Back in the winners circle.
Former Brownsville resident Raul Garcia Jr. picked up seven awards at the Texas Press Association Awards Luncheon recently for his journalism work at the Mercedes Enterprise newspaper.
The Mercedes Enterprise had not competed in the TPA Better Newspaper Contest in more than 20 years, Garcia said. He is the son of Raul Garcia, Sr., Community Development Coordinator with the Cameron County Economic Development & Community Affairs Department.
Garcia Jr. is the current editor of the weekly publication where he does it all from gathering the news, reporting the news using multimedia with print, video and photography before beginning the design of the newspaper and editing.
"I looked over all of the work we did and submitted our best to the contest officials in early February and in May we were alerted we had won, but the announcement of the contest winners would not be revealed until the end of the Texas Press Association's Annual Convention. I waited a very long time for this and put in a lot of hard work and hours covering the city of Mercedes to make sure the newspaper had strong news clips to go up against the newspapers across the state in the contest."
At the Texas Press Associaion’s Awards Luncheon The Mercedes Enterprise was selected first for best Online Live News Coverage; second place, News Photography; and fourth, for Feature Photography, General Excellence, Page Design, Sports Coverage and Sports Photography.
"It was exciting to hear the Mercedes Enterprise's name get called as winner in the newspaper contest so many times," Garcia said. "I entered the Enterprise in 10 categories and I felt in my heart we would win first in at least one, and we did. I'm very happy to have been recognized by my journalism peers for my work submitted into the contest categories. For first place it was a real team effort from the Publisher Dr. Barbara Baggerly Hinojosa, C.A. Hinojosa and myself to produce and broadcast a live political debate online."
Awards were presented on July 29 at the TPA Convention & Trade Show, held at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center in San Marcos.
The Mercedes Enterprise competed in the Texas Newspapers Division 6 with other newspapers around the state who print weekly and are a similar size.
"The Mercedes Enterprise made a huge splash at the Awards Luncheon," Garcia said. "The paper had not been involved with the convention or entered the newspaper contest in 20 years or more. Our last award as far as I know was a first place finish for news photography taken back sometime between 1985 and 1990 by Robert Hinds, the newspaper's former publisher and editor. I am definitely looking forward to next year's convention and newspaper contest. The bar has been set now that the Enterprise is has been recognized as one of the best newspapers in the state."
The judges of the contest were the West Virginia Press Association and offered comments in three of the categories in which the Mercedes Enterprise placed. For first place in Online Live Coverage, the judges wrote, "Bold move to present live debate. Well done and good print and online support." In General Excellence, the judges wrote, “Good use of photos and solid local news.” For News Photography the judges wrote, "These photos show determination and skill of the photographer."
This year’s contest featured 18 categories and participating newspapers were invited to submit entries from work published between Sept. 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021. This year, 80 newspapers submitted 850 entries in the contest. Competitions were divided into divisions in which newspapers competed against publications of similar circulation. Fifty-three weekly newspapers competed in divisions 5 through 9, submitting 494 entries.
The Mercedes Enterprise is the second oldest newspaper South of San Antonio, only second to the Brownsville Herald. It has been in print since 1908. The Enterprise prints weekly on Wednesday, and reports community and state news.
Garcia has been editor of the newspaper since 2020, however he was appointed managing editor in 2007 by then publisher Robert Hinds and was an interim editor for a brief stint in 2008 after the passing of Hinds in July 2008.
Garcia holds a Master's Degree in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University. As a journalism student at Michigan State University he was recognized between 2002 and 2003 for outstanding works in journalism at the Michigan State University School of Journalism annual Symposium.
In 2004 he was appointed editor of the Lansing Community College student newspaper, The Lookout. As a reporter for Aim Media at the Valley Morning Star, Garcia was recognized by the Associated Press Managing Editors for Best Video News Report longer than two minutes in 2016. In 2017 best newspaper at the Valley Morning Star; 2018 second place Team Effort. In 2019 the TPME awarded Garcia honorable mention for best online multimedia package news report.
Garcia was a student at Olivera Middle School, where he wrote his first sports feature story about baseball, he attended Brownsville Hanna High and is a former student reporter of the University of Brownsville UTRGV The Collegian student newspaper, and as reporter for the Valley Morning Star and The Monitor many stories he wrote were published in the Brownsville Herald.
Garcia was a student at Olivera Middle School, where he wrote his first sports feature story about baseball, he attended Brownsville Hanna High and is a former student reporter of the University of Brownsville UTRGV The Collegian student newspaper, and as reporter for the Valley Morning Star and The Monitor many stories he wrote were published in the Brownsville Herald.
9 comments:
Congratulations, great to hear follow Brownsville folks doing Great work in the world. Felicidades, btw i know your dad and I know he must be very proud. .
Where is Mercedes?
New York Murder Suspect Last Seen Heading To Brownsville
WHAT? Pendejetes will blend will with the locals. Hahahahaha pinche gringos/cocos, well maybe with the cocos hahahaha
Todo premio tiene su valor - unos mas que otros.
Recently, the lead story on The Associated Press’ website was how the Jan. 6 House committee unequivocally proved former President Donald Trump spurned aides’ pleas to call off the Capitol mob for hours. It was also the lead story on Reuters. Even the BBC had it as its lead story.
This was the lead story on every major U.S. news website — except on Fox News. On the Fox website, you had to scroll three to four pages down to find anything at all about the hearing. Even then, the headline was “Jan. 6 Committee attempts to show Trump deliberately ignored calls from staff to deescalate riot.”
Sorry, it wasn’t an attempt. It was a spot-on, bull’s-eye smackdown confirmed by Republicans in the Trump administration’s White House and people in his inner circle.
Sadly, there are still many Americans who believe mainstream news media is fake and look to Fox to get what they believe to be fact-based information. Instead, they are getting one-sided propaganda.
It is way past time for all of us to catch a clue that the Fox organization isn’t interested in fact-based journalism. Remember, they pushed the idea the insurrection was caused by antifa and not the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Let’s wise up!
Bill Hudman
Trump's N.J. golf resort hosts Saudi-sponsored event — 9/11 families outraged
Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour comes to Trump's Bedminster club as he claims, "Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11"
Trump said different when Obama was president.
Now if only the worthless Brownsville Hearld could back to investigative journalism and stop catering to certain politicians.
If Trump is found guilty he should be held accountable. But on the same note, so should the Biden’s, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi. We’ll see what happens to Nancy Pelosi’s husband. My guess is nothing. What does the media other than Fox have to say on this? If any of you Hispanic democrats were in the same position as Pelosi’s husband you would be seeing steep fines and probation. And if you were a dark Mexican you would be facing life in prison. Keep voting Democrat. Ignorance is like being hooked on drugs, it’s hard to beat.
Class of what?
Parents now?
Is he really a Brownsvillite?
Post a Comment