Newspaper Students Represent Catawba at NC Media Conference
Catawba College newspaper students Darby Reedy and Stephanie Cook at the 5th Annual NC Media Conference at Winston Salem State University.
Stephanie Cook, Editor
February 19, 2012
Filed under Ketner School of Business, Newspaper Staff, Top Stories
Most college students would probably never wake up at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning to attend an academic conference in their respective major. If you don’t know either Darby Reedy or myself, just keep this is mind – we are not typical college students.
Riding in my Hyundai Sonata with cups of Port City Java coffee in our hands, we left the small town of Salisbury around 8:00 a.m. to travel to Winston Salem State University. This school was the site of the 5th Annual North Carolina College Media Association Conference that was held this past Saturday, February 18th. The actual host of the event was UNC Chapel Hill. Colleges and universities from across the state came to partake in this beneficial experience.
The first session of the conference was an opening panel of media professionals discussing the best ways to cover the 2012 elections within college and university publications. Following this presentation, students and advisors could choose to attend whichever sessions most sparked their interests. I decided to attend the Student Press Law Update: Fighting the Power discussion next, led by Dr. Phillip Jeter, Department Chair of Mass Communications at WSSU. During this lecture, The East Carolinian, East Carolina University’s student newspaper, was a heavy topic of discussion, mainly due to the picture of the male streaker published in an issue of their student newspaper this past November.
After attending that controversial lecture, students and advisors were served a delicious lunch. While eating, attendees of the conference were very fortunate to hear Roxanne Jones speak, former Senior Vice President of ESPN and Founding Editor of ESPN The Magazine. Jones was an extremely eloquent speaker that discussed how people should set themselves up for success in their careers. She had 3 main tips, which included taking up as many opportunities in your field as possible (no matter how big or small they are), taking leaps of faith in certain projects and ideas you are passionate about pursuing, and asking for more opportunity if one is not presented directly to you. She also heavily emphasized on asking people for help, specifically face-to-face. She stated that most people will not say no to you if you ask for their assistance in person!
After hearing Jones speak, I went to sit in on a photography session taught by Dr. Michael Smith, a professor of communication studies at Campbell University. He shared 8 tips on how to take better photographs for any type of publication. I will most definitely use these pointers when taking pictures to go along with my newspaper articles and for my digital photography class portfolio with Mr. Meyers.
The final scheduled session I attended covered the future of print design, specifically in terms of literary magazines and yearbooks. I do not have a lot of experience with graphic design, so I wanted to attend this specific lecture, led by Bradley Wilson, editor of Communication: Journalism Education Today. I am now full of ideas and plan to put some of them to use when I continue my graduate studies in Strategic Communication at High Point University this June.
If you are a Communication Arts major and are interested in attending any conferences related to the field, feel free to contact The Pioneer Advisor Cyndi Wittum or myself via email.
Loading ...