TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The broadcast news competition team at The University of Alabama has added to their string of top-10 national finishes in the annual Hearst Intercollegiate Broadcast News Competition, finishing eighth overall this year.

“These students have to go way beyond class work to get enough experience to compete in a national competition,” said Dr. Pamela Doyle, associate professor of telecommunication and film in the UA College of Communication and Information Studies, and team adviser.

The Hearst competition rules allow each school to submit two radio and two TV entries in each of the two categories, hard news and features. Students send no more than seven minutes, typically two or three pieces, of stories that have been broadcast to a general audience.

In the feature category, Jeremy King of Alabaster placed fourth in radio and Brandi Srader of Donithan, Miss., placed 19th. In the hard news competition, Srader placed fifth and Jessica Smith of Gordo placed 11th.

Because King and Srader placed in the top 10, they will compete in the semi-finals. They will submit new material, including features and hard news stories. Judges will select the top five out of the 20 applicants to compete in the finals in San Francisco. In San Francisco, the students will cover news stories onsite.

The winners receive scholarships, and the University receives matching funds.

Many students on Doyle’s broadcast competition team worked for WUAL-Alabama Public Radio or WVUA-7 TV, formerly WJRD. They receive hands-on experience and mentoring under the supervision of UA graduates like Butler Cain and Rebekah Caldwell.

The point values placed on the individual applicants determines the school’s overall ranking. Doyle's teams have finished in the top 10 during seven of the last eight years.

Other top-10 finishers include the University of Florida, Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Penn State and the University of Texas-Austin.