Makerere University bagged three awards from the just concluded annual Media Challenge event that brought students from different media training institutions to showcase their skills.

A 24-person strong team from the Department of Journalism and Communication last week represented the university at the annual event at Kampala Serena Hotel.

Other participants at this seventh edition of the media challenge came Kampala University, Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU), Kampala International University, Ndejje University, Muteesa I Royal University, Nkumba University, St. Lawrence University, Makerere Business Institute, Multitech, Uganda Christian University, UMCAT School of Journalism and Communication and Cavendish University.

The students displayed their talents in news reporting and production and different aspects of news anchoring. They were graded on presentation skills, audio-visual skills, photography and story quality among others.

Overall, Makerere University got three awards with the Best Photograph award went to Lubanga Elvis, a third year student, while the best English business reporter was Atukunda Norbert, a fourth year student. Shafik Mutebi took the award of best Luganda Technology reporter.

‘’It was really good, I very excited. You have no idea for how long I have been waiting for it. Last time I participated I din’t get any award but I had hope that I would make it,” said Norbert Atukunda.

She added: “I am not forgetting my friends who encouraged me to participate because I had given up, they believed in me and with God’s grace I won.  For those who didn’t get should have hope, and work hard practice something will happen.”

Lubanga, who is also the Guild Representative for the School of Languages, Literature and Communication, told Journalism@Mak that he participated in the photo exhibition. He said: “I tried to do what was necessary going to the ground taking different photos, I did my best and it was about teamwork and cooperation using the University equipment.”

While he admitted that may not be the best performance for Makerere, considering that in the past events the university swept almost every award. But he added: “We shall get back to the top next year, this time we were a bit disorganized but we hope to work hard and those who didn’t win should not lose hope next year we shall do better.”

Other top performers included Easter Tasobya, a fourth year student, who came second in the Refuge feature story. Namirimo Mary, also known as Ssenga, also came second in Luganda news anchoring. Easter Namwanje, and Nelson Bahati also did well in Luganda Business reporting and English political reporting respectively.

In the 2015 edition, Makerere University won 10 of the 24 awards on offer, while in 2016 nine out of the 24 awards came to Makerere. In 2017, Makerere won seven awards out of 25 on offer.

The Media Challenge Awards are organized by the Media Challenge Initiative to honour and celebrate individuals and organisations doing exceptional work in the media industry in Uganda. The Awards are only open to students of journalism and communication.