Urban Plains—the 2015 senior capstone website for the SJMC magazine media, news and digital media production students—won the student interactive multimedia “Best of Festival” award at this year’s Broadcast Education Association contest.

The BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work. There were 1,500 entries from more than 175 institutions. The awards will be presented at the BEA convention in Las Vegas in April.

Urban Plains was previously named best online magazine by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication; best online edition at the Iowa College Media Association contest; first place for multimedia story in the Associated Collegiate Press Awards; and has received multiple awards for individual writing, design, photography, and video in those contests and in
the Telly Awards.

—Kathleen Richardson, Dean, SJMC