Student Journalists Discuss Current Events, Their Awards & Contemporary Journalism

Award winning student journalists: Praveena Somasundarum (Pulitzer Center Fellow) and Abby Bekele, Photo journalist from The Guilfordian discussed with surprise guest: Dr. Cheryl Hatch, Professor of English the latest journalism awards won by Guilford College.  

The Society of Professional Journalists, Region 2 (NC, VA, Maryland, & Washington, D.C.) Mark of Excellence awards have been given for about 60 years and this year was the first collection of wins for Guilford College.  Praveena (2017 Pulitzer Center Fellow) won first place for her coverage of the Newcomer's School in Greensboro. Abby won first place in photo journalism for her picture of Former Vice-President Joe Biden (a guest during Guilford's Bryan Series this year). Abby also was a finalist for her photo of football action play.

Praveena, Abby & Cheryl went on to discuss their "take" on the state of contemporary journalism - both in print and on television.  Both Praveena & Abby wanted to focus their future work in journalism on stories that were not in the headlines. Both advocated for the presentation of the objective facts from editorializing and analysis shows.

Cheryl added her experience and perspectives on how the field of journalism needs to stay true to the objective presentation of fact and Brough in the fact that Ted Koppel (when he was a guest at Guilford College's Bryan Series) emphasized his disapproval of the bleeding of objective journalism and commentary.