Madeliene Roberts is a 2026 semifinalist in the Media Scholars Media Case Competition and is a student at Oklahoma Christian University. The Talon interviewed Roberts and covered her experience of competing in this national competition and its ramifications.
“I am a sophomore communication major, and I am a part of the Eagle PR team on campus. This is my second full year here, and I love it so much. It’s been such a blessing and opportunity to be here,” Roberts said.
The competition is complex and has three tiers.
“The Media Scholars Media Case Competition is a multi-round event where students compete on the national level, and finalists earn a week-long, all-expenses networking and professional development experience in Washington D.C. Student finalists compete for the National Excellence in Media Award and $18,500 in scholarships,” according to the official Washington Media Scholars Foundation website.
The introduction of the competition to Roberts was through Dr. Josh Watson, who is the Associate Professor of Communication at Oklahoma Christian as well as the Eagle PR Team Advisor.
“Our Eagle PR Team Advisor, Dr. Joshua Watson, allowed us the opportunity to enter the qualifying round of that competition, where we had to read this case plan and basically just create a two-page response to that with different criteria to meet with that. Then it goes nationally to this competition, and from there semifinalists are chosen. After that is the final round,” Roberts said.
The next step requires semifinalists to be paired up with students from other universities to perform another case study.
“I’m a semifinalist in this competition, and I competed as an individual. For this next round, I will be paired with somebody from another school, so I don’t know what to expect, but it’s a great opportunity to expand my networking as well… We’ll have another case study, and we evaluate that, but it’s a little bit longer, with five pages. Then after that, if we do proceed, there is a week-long conference in Washington, D.C., where you present in front of the organization the case plan is for, as well as judges from the foundation,” Roberts said.
The specifics of what applicants are doing include a given budget and analysis of previous research to form a media plan. As it is her second year competing, Roberts also gave advice for future students who wish to compete next year.
“In this case competition, we are given a budget, and we are given prior research. We have to analyze that and see what would do best among the primary target audience… Dr. Watson allowed us to do this last year as well. Last school year was the first year he invited us to participate. For me personally, I just went back over my work [from last year] to see what I can improve upon and to better understand the case plan. My encouragement would be to thoroughly read the case plan. I feel like my downfall last time was I didn’t understand it as well as I did this semester. So definitely take the time to read and do a little bit of outside research as well. I think bringing that in really helps with the credibility of the work I submitted,” Roberts said.
The initial reaction to receiving the news was suspicion of a scam.
“Honestly, I got the email, and my first impression was I thought it was a scam. To be very honest I was like, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ So I double-checked the name at the bottom that matched on the website, and I was like, ‘Okay, this might actually be real.’ I read the next steps of the competition, and it all aligned with the website, so it was legit, and I was just excited; I didn’t know what was happening. So one day when I was back at school, I went to Dr. Watson, and I explained everything. He was super supportive, and he allowed me to see the next steps forward,” Roberts said.
As the process proceeds, the hope for Roberts is to gain learning experience with her specific field of interest and later apply it to jobs later on.
“I have always been interested in trend research and allocating budgets for specific platforms, across all industries and media. So with that I hope to learn more about that through this competition and how to better utilize that skill. But also, you know, in the future if I work for a corporation, just to better serve them in that regard. To utilize their money the best way that I can and as wisely as I can,” Roberts said.
“On or by April 6, 2026, six finalist teams will be selected and invited to participate in Media Scholars Week in Washington, DC. Finalists will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to DC from June 7, 2026, to June 12, 2026, where they will present their media plans to a panel of judges. Finalists will take part in networking with media companies and participate in a variety of career prep/professional development sessions with national experts and leaders during the week of June 7th, with additional virtual sessions taking place in late May as well. The judging and final presentations will take place on June 11, 2026, as will the awards presentation,” the Washington Media Scholars Foundation webpage states.More information can be found on their website, which is at https://www.mediascholars.org/.
Editor’s Note: Roberts will not be going forward in the competition due to studying abroad in the summer.
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