At The Chanticleer, we work diligently to ensure material is of the highest journalistic standard possible. We strive to inform the local community about things that may directly or indirectly affect them. Everyone on campus deserves to use their voice and to be heard.
We cannot do our job as “the student voice of Coastal Carolina University” if the voices are silenced.
This Friday, The Chanticleer will travel to Columbia to accept 11 awards that our individual members and organization as a whole won from the South Carolina Press Association.
We compete in the collegiate division with over 10,000 students, facing other student publications like Clemson University’s newspaper, The Tiger, and University of South Carolina’s newspaper, The Daily Gamecock.
Frances Ludwig, managing editor/design, brought home gold for a specialty page design– the first time The Chanticleer has seen a first-place award since the SCPA’s 2022 Collegiate Contest presented on March 31, 2023, in Clemson. At the time, we were competing in the above 5,000 students division.
Ludwig individually won five awards for her feature writing, designs, graphics and illustrations.
Ludwig, along with Editor-in-Chief Madisyn Padgett, won a third-place award for their news story, “Raising rent at what cost,” covering the increasing rent amongst non-university affiliated housing in Conway.
Meadow Myers, multimedia editor, was named the SCPA Foundation Scholar; this is the third year in a row that a member from The Chanticleer has been awarded a scholarship for their journalistic work.
Madison Sharrock, managing editor/content, and now alumni Caroline Surface were recognized across three categories for website design, use of social media and podcast.
Sharrock was named the Lee Harter Collegiate Journalist of the Year for (over 10,000 division) after she was named the Frank R. Mundy Scholar in 2023 and an SCPA intern last year.
Despite our noteworthy accolades and all we strive to be, some faculty, staff and students on campus still do not trust student media– even those who promised to advocate for our rights as journalists.
We are not to be viewed as naive children playing journalists; We are award-winning young adults pursuing undergraduate degrees.
We are having problems like never before talking to sources– or rather getting sources to talk to us.
Staff members are afraid to talk to Chanticleer reporters. One staff member approached a reporter after an interview, asking to redact his statements because his boss told him he’s not allowed to talk to us. He seemed genuinely afraid for his livelihood.
Faculty and administrators, even those within our own division of University Belonging and Student Affairs, may not speak with us unless facilitated by university media correspondents. Even in face-to-face conversations, we’ve recently been verbally redirected for further correspondence.
If you’re distrustful of student media– ask yourself why. Being afraid of student media only limits the scope of voices represented and prevents robust information from educating audiences.
