School of Journalism and Media students won five national Telly Awards for their coverage of the 2024 Paralympic Games.
The awards program honors the best work created in television and video. The program receives more than 13,000 entries globally each year from some of the most respected companies in television, advertising, filmmaking, and online content.
“I am so happy for the team,” said Professor Erin Whiteside, who led nine students to Paris last August to cover the Games for the USA TODAY Network. “They worked so hard during our time before and in Paris and produced quality work that both informed and entertained. These awards are so well deserved and couldn’t go to a more dedicated and committed group of students.”
Recent graduate Lukas Vysniauskas (‘24) won a Gold Telly for his reporting on US Paralympian Carson Clough in the Student Social Video Series category. The award-winning video follows Clough’s journey from his training in Utah to competing at the Games.
Senior Kylia Berry won a Silver Telly for her coverage of US Paralympian Matt Stutzman in the Student Social Video Series category. Her video chronicles how the gold medal American archer taught himself the sport. Recent graduate Griffin Hadley (‘25) won a Bronze Telly for his video explainer on goalball in the Student Social Video Series category. The entries were supported by the award-winning photography of Avery Bane and Ryan Beatty.
Along with individual awards, the School of Journalism and Media won two Silver Tellys in the Social Video Series Sports and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion categories. Students credited on these Telly Awards included Vysniauskas, Hadley, Berry, Lillian Van Alsburg, Ryan Beatty and Avery Bane. School of Journalism and Media faculty members Whiteside and Professor Nick Geidner were also credited.
Whiteside said honors such as the Tellys increase the visibility of adaptive athletes and highlight the need for continued coverage of adaptive sports. She said athletes with disabilities are often covered in ways that minimize their athleticism and competitiveness.
“Our approach was to broaden the cultural definition of athleticism and help audiences challenge their definitions of who can be a ‘real’ athlete, along with how they think about disability more broadly,” Whiteside said. “The more we see athletes with disabilities in powerful and athletic ways, the more we can expand our cultural definitions about disability and also what it means to be an athlete.”
Land Grant Films documentary wins Telly Award
Land Grant Films and Lumos Media Services within The Media Center at the College of Communication and Information also won a Bronze Telly in the Student Film and Shorts category for Shooting for an ‘A’: Video Games and Education.
The documentary tells the story of how Associate Professor Tore Olsson utilized the popular Red Dead Redemption video game series as part of his course to educate students about the different events, people, and themes of American history in the West, deep South and Appalachia during the late 1800s. Olsson also published a book—Red Dead’s History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America’s Violent Past.
Students and recent graduates credited with the Telly for the documentary included journalism and media majors Eliza Noell and Brynn Bickell, cinema studies major Ben Cline, and recent graduate Jacob Morelock (‘24).
“This year has been one for the record books, and these Tellys continue to demonstrate the professional-level talent of so many of our students,” said Amy Jo Coffey, director of the School of Journalism and Media. “Not only were our students competing in a global competition with thousands of entries, but it’s such a broad array of video platforms. Whether it’s social video or documentary film or other formats, our students continue to shine.”