The Bruin went to Kent State University on October 18 for a student journalism workshop. Other high school journalism programs from around Ohio attended as well.
The Ohio Scholastic Media Association, OSMA, teaches the program, focusing on four categories: yearbook, broadcast, magazine, and newspaper.
The Bruin staff could choose between the classes provided for each section and could leave a session to have lunch. These classes included many tips on how student journalists can improve their programs.
The first session covered ideas such as localizing national news stories, social media smarts, photo critique, behind-the-scenes broadcasting, what makes news news, shameless self-promotion, and other topics.
“I learned each social media is very different, and how each social media you need to do something that correlates to that social media and that applies to how the community reacts to it,” said Devon Kittinger, a staff writer on the Bruin who went to the social media smarts session.
The second section covered topics such as interviewing for stronger stories, covering death, AI in journalism, legal and ethics concerns, finding people who know things about your story and what to expect in a journalism career.
Kittinger also attended the session on how to interview for a stronger story.
“I learned how to ask follow-up questions better and stronger, learned many tips for how to ask the right questions, and how to ask questions that are the most important and hardball at the end,” Kittinger said.
The third section covered various topics such as skills for a broadcasting career, diversity in news sources, how students can run a newspaper, careers in social media and digital public relations and political writing tips.
“I learned more about the editing process, and how to talk to staff writers,” said Jack Blubaugh, a junior and the sports editor for The Bruin who attended a session on how to run a newspaper. “I also learned how to lead a newspaper more efficiently and the roles of the people in the newspaper.”
The last session the Bruin traveled to taught students about story ideas journalists can steal, the importance of design and layouts, impactful storytelling and improving grammar.
Blubaugh also attended the design and layout workshop.
“I learned about the importance of design and layout and how they can help to attract people to your story,” Blubaugh said. “I also learned many ways and tips to make a stronger and more attractive layout to the readers’ eyes.”
The topics were covered by OSMA board members, professors, and various high school journalism advisors.
“I learned a lot about helping my journalism group grow and become stronger,” Kittinger said. “I do think these skills I learned will help me in the future in my classes.”
A class many of the Bruin thought was useful was the interviewing for a stronger story taught by Josh Davis, the high school journalism advisor and OSMA board member for Beachwood High School.
“I’ve probably been teaching at this program for 15 years… I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the years teaching journalism… I feel like my goal for the students is to give better interviews, give better questions, and have better stories. I feel like interviews are where the rubber meets the road and is the key to the stories,” Davis said.
The Bruin will continue to attend this workshop in future years to learn how to improve more.
