Let your students shine in the Fall 2025 JEA National Student Media Contests. NSMC offer high school students a platform to showcase journalism excellence, earn recognition and receive feedback on their work.

Scholastic journalists test their skills as they compete in 50 contest categories at the Fall JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention — 24 contests take place on-site Nov. 14 in Nashville, and 26 contests are submitted online by Oct. 21 1 p.m. CDT with mandatory on-site critiques Nov. 14. Each contest entry is critiqued by a team of judges, and the top entries are given Superior, Excellent or Honorable Mention ratings.

Students competing in an online contest category will create a journalistic product from the contest prompt with a specific content packet or theme. With the exception of certain photography and broadcast contests, the online contest entry should not be something previously published or planned to publish in student media.

Online contest participants can find prompts and themes linked below. On-site contest participants will receive full instructions on Nov. 14.

Please read ALL contest descriptions carefully as some revisions may have been made. There are also several new broadcast contests. View a full list of contest categories here.

The contests are part of the fall national convention in Nashville and require concurrent registration for both the convention and NSMC to be eligible to compete. The journalism teacher-adviser must be a current JEA member for the students to participate in the contests. Please double-check student registration and make sure they know if they are signed up for an on-site or online contest category.

Remember, it is imperative that advisers and contestants carefully read all the rules and instructions to make sure all deadlines and requirements are met, to avoid disqualification. What is being judged is not just the entry itself, but the contestant’s ability to read and follow directions, meet deadlines, and develop the necessary skills to produce a winning entry.

NSMC registration information

Registration for the Fall 2025 National Student Media Contests in Nashville will open Sept. 15, 2025. All students competing in NSMC on-site and online contests must be registered by 1 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Online contest submissions can be submitted starting Sept. 15. All online submissions must be entered by 1 p.m. CDT, Tuesday, Oct. 21.

For your record keeping, advisers can use the NSMC contest tracker spreadsheet to assign students to contests and manage online entry submissions. Go to the File menu, then select “Make a Copy” to record your student assignments.

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Prompts for Fall 2025 NSMC online contests

Online submission materials are made available for use in preparing entries for selected JEA National Student Media Contests. Each Google Drive folder contains contest instructions and a zip file of all materials needed to complete your entry.

Note about online photo contests 28-35:

Online photo contests 28. Sports Action Photography, 29. Sports Feature Photography, 30. Feature Photography, 31. General/Spot News Photography, 32. Photo Story, 34. Portrait Photo and 35. First Year Photo do NOT have materials to download as the entries should be photos taken during this school year. Contest 33 Portfolio also doesn’t have material to download as entries can include photos from the contestant’s entire high school career.

Note about online broadcast contests 36-40:

Online broadcast contests 36. Broadcast News Story, 37. Broadcast Sports Story, 38. Broadcast Feature Story and 39. Broadcast Commercial/PSA do not have materials to download as the entries should be stories broadcast during this school year. Contest 40. Videography does not have materials to download as the entries should include clips from any point in the contestant’s scholastic journalism career.

Note about broadcast contest 50:

Contest 50 Convention Recap is a new contest category with some unique requirements. This is an on-site contest that requires some pre-convention preparation, as well as a post-convention online submission. Please see below for the prompt and materials, and be sure to carefully review all contest details and instructions.