UF's PBS station wins national broadcasting awards

June 9, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Manned mostly by students, the University of Florida’s Public Broadcasting Service station recently won two national Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.

“It’s a confirmation of our hands-on, high-expectations method of teaching and learning,” WUFT-TV News Director Mark Leeps said. “We push our students to deal with daily deadline pressures to create news products for pro in-house stations that reach a wide audience.”

WUFT, which is part of UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, earned SPJ’s coveted Television Newscast award. Two of its students, junior Miles Doran and senior Patrick Fleming, won the Television Breaking News Reporting award for their coverage of Tropical Storm Fay.

“At the drop of a hat,” Leeps recalled, “they traveled 75 miles to report the storm’s landfall in St. Augustine.”

Doran and Fleming will receive their award Aug. 28 at the 2009 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in Indianapolis.

“Our main purpose is teaching,” Leeps said. “But our main goal is very similar to that of a pro TV newsroom: to be a reliable source of news for those who watch our newscasts, and to frequently offer special stories or extra perspectives that viewers won’t be able to find on other Gainesville/Ocala TV stations.”

The college is a national leader in the professional education of future journalists and other communication practitioners. It offers undergraduate programs in advertising, print and broadcast journalism, public relations, and telecommunication production and operations; and graduate programs in science/health communication, media law, political communication and international communication.