TCU 360 won the 2012 Pinnacle Award from the College Media Association for breaking news on the web for the students' drug arrests coverage. 

The TCU 360 staff and three student journalists from Image magazine were recognized with national awards from the CMA, the Associated Collegiate Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.

The award was announced at the joint CMA/ACP Convention in Chicago on Nov. 1-4, and two other Image magazine journalists also received awards from the ACP.

The CMA Pinnacle Awards are a new national contest to recognize excellence in college student-produced television, radio and online media. 

Beginning on Feb. 15, TCU 360 posted stories that included video, photography and graphic elements along with social media updates. TCU 360 live streamed a university press conference and made all of the files from the Fort Worth Police available through DocumentCloud. Student journalists followed the pulse of the university by posting a Storify, publishing opinion columns and displaying comments from university staff members.

"Breaking News on the Web" is one of 18 categories of the Pinnacle Award and recognizes excellence in digital coverage throughout a 72-hour period of an unplanned breaking-news event or development. TCU 360 was one of three finalists that included Kent State University's kentwired.com and Elon University's The Pendulum.

The three student journalists who received awards from the ACP and the SPJ were recognized for their contributions to the Spring 2012 issue of Image magazine.  

Emily Atteberry, a former managing editor for Image, received a fourth-place award as a national finalist in the ACP Design of the Year contest, in the newsmagazine/special section cover category.

In the ACP Story of the Year contest, Ryan Osborne received honorable mention in the diversity category for his story on the university’s efforts to broaden the makeup of the student body.

Daniel Ethridge, a photojournalist and current photo editor for Image magazine, finished in the top three nationally in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards category for photo-illustration this fall. He previously received a 2011 National Finalist Award for his photo-illustration that accompanied a story about student suicides at the university in the fall 2011 issue of Image magazine.

Liliana Lamas contributed to this report.