By Robert Salas, President of SPJ University of New Mexico Chapter
Hosted by the SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter and the SPJ Aurauria Student Chapter, in the heart of the lively University of Colorado Denver downtown, the 2015 Society of Professional Journalism Region 9 conference proved to be fruitful and invigorating.
The theme of the conference, Scaling New(s) Heights, included multiple sessions with topics ranging from covering freedom of information to the evolving landscape of news media and its future in our democracy.
The conference drew students and professionals from institutions within Region 9 including but not limited to, The University of Colorado, Brigham Young University and the University of New Mexico. During the “Multimedia Journalism: The Present and the Future” session, a panel of passionate and successful professionals provided their valuable input on how to enhance news and sports journalism using the tools and technologies of today’s media consumers/users.
Phil Tenser, digital executive producer for Denver News 7, started the session with his talk on the usage of video, more specifically soundless video, to provide a dynamic visual to further enhance ongoing stories. Tenser also presented an innovation in broadcasting: an extremely mobile broadcasting device. It was essentially an iPad with a mic that could broadcast and live stream. It offered a great example of how journalists, seasoned and new, can adapt to the shifting grounds of our current professional landscape.
Another useful presentation came from Sandra Fish, an independent journalist, who focused on the use of data and visualization tools within stories. Using hard data and visualization helps to provide concrete evidence and logical premise to a story, she said. However, a large part of data gathering is verification. By vetting the source from which we gather our data we can be more confident that our stories will have validity. Fish also delved into a number of data visualization resources that she uses and has found effective tools for storytelling. She pointed out that basic applications like Excel and Google Spreadsheets are great for beginners to incorporate data into their stories. For advanced users, Fish said Tableau is an amazing tool for more in-depth and comprehensive data visualization.
As part of the, “What is the future of the News Industry?” session, a panel of three, well-versed professionals led colleagues and students in a discussion about where the profession of journalism is headed in the future.The panelists, Lauren Gustus, executive editor at Fort Collins Coloradoan, Neil Best, president and CEO of KUNC Public Radio and Jim Anderson, news editor for the AP Denver bureau, prompted debate around traditional v. contemporary values in journalism. The interactive discussion centered on how to balance the old ways with the new innovations of today’s journalistic styles.
A few questions we discussed and attempted to answer at length included:
* Will print newspapers become obsolete in the face of the juggernaut Internet media forums?
* Are today’s youth becoming more disconnected from civic discourse?
* Are we sacrificing in-depth and detailed reporting in order to cultivate a larger readership?
* How much technology-based media is too much?
* How do we, as an academy, deviate from a polarized mainstream media environment?
These topics and many more provided invigorating and deep intellectual conversation during this session which proved to all of us in attendance that journalism will never be “dead” but will continue to evolve with each generation.
During the closing of the conference, SPJ members presented the Mark of Excellence Awards honoring the work of student publications. These accolades ranged from best sports reporting to best online-only news publication were announced and received with great spirit. The New Mexico News Port was a finalist for best digital-only student publication and for online news reporting.
The 2015 SPJ Conference experience provided a nuanced perspective to the field of journalism and a plethora of networking contacts with great, passionate and intelligent people. These students and professionals are striving to make new innovations and leaps forward while remaining true to the core values and ethics of journalism and SPJ.
