The William Randolph Hearst Foundation announced the top 10 winners of its 2020-21 Television News Competition. The winners were selected from 77 entries submitted from 48 schools nationwide in the second television competition of this academic year.

First Place has been awarded to Katelyn Keenehan, a senior from Arizona State University. She wins a $3,000 scholarship and automatically qualifies for the National Television Championship, which will be held in June 2021.

The second through fifth-place finalists are:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Tyler Manion, Arizona State University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Joseline Donoso, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Chris O’Brien,  University of Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Alyssa Jackson, University of Missouri

These finalists, along with the four finalists from the first television competition, qualify to participate in a semi-final round. From that semi-final round, four finalists will be selected to compete in the National Championships, along with the two first place winners in TV and the writing, audio, television and multimedia finalists.

The top five winning schools receive matching grants.

The sixth through tenth-place finalists are:
Sixth Place, certificate, Sam Britten, Michigan State University
Seventh Place, certificate, Ian Gilmour, Michigan State University
Eighth Place, certificate, Addison Albert, Pennsylvania State University
Ninth Place, certificate, John Webb, University of Idaho
Tenth Place, certificate, Ward Jolles, University of South Carolina

The University of Florida has won the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the radio and two television competitions held this year.

It is followed by: Arizona State University; Michigan State University; University of Missouri; Syracuse University; University of Texas, Austin; Kent State University (tie); Pennsylvania State University (tie); Murray State University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

The television judges are: Candy Altman, retired VP of news, Hearst Television, NY; Holly Quan, reporter/anchor, KCBS Radio, San Francisco; Joe Rovitto, president, Clemensem & Rovitto LLC, Pittsburgh.

The top 10 winners in Television News have been announced in the 60th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 74 entries submitted from 45 schools nationwide in the second and final TV competition held this academic year.

First Place has been awarded to Payton Tysinger, a rising senior from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Payton wins a $3,000 scholarship and automatically qualifies for the Hearst Journalism Awards National Television Championship.

The remaining top ten finalists and their awards are:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Dylan McKim, Arizona State University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Omeed Malek, Indiana University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Valerie Lyons, University of Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Spencer Humphrey, University of Missouri
Sixth Place, certificate, Ethan Stein, University of Missouri
Seventh Place, certificate, Lily Cummings, Loyola University New Orleans
Eighth Place, certificate, Jiovanni Lieggi, Kent State University
Ninth Place, certificate, Jilly Kuehn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tenth Place, certificate, Sabrina Maggiore, Syracuse University

The top-five winning schools receive matching grants.

The four following finalists qualify for the semi-final round:
Dylan McKim, Arizona State University, Valerie Lyons, University of Florida, Spencer Humphrey, University of Missouri, Ethan Stein, University of Missouri

Omeed Malek, Indiana University, graduated in spring 2019, and per program guidelines, may not participate in the semi-finals.

The other top winners in this competition, along with the top finalists in the TV Competition will submit additional entries for a semi-final round of judging. Finalists will be chosen from that round to compete in the National Championships, along with writing, photo, radio and multimedia finalists.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the in-person National Championships in Houston will not be held, and we are evaluating alternative possibilities.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the two television and radio competitions.

It is followed by: Arizona State University; University of Florida; University of Missouri; Syracuse University; Pennsylvania State University; Kent State University; University of Colorado; University of Kansas, Michigan State University.

The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

This competition was judged by: Julie Chin, News Director, KNX Radio, CA; Candy Altman, retired Vice President News, Hearst Television, NY; Mary Lynn Roper, retired President and General Manager, KOAT-TV, NM; and Fred Young, retired Senior Vice President of News, Hearst Television, Yardley, PA.

The 60th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program, added broadcast news to the competitions in 1988. The program also includes five writing, one radio, two photo, and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. 104 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.