National High School Journalism Convention

Last week I attended the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association (JEA/NSPA) National Spring Convention in Denver. I took seven students with me. I hope they learned something. They paid over $400 each to go (and our program paid quite a bit for their registration and hotel). I know a few of them skipped a bunch of sessions. They won’t be allowed to go along next year when the convention is in Anaheim (aka Disneyland). Some lessons have to be learned the hard way.

I, on the other hand, attended a bunch of great sessions. Here’s a brief recap:

--The opening keynote (which the kids attended with me) was by Jim Sheeler. He’s a feature writer for the Rocky Mountain News here in Denver. He won the Pulitzer Prize a couple of years ago for a piece called “Final Salute.” In it, he spent a year following a Marine casualty notification officer—the man who has the horrible task of notifying families that their sons have been killed in action in Iraq. His presentation was very powerful, very moving.

View Final Salute at: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/

--I attended a session on copyright and plagiarism. The focus was on papers that use photos from the internet without permission (which we do almost every issue), specifically movie stills and musicians/CD covers. The kids think that if you put “courtesy of ___________” then it’s OK. It’s not. You must receive permission. Something we need to do a better job of.
--Another session was for new advisers. The presenter was a retired journalism teacher. The best part was, at the end, she said she had a gift for us. She then pulled out a stack of CD’s and gave us each one. It was a copy of pretty much every journalism-related file she had on her computer. I popped it in my computer last night and there are over 500 documents on the disc. For example, lots of J-teachers give weekly AP style quizzes so the kids can brush up on their AP style (Associated Press style of journalistic writing). There are over 70 AP style quizzes on the disc. Nice gift.
--The best session of Day 1 was presented by brothers Steve and Luke Cyphers. Steve is a feature reporter for ESPN; Luke is a senior editor for ESPN The Magazine. They were there because they grew up in Grand Junction. They spoke about the differences between print and broadcast journalism. It was funny—they played off each other well. But in between the laughs, they both imparted a bunch of very insightful nuggets of real-world wisdom. If the kids were really listening, they should have learned a lot. One of the main things they talked about was the importance of paying your dues. No one starts at ESPN. Even the college kids who intern there have to go earn their chops in the small markets for their first jobs. ESPN doesn’t hire their interns when the internship ends. Every reporter for ESPN put in their time in small markets. So many kids operate under the delusion that they’ll get their first job in New York or LA. They won’t; their first job will be in Helena, Montana or Pasco, Washington or some podunk place like that. But it’s in those low-pay, do-everything jobs that they learn what it takes to be a journalist. Great session…and two great guys. I was able to chat with them for a minute afterwards.
--In the late afternoon while the kids were in their writing competitions, I walked over to the ESPN Zone restaurant for an early dinner. (May I recommend the Smokehouse Burger? Beef, cheese, pepper bacon, barbecue sauce, crispy onion straws, and chipotle mayo. Yum!)
--For Day 2, I started in a session called Changing the World. It was all about staff editorials. The presenter was Jack Kennedy—no relation. He was excellent and he gave the kids and advisers much to think about. His message was summed up in a final quote: The news, sports, feature, and entertainment pages of the paper mirror your school and community the way they are. The editorial page shows your school the way they could be. Shouldn’t our editorial topics deal with something loftier than a lack of school spirit (since no one knows what that exactly means anyway)?
--My next session was on how one school approximately our size puts out a 12-page paper every two weeks with only one work night that ends at 6:00. The bottom line was that kids waste a lot of time and aren’t held accountable. Raise the bar and the kids will go over it.
--The only bad session I attended was on incorporating a web presence for your paper. The presenter was a college kid who is much more adept behind a computer than in front of a crowd. Pretty bad.
--I then attended a session on how to organize your digital images. It was OK, but nothing I didn’t already know. (Back up your files.)

The last thing I attended was the adviser luncheon and awards ceremony. The food was nice and I met a very nice woman from Foley, Alabama—right on the Gulf Coast. She told me all about how her home was devastated by Hurricane Ivan and then a year later, Katrina came along and destroyed everything they had repaired from the first hurricane. She was happy because they just moved back into their house after being out for two and a half years. She was very nice. That was the good part of the lunch.

The only slightly negative part was the awards portion. Journalism teachers are the most “award-givingest” group of people I’ve ever met. Apparently, as a group, they must suffer from low self-esteem or something. Dear Lord, they give awards for everything. Newspaper adviser of the year, yearbook adviser of the year, distinguished adviser, lifetime achievement, most inspirational, First Amendment, the list went on interminably. Then came the Rising Star awards presented to advisers with five or fewer years of experience but who are making a mark. Finally came the CJE and MJE presentations. Those are for Certified Journalism Educators and Master Journalism Educators. At least for those, the recipients had to take a test.

I once saw a Jerry Seinfeld special in which he received an award at the HBO Comedy Festival and in his speech he ripped (tongue-in-cheek) the giving of self-serving awards. He went on to say that every insurance agent, car salesman, and hotel has some lame award hanging behind the desk—the Gold Circle Platinum Achievement Bullshit Award.

Recognition is fine; everyone needs that acknowledgement, that pat on the back. But journalism teachers seem to thrive on awards. From my very first day as a journalism adviser I’ve heard nothing but awards awards awards! Gotta get the All-American from NSPA and the Gold Crown from CSPA and the Gallup from Quill and Scroll and maybe…just maybe…you will be fortunate enough to win….the Pacemaker.

They’ll tell you they don’t set out to win awards—“it’s not about the awards” they’ll say—but their actions belie their words. If it’s not about the awards, how come there are so many of them?