Ireland’s 14th annual National Student Media Awards (the Smedias), took place last night (Wednesday, April 9) in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin, with over 600 students, sponsors, judges and celebrity guests in attendance.
A record number of entries from student journalists all over Ireland competed for awards in categories such as TV Production, Short Animation, Film Script and Journalist of the Year. DIT managed to rack up an impressive seven awards winning in the Colour Writer of the Year (Eoghan McNeill); Film Script of the Year (Marcus Campbell); News Photographer of the Year (Natalia Marzec); Features Writer: Arts & Pop Culture (Amanda Connolly); Radio DJ of the Year (Graham O'Toole); Radio Production: News and Current Affairs (Alice Flanigan); and Editor of the Year went to Al McConnell for his work with the student publication, ‘The Edition’.
Behind DIT were UCD, Trinity, UCC and Griffith who each earned three awards. UCD were the strongest in the traditional print media this year with the ‘University Observer’ winning all the university’s awards. The student publication won ‘Newspaper of the Year’ along with reporter Elizabeth O’Malley winning ‘Journalist of the Year’ and ‘The Observer’s’ Editor Kevin Beirne winning the ‘Features Writer: News and Politics’ Award.
Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) won four awards on the night with student Michael Carolan taking home the ‘Short Film of the Year’ award for his film ‘1000 Yards’, which caught the attention of the category’s judge, award-winning film-maker Lenny Abrahamson. It has been a big year for film in IADT after the President Michael D. Higgins opened the new National Film School on the campus last November.
Oxygen.ie, the largest student website in Ireland, organised the awards which welcomed industry guests such as Game of Thrones’ star Liam Cunningham, RTÉ News’ Aengus MacGrianna, TV3’s Elaine Crowley and rugby pundit Brent Pope.
The Managing Director of Oxygen.ie, Colman Byrne, said: “Now more than ever, Ireland needs questioning and investigative journalists. In an era where the media industry is in constant flux and news breaks 24 hours a day, it is important to encourage and celebrate new and traditional media.”
