Reporting I students win Beat Pitch Competition with story on new ESP program

Kelsey Koeing, Eva Duignan, Jack Cooney and Kate Gooding won first place in the fall 2024 Reporting I Beat Story Pitch Competition for their reporting on ESP’s (formerly Extra Special People) music therapy program.

Nine beat groups from all Reporting I sections, totaling about 180 students, presented their pitches in the finale on Nov. 22 in Studio 100, to a crowd of more than 50 students, professors and judges.

The section-wide and course-wide competitions were both held Nov. 22, with more than 20 volunteer judges that included faculty, professionals and students. You can view the photos to see the spirit of the competition. 

Winners of each class section moved on to the final round and presented to a panel of three finale judges, who selected the music beat from Professor Lexie Little’s class as the winner. 

Here’s the budget line from their pitch:

In Watkinsville, Georgia, ESP’s recently founded music therapy program takes advantage of the growing field’s power to improve communication, coordination and motor skills through music, by providing group sessions for patients with various intellectual disabilities. In the music therapy room, students stomp, clap or do what they are able, while staff and volunteers celebrate every small yet meaningful victory achieved with the help of music.

“We thought it was really timely since it was a newly founded music therapy program. You really highlighted the class and went to the class and interacted. You can see the kids dancing, which was really special,” said Nicole Williams, senior manager, partnerships of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Cox Enterprises. “I think readers and audiences would enjoy that piece.”

The Reporting I beats are local music, business/consumer news, city-county government, diversity and sustainability. All of the beats were represented in the finale.

Reporting I, the introductory reporting and writing course organized and led by Professor Lori Johnston, is a required course for journalism and public relations majors. At the beginning of the semester, students research and submit their choices for their top two beats. They are assigned one beat, where they focus on one specific topic, and work on those beats throughout the semester in a variety of practice work and graded assignments. 

They had a month to work on the beat story pitch for the competition, receiving assistance from former Reporting I students who now serve as beat mentors. After several weeks of working on their pitch and presentation, Little’s music beat group saw their hard work reporting on the nonprofit for people with disabilities and their families pay off.

“We spent a good amount of time (at ESP), and we spent a good amount of time on our beat competition,” Koenig said. “So then, being able to even make it to the finals just felt rewarding.”

The group said they learned a lot, both from the competition and from their experience with ESP. Those skills included how to adapt to new situations, report with confidence and be more comfortable interviewing people. The group spent several hours with the members, volunteers and employees of ESP. Gooding said she believes that their strong visual storytelling and passionate content made their presentation stand out.

Reporting I had eight professors for the fall 2024 semester. This semester was the first semester teaching the course for Little, a second-year doctoral student.

“I had no idea what to expect. I was just proud of them for pulling it together in the first place,” Little said. “It was just extra special to see that they won the whole thing.”

Little said she was impressed with how they approached the music beat with a different angle than others and created a story that could have an impact. She plans to continue teaching Reporting I in 2025 and hopes to continue her winning streak. The winning professor each semester holds onto the oversized G fan chain with a Reporting I press pass, which goes to the next winner.

The second-place winners were Ella Wilson, Jessie Isaacs and Emilie Sullivan in the sustainability beat from Professor Lori Johnston’s class with this budget line for their pitch: 

Various sustainable organizations and professors across the University of Georgia are working to reduce negative effects of climate change and food insecurity by educating students on the importance of sustainable practices. Strong communities among students have been built along with a growing positive impact from these efforts on UGA’s campus. Green thumb students are putting time in now to produce food to be sold and eaten next semester as their own effort against food insecurity.

Dr. Jon Peters, head of the Department of Journalism, and associate professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, said in announcing the second-place winners that their diversity of sources showed many dimensions of the story.

“As we were evaluating the work that you’ve done here, we commented on the extraordinary photos and visuals that help bring the story to life and put some humanity into it. It is the ever-present timeliness of climate change and global warming,” Peters said. 

In addition to the provided rubric, Libby Hobbs, editor in chief of The Red & Black and a senior journalism major, and the judges also evaluated the presentations on how complete the stories were.

The third place winners were Gabriella Etienne, Kalana Garner, Emma Greene and Finley Millwood in the diversity beat from Professor Ramsex Nix’s class with this pitch:

Clarke County School District is offering AP African American Studies after the Georgia superintendent decided to defund the course because of Georgia’s “Divisive Concepts” bill. Georgia restored funding in August, after students’ schedules for the year had already changed. Clarke Central High School will offer the course for the first time next semester. This local enterprise story will explore how the CCSD community feels about how topics such as race should be taught in the classroom.

“Whenever we were thinking about the winners, a lot of us were discussing how things go from pitch to publication, and we thought this story was very close to publication,” Hobbs said. “We thought it was very newsworthy and very timely.”

The finalists also included:

• Tracy Coley’s city-county government beat: Saleha Alam, Sinta Halilu, Gabby Kutsup and Kyle Tatelbaum
• Skylar Bandoly’s business beat: Rylee Taylor, Dakota Meeks, Kira Doppel
• Tracy Coley’s business beat: Aslynn Isle, Kaila Jackson, Ansley Kelly, Caden Klein and Kelsie Pearson
• Andrea Hudson’s diversity beat: Jimena Ruano, Anyi Morfaw and Victoria Garcia
• Brown James’ sustainability beat: Nallee Mobley, Whitney Krueger, Wyatt Starke, Andrew Otten
• Brittany Shiver’s business beat: Kaitlyn Bouman, Nick Hasnian, Brooke Lidell, Ashley Parel

Author: Leighton Dancy, Leighton.Dancy@uga.edu