Sep 10, 2024

Dr. Chris Mackowski, professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, was part of a team honored over the summer with a gold Telly Award.

Mackowski served as host for a series of virtual video field trips produced by Acowsay films for the American Battlefield Trust. The team was recognized in the “History — Online” category.

Founded in 1979 to honor local, regional and cable television commercials, the Telly Awards now honor excellence in video and television across all screens.

The series was produced by Hannah Ginder and directed by Tyler Eichorst of Acowsay. Kristopher D. White served as associate producer for the American Battlefield Trust. The Trust is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit whose mission is to preserve America’s battlegrounds and educate the public about what happened there and why it matters.

Mackowski served as on-air host, interviewer, and scriptwriter.

“Acowsay partnered with the Trust with the goal of creating four feature-length, documentary-style virtual field trips about some of our nation’s most historical cities,” Ginder said. “Each of our destinations — Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Vicksburg, Mississippi — played an important part in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other historical events.”

The field trips also resulted in a variety of stand-alone spin-off videos, such as a tour of Fort Sumter, a cooking class in New Orleans, an exploration of the world’s oldest commissioned warship, and a visit to the site of the Boston Tea Party.

The virtual video field trips are available through Acowsay’s website (https://acowsay.com/american-battlefield-trust) as well as on the American Battlefield Trust’s YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanBattlefieldTrust).