What's the Word?
Spend one week with 11 teens and you'll appreciate more what teachers do every day. I know I do.
Last week we published our annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop paper (We opened up the workshop to all students, not just minorities, this year). Students learned about writing, reporting and interviewing. They met other journalists, including Adolfo Briceno from Que Pasa and Sergio Bastos from Batanga. And they created a 12-page paper of their work: editorials, stories, headlines, photos, illustrations. NOTE: The links above may take some time to load. They're large PDF files. The first one includes all but pages 6-7 of the paper, which were laid out as one large page (in the news business we call it a doubletruck). We put those two pages in the second PDF.
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to print the student paper - which students this year dubbed "What's the Word?" - with the regular press run so you guys don't get a chance to see it when you get your paper at home.
But this year our features department agreed to take some of the best work and reprint it. Check out Tuesday's Life section to see what some of our local teens produced after a one-week crash course in journalism.
Staff writers Tina Firesheets and Joe Killian were the other coordinators. I've helped run the workshop for a few years now and this is one of the best groups we've ever had. It's also the largest in my tenure. We've never had more than I think 8 students in the past. You'd be surprised how much three more kids asking questions (Jen, will you edit my story? Can I go to the bathroom? What do I do now?) can frazzle you. Sometimes I'd have them lined up six deep waiting for my help. It's been more than a week and I'm still trying to catch my breath!
Seriously, though. They were an amazing bunch. I expect to read more from them.
See for yourself. Check out the links above or read Tuesday's Life section.
Special thanks to features editor Susan Ladd and assistant editor Mike Kernels for loaning us some real estate in their section to feature student work.
Comments (5)
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That's very appropriate since this was a "multicultural workshop" that you opened it up to all students, not just minorities. This certainly makes sense. Why didn't you do this in past years? It sounds like this was a huge success.
Posted on June 25, 2007 11:58 PM
multi,
I don't know the last time you walked in a newsroom, but most of the folks you'll see are pretty much white. (Most are white men.)
The workshop has been an effort to promote diversity in the newsroom so we better reflect our community. We want more minorities to see journalism as a viable job for them.
But we know that non-minority students want to experience these programs, too. Other papers have expanded their summer journalism programs to include non-minorities and still saw success in attracting a number of minorities.
We decided to give it a try. Personally, I'm very pleased with our turnout. We had a good mix of students, not just ethnically and racially, but in ability, interest and viewpoints.
Posted on June 26, 2007 10:24 AM
Jennifer,
Thanks for the info and explanation. I'm just curious, really, when you said that "Other papers have expanded their summer journalism programs to include non-minorities and still saw success in attracting a number of minorities."
Is there something about including non-minorities in these types of workshops that cause minorities not to participate? Are you saying that the minorities would rather have their own workshop without the participation of non-minorities?
It seemed an interesting statement and I wasn't at all sure what it meant.
Thanks.
Posted on June 26, 2007 3:40 PM
Great questions, Quest.
Jennifer, shouldn't we offer workshops to ALL students? Wouldn't that be fair and let those who are interested no matter what color, shape, size or ability give it a try based on their interest?
Why does does the background of those interested in journalism matter?
Posted on June 27, 2007 12:44 AM
Quest, mulit,
We don't think that minorities want their own workshop without non-minorities.
It's about sheer numbers.
The simple fact is plenty of white students are interested in journalism. They go into the field whether we offer workshops or not. If you don't believe me, take a walk through our newsroom.
I'm the only Hispanic writer and we have one Hispanic on the copydesk and one Hispanic photographer. We have one Asian writer. Whites far out number blacks in our newsroom, although that does not represent the population at large in Guilford County.
I don't know why more minorities don't go into journalism. Focusing a workshop just for minorities was a way to encourage minority students to give journalism a try.
Why do we want diversity in the newsroom? For one, our nation is more diverse now. Should white, middle-aged males run everything? How representative is that?
As an Hispanic, whose father fled from Cuba and became a U.S. citizen, my viewpoints on immigration are going to be different from most of my editors, who for the most part are white males whose families were born here.
Our editor, John Robinson, has written about this numerous times on his blog, the Editor's Log (link to the list at right). You might want to go back through the archives and check what has been written about this issue in the past.
Posted on June 27, 2007 10:37 AM