Phoenix Journalism Convention – Day 2

Posted on Apr 16, 2009 in Life, Volunteering | 1 comment

Although sessions didn’t start in earnest today, it definitely felt more like the convention had begun. That’s mostly due to standing in line to register the Hawkeye for the convention when it opened at 1pm.

The convention is being held in the (no surprise) Phoenix Convention Center. It’s a huge, open, and quite new building. In fact, the building we’re in wasn’t here when we were last in Phoenix a few years back. I hope that the big ballrooms mean that the sessions won’t be stuffed to overflowing with students cranky because there’s no room left. Another striking feature of the convention center is a piece—a monstrous piece—of installation art. It’s difficult to tell from the photo, but it’s a giant bathroom mirror displaying the words “Art guarantees sanity” in its reflection.

Before heading over to register, Mark, Vince and myself took a walk around the area to find breakfast. On the advice of the Urban Spoon iPhone app, we found Jacquee’s Espresso in the lobby of a nearby office building, and I’m happy to say we weren’t disappointed. Decent breakfast burritos and passable coffee for about $5. We’ll probably make it a regular stop while we’re here. There are many other food options around the area, too: Baja Fresh, Quizno’s, Subway, and a bunch of other local places.

After collecting the registration programs, name tags, and tickets to computer sessions, Mark and I returned to the hotel to distribute the info to the students. Also on that meeting’s agenda: which issue to submit for the convention’s “Best of Show” competition. I was impressed to watch the students discuss the strengths and weaknesses of two issues they’d work hard to produce. “Issue 7 has stronger news content,” one person said. “But issue 6′s editorials are way better,” another countered. Through a reasoned debate and a vote a winner was selected: issue 7. We’ll see how well it’s received by the judges (UPDATE: the issue took 7th place!). The Hawkeye has a long tradition of placing in the top ten in Best of Show, going back as far as when the organization began attending conventions in my era. (The first was to Portland in the spring of 1994, my junior year.)

Vince and I had an opportunity to have dinner with another Hawkeye alumnae, Brigid Maloney, and her husband Carlos. After catching up with them it was time for the opening keynote. As usual, the keynote began with some housekeeping information, a speech by the previous year’s High School Journalist of the Year (Allejandro Benito), and some entertainment: hip-hop dancers. Broadcast journalist Aaron Brown then took the stage after a lengthy introduction; the guy’s done a lot, including award-winning coverage of 9/11 on CNN and anchoring KING 5 and KIRO 7 news in Seattle.

Aaron’s keynote was excellent. He said he’d never spoken to an audience of high school students before, but you wouldn’t have known it. “Live your life on the wire… everything else is just waiting” is the take away from his speech. Without going into the background of that nugget of wisdom, his essential message is to follow your dreams. Don’t allow room in your heart and soul for a “plan B.” I really liked it… just the right amount of humor, poignancy, and actual information. Hopefully, the students to which it was directed paid attention—many were texting, doodling, or even sleeping.

One of the purposes of these convention blog posts is to keep parents of the students informed about what’s going on here. Well, if you want more of that than I’m providing, you can visit the ASU‘s convention daily website, which features videos, stories, slideshows, and more. (find it at the ASU Journalism site). Hey, and if you’re really into the whole microblogging-web2.0-social-media thing, you can follow the official convention Twitter feed at nspa.

If I can wax poetic for a minute, it’s worth mentioning that the critical mass of “new media” journalism has finally arrived. Why do I think that? Because there are dozens of sessions in the convention program with titles like “moving your paper online,” “the future of newsrooms,” “using wikis in classrooms,” etc. And everyone (including advisers!) are attached to their phone/texting device. And the failure of the Seattle P.I. was mentioned in two of the three speeches tonight as the harbinger of the “true” death of newsprint that’s been foretold since the dawn of newsgroups in the early 90s. I think it’s really happening now. What shape it’ll take remains to be seen, but I must say its an exciting—and a bit scary—time to be a journalist.

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