Election Project

The Volunteer Channel (TVC) received a 2025 Gracie Awards Honorable Mention for the student-run television station’s hour-long Election Day live special Voting Matters. The special was a mix of pre-recorded segments and live interviews with local public officials as part of the Election Project—a collaborative reporting initiative between the School of Journalism and Media and…

Student journalists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, won several first-place and finalist awards at the annual Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region 12 Conference last month. Award-winning work included stories covering Hurricane Helene and the 2024 presidential election campaign. Senior journalism and media major and The Daily Beacon Editor-in-Chief Shelby Wright said she is…

TVC students celebrate after successfully producing “Voting Matters,” a live Election Day special, on Nov. 5, 2024. Three weeks before Election Day, School of Journalism and Media Assistant Professor of Practice Brittany Tarwater reached out to the student leadership at The Volunteer Channel (TVC) with an idea to produce an Election Day live special. Inspired…

With messages such as “Voting is Key” and “Rock the Vote,” students in Professor Rob Heller’s class once again designed billboards in partnership with Lamar Advertising to encourage Tennesseeans to vote this November. Heller said six billboard designs shared with Lamar Advertising began running on digital billboards throughout Tennessee on October 4 and the company…