MIPA’s Spartan Critique competition allows member newspaper or newsmagazine, yearbook, broadcast video or website programs to get feedback from national leaders in their field. Participating programs may receive a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Spartan Award — MIPA’s highest honor for a program — based on how well they meet MIPA’s student media standards. Programs free of prior review may receive their award “with Distinction.”
Your yearbook, broadcast video production, news website, newspaper or newsmagazine will be sent to an out-of-state judge who will evaluate the program against the standards provided by MIPA in its critique booklet. Winners of the Spartan Award will be recognized at the MIPA Awards Celebration in April, when award certificates for all critique participants are distributed.
Submit a Spartan Critique Entry
Click on an option below to learn more about critiques for specific types of media, see deadlines and/or submit your entry. The member adviser must be logged into MIPA’s website to access the Spartan entry form.
Spartan Re-Evaluations
While critique judges are asked to apply a standard set of guidelines created by MIPA, these critiques represent the opinions and expertise of a single person. Sometimes that person gets it wrong. Learn More or Submit for a Re-Evaluation
Feedback About Your Critique
Help us improve our Spartan Critique program. Your feedback helps us evaluate our critique judges and can shape changes to our student media standards. Submit Feedback About Your Spartan Critique
MIPA Student Media Hall of Fame
In 2002, MIPA launched its Hall of Fame to recognize student media with a tradition of excellence. To be inducted into the MIPA Hall of Fame, a student media outlet must accumulate nine Spartans in a 10-year span. Learn more
A note about contests
MIPA strongly encourages administrators, students and teachers to participate in a range of competitions to evaluate how well a student media outlet meets course objectives and professional standards. Judging in any single contest or rating service is a subjective process, and each has slightly different rules, deadlines and entry criteria. Each critique you receive can be an important educational tool for the classroom, but no single contest can provide a complete assessment of the quality of a program. That’s why MIPA strongly discourages the use of our contests and critiques, regardless of the outcome of that contest or critique, in teacher evaluations.