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Call for entries: 2021-22 MIPA Student Media Contests

Call for entries: 2021-22 MIPA Student Media Contests

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To: MIPA Student Media Advisers
From: Jeremy Steele, MIPA director
Subject:  2021-22 MIPA Contests

We’re excited to roll out information for all of our annual contests. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions. MIPA is committed to assisting our members as much as possible as we all continue to work through the impacts of the pandemic.

Deadlines

While we continue to the monitor the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we are returning this year to a single deadline — Feb. 18, 2022 — for our contests. Print newspapers and newsmagazines, news websites and broadcast programs may enter our Spartan Critique contest until March 18 under the late deadline.

Please carefully review the information in this call for entries.

  • Yearbook individual categories 1-33 (from your 2021 book): Feb. 18
  • Student Journalist Staff: Feb. 18
  • Golden Pen Award: Feb. 18
  • Administrator of the Year: Feb. 18
  • News, Digital Media & Video individual categories: Feb. 18
  • Spartan Critique deadline for Newspaper/Newsmagazine, Website and Video Broadcast: Feb. 18
  • Spartan Critique LATE deadline for Newspaper/Newsmagazine, Website and Video Broadcast: March 18
  • Judging Day: Saturday, March 5, in person at Michigan State University or remotely

Contests overview

  • Please go https://mipamsu.org/contest-central to get all contest information. You can also find all contest information by clicking on the Contests & Awards menu at MIPA’s website.
  • Award winners will be announced during a live, online ceremony. A schedule for awards announcements will be released later in the spring. You will be able to make arrangements to have award certificates shipped to you.
  • It’s important to carefully read category descriptions and contest rules. Failure to follow contest directions may result in your entries being disqualified.
  • YOU MUST BE A MIPA MEMBER TO ENTER CONTESTS. Membership information, including a member list that is updated weekly, is available at https://mipamsu.org/membership. Membership in MIPA runs the academic year.
  • All entries must be submitted by the deadline to be eligible for awards. Entries submitted by mail must be postmarked by the deadline. Entries submitted electronically must be uploaded using MIPA’s contest submission system by 11:59 p.m. on the deadline day. Payment is due by the same deadline.
  • We are using the same online systems as last year to run contests. Some systems require you to make a new account to submit entries.
  • PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW YOUR STUDENTS TO CREATE THEIR OWN ACCOUNTS TO UPLOAD INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY CONTEST ENTRIES! You should have only one account for your media program. It’s OK with us if you allow students to use your account to help submit entries.
  • DO NOT RELY ON YOUR CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION OFFICE TO MAIL CONTEST MATERIALS! It’s best to go to the post office yourself and mail the package! It is too important to you and to your students to risk letting it go through school mail. And to be even more sure (especially if you are mailing it on the deadline day), ask to see the postmark on the package and then get a receipt. We also recommend you get a tracking number.
  • Please keep a copy of each of the forms that you send for your records. Also, please don’t hesitate to contact the MIPA office if you have questions at 517-353-6761 or ask@mipamsu.org.
  • A Cut Above, MIPA’s showcase of first-place contest winners, is available online at http://acutabove.mipamsu.org. This website features first-place winners in each division of previous contests to help you get an idea of what judges are looking for. (We are continuing to update this site with last year’s contest winners.)

*It is possible to send in Newspaper, Web or Video Spartan contest entries up to one month late (see deadlines above) for an additional $40 fee. We cannot guarantee critiques submitted for the late deadline will be returned before the end of the school year. Spartan submissions postmarked after the late deadline may receive a critique, but will not be eligible to receive an award ranking. Late entries will not be accepted for the Individual Category Contests.

Solve our most common problems by carefully reading category descriptions!

  • Nearly all problems we ran across in last year’s contest were because entry instructions were not followed.
  • Carefully check over any entries uploaded into the contest system by students. See the contest how-to guide for information on how to view and edit entries.
  • We strongly recommend that you submit original photos AND the final designed pages for photography categories. It helps judges more accurately determine the quality of an image.
  • Double-check to make sure entries are submitted into the correct category. Entries submitted into the wrong category will be disqualified. You must delete and then resubmit any materials submitted into the wrong category.
  • Please plan ahead so your contest entry fees are processed by the contest deadline. It is taking many school business offices longer than normal to issue checks or make credit card payments.
  • If an entry is one of several similar items on a page, make sure it is very clear which item should be judged!

Find these materials at mipamsu.org

These are the items you will find at the MIPA website on the contest page. Look for the Contests & Awards menu at the top of the page:

Spartan Critique – Feb. 18/March 18

Your newspaper, new website or video program will be evaluated against MIPA’s standard. You’ll receive written comments and an award based on your score.

Please review requirements for each critique type for exceptions to our general critique entry rules for programs negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Special Honors – Feb. 18

Individual Category Contests – Feb. 18

Students’ work will compete head-to-head in one of more than 100 categories!

ACES – OUR CONTEST SUBMISSION SYSTEM

  • We use the ACES platform – Advanced Contest Entry System – designed by our friends at the Illinois Press Association.
  • Each MIPA member will need to register for an ACES account – even if you had one last year.
  • View video tutorials on how to use the new system in our “how to” guide
  • All categories in our contest use the same fields. Some categories use fields differently, so it’s important to read the instructions for each category.
  • If you can’t find your media program in the pre-programmed list, please contact the MIPA office before you begin uploading.
  • Enrollment data for your school is pulled from the most recent numbers available from the Michigan Department of Education, or in a few cases from other publicly available databases (like MHSAA). For yearbooks, the enrollment number actually is the number of pages in your 2020 yearbook.
  • If you run into any problems, please contact the MIPA office. We’re happy to help you!

WHAT’S NEW FOR THE 2021-2022 CONTEST?

Every year, we try to improve MIPA’s contests to keep up with changing technologies and the world of media. We also are constantly working to make the contests easier to enter and manage. Here are some changes for this year’s contest:

GENERAL RULES REVISIONS

  • No major changes

NEW CATEGORIES

  • Y-23. Alternative Story Form Presentation
  • Y-25. Feature Presentation – Mini-Mag, Special Section or Supplement
  • Y-26. Feature Presentation – Individual Spread

CATEGORY REVISIONS

  • These News Writing categories previously limited to online-only content have been expanded to allow content published in any written medium: 
    • NW-01. Breaking News Coverage
    • NW-03. Follow-up News Coverage
  • DM-09. Podcast has been revised so that an entry is a single episode of a podcast series or a standalone podcast episode.
  • Remote Newscast has been eliminated as a separate category. Members may submit any newscast produced in the studio, remotely or in the field into the Newscast category.
  • Yearbook Sports Reporting has been eliminated as a separate category. Sports writing entries can be submitted into Feature Writing – Sports.
  • Yearbook Proud Parent Advertisements has been limited to 1 entry per program because we’ve found most yearbooks use templated designs for these ads.
  • Category descriptions and judging criteria have been updated throughout to clarify language.
  • Some categories have been re-arranged and categories have been re-numbered to reflect changes.
  • Several categories have been renamed to better reflect the desired content of entries. Notable changes include:
    • In Yearbook, Sports Reporting is now Sports Writing – Game or Season Highlights