Viewpoints Racks Up Awards at Spring Journalism Conferences

Riverside City College’s student newspaper Viewpoints defeated its previous record of accolades by earning 23 at the spring National College Media Convention held jointly with the California Journalism Association of Community Colleges State Convention. The conferences returned to in-person attendance for the first time in two years at the Long Beach Hyatt March 3-5.

Viewpoints earned a 4th place Best of Show for General Excellence Award for its print edition, which relaunched in the fall of 2021 after being virtual for a year during the height of the pandemic. Viewpointsonline.org earned 9th place in the same category in the Associated Collegiate Press national event.

At the JACC statewide competition, the paper received the General Excellence Award — its 41^st since 1996 — for its online edition. The print edition also earned this award following the yearlong hiatus. In all the staff earned 16 awards, which reflected work from previous semesters.

Students entered stories, photos, and other multimedia projects created in the spring and fall 2021 semesters and participated in on-the-spot contests to compete against other California community college students. Categories and winners follow.

Statewide On-the-Spot Awards

• Copy editing: Leo Cabral (editor-in-chief) – honorable mention
• News writing
  • Jennipher Vasquez (news editor) – 3^rd place
  • John Michael Guerrero (social media manager) – honorable mention
• News photo: Daniel Hernandez (managing editor) – 3^rd place
• Social media: John Michael Guerrero – honorable mention

Statewide Awards (Spring and Fall 2021)

• News writing:
  • Erik Galicia (former editor-in-chief) – 1^st place for The fight for California’s great lake
• Editorial cartoon: Julianna Hernandez (former student) – 4^th place
• Enterprise News Story/Series:
  • Joyce Nugent (former student) – Meritorious Award for the four-part story Colorado River Series: California drought impacts local agriculture

• Feature story:
  • Diego Lomeli (former student) and Daniel Hernandez – honorable mention for The Syde Project: Inland Empire dancers foster a community driven by passion

• Daesha Gear (assistant news editor) – honorable mention

• Front page layout: Viewpoints staff – 3^rd place
• Photo story-essay: Angel Peña (former student) – honorable mention
• Sports feature photo and action photo: Daniel Hernandez – 1^st place

The national convention, sponsored by the Associated Collegiate Press, California College Media Association and the JACC featured over 100 sessions for student learning, training, networking, and exhibiting.

Keynotes included: Tom Curwen and Francine Orr of the Los Angeles Times; Rick Green of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on why journalism still matters; Steve Padilla, Los Angeles Times and Samantha Melbourneweaver also of Los Angeles Times, who spoke about audience engagement.

For more info about Viewpoints visit viewpointsonline.org. Find more about RCC’s Journalism program.