University of Louisiana at Lafayette student Brooke Arnaud of Arnaudville placed third in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program recently.
Her third place award of $1,000 in the radio competition affords her the opportunity to submit additional tapes for a second round of judging in the semi-finals. Five contestants in radio and five contestants in television will then be selected to compete in Hearst's national broadcast news championships in San Francisco, along with winners of the writing and photo journalism competitions.
Arnaud's pieces sent in for competition, which focused on features, were written and produced as part of Dr. William Davie's Broadcast News class. The class prepares radio segments for the Louisiana Focus radio program that plays on KRVS FM.
Arnaud is the fourth top ten winner since the class started the NPR-styled news program, according to Davie.
Her pieces submitted for competition were focused on Ernest Babineaux, a Breaux Bridge legend who is considered to be a traiteur, or healer. Her interview and commentary about the 73-year-old man includes vivid descriptions about the home of Babineaux, and an insight into how he discovered that he could heal people.
Arnaud's second submission was a feature about the university's newly opened LITE facility. In her commentary, she references the virtual reality applications that can take place within the facility's walls as well as its potential for economic development and research.
The top five winners in both radio and television were selected from among 38 radio and 57 television entries submitted. The 2006-2007 broadcast news competitions are held in more than 100 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs.
For this competition, the schools of the award-winning students received matching grants from the Hearst foundation.