National Student Media Awards

The National Student Media Awards or Smedias^[1] are an annual All-Ireland student journalism competition run by the Oxygen.ie website.^[2][3] The awards have been labelled "Ireland's premier student awards".^[4][5]

History and format

Since 2000, Oxygen.ie, a website aimed at third-level students, has run a student journalism competition.^[6]

As of the 2020 awards^[update], submissions are invited in a number of categories.^[7][8] These included Editor of the Year (previously won by UCD's University Observer),^[9] Magazine of the Year (previously won by DCU's Flux),^[9] Newspaper of the Year (including previous winners The University Times,^[10] Trinity News,^[11] and University Observer), Sports Writer of the Year (previously won by The College View),^[11] and Website of the Year (previously won by Sin.ie).^[11][6]

Judges

Judges have included:

• Geraldine Kennedy, Editor of The Irish Times^[9]
• Ruth Scott, 2fm DJ ^[8]
• Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Member of Aosdána^{[citation needed]}
• Jason Sherlock, Winner of GAA GPA All Stars Awards^{[citation needed]}
• Benjamin Cleary, Oscar winning filmmaker^[12]
• Paul Howard, journalist and author^[12]