The Gown Take Three At The 2025 National Student Media Awards
By Daniel Rankin
On Wednesday 9th April, The Gown was presented with 3 awards at the 2025 National Student Media Awards (SMEDIAs) – an all-Ireland student media competition – at Mansion House, Dublin. Out of six nominations (also including Best Satirical Writer, Best Journalist and Best Newspaper), the paper picked up:
- Website of the Year
- The Research Ireland Award for Journalism Relating to Science and Technology – Mia Constantinescu
- Award for Journalism Relating to the Environment – Mia Constantinescu
Our nominees Ellen Lundy and Carmen Gray represented the paper for the awards of Satirical Writer of the Year and Journalist of the Year respectively. Both awards were won by students from Trinity College Dublin, but we couldn’t be more proud of our contributors!
Website of the Year was particularly an achievement for this paper, given that The Gown has went from little online presence this decade to having over 20,000 views this past year.
Mia Constantinescu – an active writer in our Tech and Science column – picked up two awards for her work on failing conservation in Zante, Greece, including a 30-minute documentary which addressed the ecological issue that is exacerbated by tourism. Mia’s article can be viewed here and her documentary, “Paradise’s Price: The Cost of Tourism on Zante’s Turtles”, here.
Queen’s were not represented only by the Gown, however, with Queen’s Radio being nominated for 2 awards, but they unfortunately didn’t win. The award for Newspaper of the Year – which The Gown was nominated for – was won by TCD’s University Times.
Also notable at the event were the University of Galway’s Vladyslav Piatin-Ponomarenko winning Film Documentary of the Year about his documentary on his native city of Mariupol during the Russian Invasion in 2022, and Technological University Dublin’s Jamie Ryan picking up 3 awards – Radio Documentary, Radio Production (News and Current Affairs) and Radio Production (Arts & Features) – for his work on pornography’s social ramifications.
The event was a big night for The Gown as the paper celebrates 70 years of student journalism this week. With 3 awards at the Smedias, the paper aim to bring the paper further and in regular print for next the next academic year.
References
Oxygen.ie., “Smedias 2025 – Winners”. https://www.oxygen.ie/smedias-2025-winners/
All images credit: Oxygen.ie
