The Election Project won first place in the Special Projects or Special Coverage category at the 2025 Green Eyeshade Awards.
The project was a collaborative reporting initiative between the School of Journalism and Media and The Media Center at the College of Communication and Information covering the 2024 presidential election and other civic topics. The project combined classwork and content developed through various student media outlets such as The Volunteer Channel (TVC) and The Daily Beacon.
The Election Project also took home second place in the Public Service in Student Journalism category. This was the second regional public service journalism award the project received. Earlier this year, the project won “Best in the South” in public service journalism at the 2025 Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC).
“Public service is part of being a land-grant institution and our student journalists’ work fully illustrates that,” said Amy Jo Coffey, director of the School of Journalism and Media. “These awards are validation that judges recognize the students’ role not just as public servants and effective communicators, but of the highest order.”
The Election Project’s wins were a fraction of the many accolades student journalists from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, received as part of the 75th Annual Green Eyeshade Awards—including four more first-place awards in the Editorial Leadership, Audio Journalism, News Writing, and Light Feature Writing.
Since 1950, the awards have recognized excellence in journalism across the Southeast. The awards considered work produced in 2024 from print, digital, radio and television outlets in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Here is the full list of award winners and finalists from UT:
Audio Journalism
First Place: Pierce Gentry (WUOT)
Editorial Leadership
First Place: Grey MacNicoll (TVC)
Light Feature Writing
First Place: Jack Church (The Daily Beacon)
News Writing
First Place: Shelby Wright (The Daily Beacon)
Special Projects or Special Coverage
First Place: TVC staff and Beacon staff, (Election Project)
Print Design
Second Place: Ciara Chauncey (The Daily Beacon)
Public Service in Student Journalism
Second Place: Election Project (TVC and The Daily Beacon)
Social Media Strategy
Second Place: Gracyn Thatcher and TVC Staff (TVC Social Media)
Student News Outlet
Second Place: Grey MacNicoll, Gracyn Thatcher, Kylia Berry and Riley Haltom (TVC)
Column Writing
Third Place: Ansley Graves (The Daily Beacon)
For the full results visit: https://www.greeneyeshade.org/2025-winners/