Accolades keep coming for The Chanticleer

Podcaster and YouTuber Joe Rogan may have said it best “In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”

The writers and staff of The Chanticleer take those twenty-six letters every month and create magic, telling the stories of fantastic athletic achievement, outstanding academic scholarship, and brilliant artistic creatives, all who claim Coastal Carolina University their home.

The Chanticleer brought home four South Carolina Press Association Awards for Collegiate Journalism at the annual conference on April 6, 2019. The South Carolina Press Association honors the best writers, editors, and photographers across all of the colleges and universities within the state each year. This year is the most awards The Chanticleer has ever won in the newspaper’s history. Editor-in-Chief Ian Livingston Brooking won three 3rd place awards in Sports Photograph, Sports Story, and Feature Story categories.

Brooking is a senior Communication major and Photography minor at Coastal. He has worked with The Chanticleer all four years of college, beginning as a sports photographer and working his way up to Editor-in-Chief.

“It is an honor just to be nominated,” said Brooking. “It is even more humbling to win. I have never written a story or taken a photograph expecting an award to come out of it. I do what I do at the paper to be a voice for people who feel like they don’t have one, to tell a story for someone who thinks that their story doesn’t matter. I love what I do as a journalist and the fact that I am being awarded for it is just an added bonus.”

Alyssa Brennan won 2nd place in Editorial Writing. Brennan is the Assistant Editor of The Chanticleer and an Early Childhood Education major.

“This award means a lot to me,” said Brennan. “I’ve been making up stories since I learned how to write sentences. Writing is definitely one of my passions, so to be recognized for my writing, and about an issue that I’m very passionate about, gun violence, really means so much to me.”

The accolades kept coming for The Chanticleer this semester as earlier this month Brooking was invited to speak at Harvard University for their annual Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism. Brooking had attended the conference in 2016, along with other college students from across the country, but this year he was invited to speak as a guest.

While Brooking was “shocked” to be invited to speak at the conference, The Chanticleer’s faculty advisor Caroline P. Rohr wasn’t that surprised of the hard-working editor.

“Ian has given all of himself to The Chanticleer, and I hope those who attended the panel at Harvard could see his passion and dedication to journalism,” said Rohr. “It’s a testament to his body of work that he earned an invitation to sit on such a panel.”

Brooking reflected on his previous times going to Harvard and what the experiences have meant for him.

“I’ve been to Harvard twice as a representative of the University and the paper. I’ve gained so much knowledge going both times but to go back to speak was incredibly humbling. To this day I am still shocked that I actually went and spoke at a conference at Harvard University. I was shocked to be invited and even now after being there, doing it, and coming home I still have to pinch myself to believe it happened.”

Brooking is the first student from The Chanticleer to be invited to speak at Harvard University. Brennan still has a few years of school at Coastal Carolina University left and hopes to spend it working for The Chanticleer. Brooking plans to continue his journalism career here, in Horry County with his job as producer at WPDE News Channel 15, while coming back to Coastal Carolina after graduation for the new Masters of Arts in Communication program starting in Fall 2019.

There is no doubt that wherever Brennan and Brooking end up they will continue to leave their mark in the journalism world.