One of my favorite states to visit in Kentucky. It feels like a second home. Therefore, I knew that I had to attend the 2018 Fall National College Media Convention in Louisville, KY, a.k.a. #CollegeMedia18. This conference is special as it is one of the rare times that I take students with me. We were able to take four staff members from the Northern Review to be inspired by professionals in the field, learn from other student journalists, and be prepared for the challenges they will face throughout their careers.
Thursday
Our primary focus for the conference was to attend the Society for Collegiate Journalists’ Biennium. SCJ treats their biennium as a hybrid between a business meeting, committee work, networking opportunity, and keynote. This hybrid approach allows the Society to focus on the issues surrounding a national organization while giving the students some important takeaways from the experience. Students lead the first part of the meeting to address what issues the campus’ media outlets were facing and the successes those media organizations were having within the local communities.
One of the common challenges among the chapters was the ability for students to meet deadlines. The groups that reported that this was a problem on campus extended this line of discussion by noting that missing deadlines impacts the ability of their media organizations to produce the news relevant to the campus community, produce high-quality content, and it slows down the overall workflow of their news organization. It was nice to hear that the students found this to be a concern. I see that this issue is discussed on a regular basis throughout my tenure. I hope that this problem can be addressed with the next two discussion points from the Biennium, more leadership training and discuss problem-solving skills.
I thought one of the best takeaways from the first session was running a media organization retreat before the start of the academic year. It seems that the chapters that have these type of events produce motivated students ready to tackle the challenges of the new year. The significant advantage of this process is that the advisor can create teaching moments that can resonate with the staff without the worry that the student is overwhelmed with their other responsibilities on campus.
The next two sessions involved a deep-dive into the day-by-day functioning of the Society. The contest was a lively discussion point during this time. We were hoping to reduce the number of categories in the content to make judging easier. However, it seems we expanded the focus of our contest. Students wanted to add a podcasting category; the advisors in the room agreed that this was a good idea. The committee will look over the suggestions to make contest smoothers for both students and judges.
Andrew Seaman gave the keynote and gave a charge to the attendees of the Biennium. He encouraged the students to be advocates for the First Amendment and journalistic ethics. Seaman described the relationship between the First Amendment and journalistic ethics as being more complicated than a Facebook relationship status. He would often get questions that were about First Amendment law as opposed to the ethical practices of journalists.
Andrea Frantz announced the last session for the Biennium. Society gave out the annual awards to the various chapters, advisors, and student journalists. It was a thrill to learn that Grant Pepper was awarded the Arthur H. Barlow Student Journalist of the Year Award for his incredible body of work produced over the past four years. I was proud that he was recognized for his commitment to the practices and standards of high-quality journalistic work. I was also honored as the Sheridan C. Barker Award for Adviser of the Year. The best part of the award was the fact that my students nominated me for this high honor.
The Rest of the Conference Highlights:
- There are a few suggestions that Gary Lundgren gave to help produce work that would make the shortlist for a Pacemaker award. Those articles on the shortlist paid attention to the details of the story and have that extra “Wow!” factor that attracted the attention of the judges. He highlighted the sports categories by noting the Pacemaker finalist in those categories went beyond the play-by-play and the wins and losses to personalize the coverage based on the needs of the audience.
- It was nice to see quite a few people in my audience for my panel as I was discussing how the write good assessment narratives for the different committees that would read over such documents. It was also great to have my students be part of the panel and talk about how we determine we are meeting our program learning objectives.
- Chris Otts had my respect for filling in at the last minute to present the Saturday keynote. I thought he gave an excellent talk about the relationship reporters have in a digital newsroom. There are times that Otts had to be on campus and provide an interview related to a story he was covering. I also thought it was great how he broke down the three different types of conversations that reporters will have when covering a story; Informative, accountability, and emotional are the three types of interviews used most often use in journalistic work. Broadcast platforms will often use an emotional line of questioning. “Traditional” platforms will often use an informative interview style.
- Northern Review took home Best-of-Show honors in the Website Small School category. We came in sixth, Miami of Ohio came in fifth, and Pepperdine came in third. 1983 was the last time Ohio Northern earned an award from the Associated Collegiate Press.
