Franklin Regional students had one of their best performances in recent years at the annual Digital Media Arts Consortium competition, held at Robert Morris University.
Students in the high school’s broadcasting and journalism classes won nine DMAC awards including the coveted Best In Category award for the FRHSTV news show.
Senior Carson Burgh was part of six award-winning entries and was also presented with the Founders Award, given to a senior who competition judges felt has devoted their passion and energy to their high school media department.
“I love storytelling,” said Burgh, 17. “I love how creative you can be. You can tell a story in so many different ways.”
Burgh and freshman Josh Vinton won an Feature Package Video Award for their coverage of the annual basketball game that Franklin Regional hosts with special-needs students from the Clelian Heights school in Salem.
“I loved the whole process of telling that story,” Burgh said. “Plus, it was an on-the-spot event. Sometimes you’re working on a story and you think, ‘I can catch up with that person later,’ but for this, we had to be there to cover it or we’d miss it. It meant a lot to win that award in such a competitive category.”
Vinton, 14, said the Clelian Heights package was his favorite piece, but credited all of the students in the broadcasting class.
“It’s a great team to work with,” Vinton said.
Multimedia teacher Becky Magness said her broadcasting and journalism classes have grown recently.
“The first couple years after covid we had very small classes,” she said. “Last year we had maybe seven or eight students and now we’re up to 15. And next year there will be almost two full classes of kids.”
When it comes to FRHSTV, the broadcasting class’s daily news show, teamwork is crucial.
“There’s times when we end up rallying behind each other and getting it done,” said junior Emerson Bush, 17. “We all work well together.”
Junior Belle Ralston, 17, agreed.
“I think it’s a cool community to be a part of,” she said. “It teaches you how to work and learn with other people.”
For Burgh, that was an important addition to her multimedia education.
“This is the first year I’ve collaborated with other students on award submissions,” she said. “Figuring out how to edit all of our video down to just two-and-a-half minutes is a big challenge, and collaborating with Josh this year was really helpful.”
Junior Gianna Carozza and sophomore Emma Beacom won a Best in Category award (Video as Art) for “The Soundtrack of Reality,” a piece about why students listen to music in their headphones.
Carozza said one of her favorite things is simply shooting what’s referred to as “B-roll,” where camera operators shoot the general scene in and around whatever news item they’re covering. Carozza said it was important to her to give viewers a better sense of daily life in the high school.
“I liked capturing different things in the school, and seeing all of those things in the show,” Carozza said.
Nearly all of the broadcasting students said coming together to encourage each others’ creativity is a big part of why they enjoy it.
“It’s great working as a team and making friends with everyone,” said junior Nathan Kuzmkowski, 16. “It’s kind of like a family and it’s a nice group to work with.”