graduate, but ready to enter at a very high level.”
For the BEA methodology and rankings in all student competitions, visit www.BEAweb.org
About the BEA Festival of Media Arts:
The BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work. The Festival provides a venue for exhibition of winning submissions, including recognition of project authors, through showcase and awards sessions held during BEA’s annual convention in Las Vegas. The Festival seeks to enhance and extend creative activities, teaching and professional standards in broadcasting and other forms of electronically mediated communication. Visit www.beafestival.org for more information.