Louis Ureneck, chair of the journalism department of the College of Communication at Boston University, emphasized that journalists do work that matters to society. A journalist’s “first obligation is to the truth” and “first loyalty is to the citizenry,” he said.

Friday, May 1, he spoke to an audience of more than 600 student journalists and media advisers from the New England states who had gathered for the 61st annual conference of the New England Scholastic Press Association.

In his remarks, “Journalism as a Life of Service,” Ureneck outlined reasons to consider news reporting as a career.

True reporters embrace as an act of faith that if they gather information from every point of view, then people will come to their own conclusions, he said. In addition to the keynote address, topics of the 35 workshops and panels included covering the economic crisis, documentary film making, graphic arts essentials, media internships, news writing, photojournalism in the age of new media, student speech rights on the internet, using humor to win friends and influence people, web site critiques, and writing for magazines.

Among the professional journalists who presented sessions were Alicia Blaisdell-Bannon, managing editor of the Cape Cod Times; Joe Douillette, director of the Fast Forward Teen Video Program at the Institute of Contemporary Art; Renée Loth, editor of the Boston Globe’s editorial page; Brenda Reed, executive director of the New England Press Association; and Edmund Sullivan, executive director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Boston University faculty on the program along with Ureneck included Jay Atkinson, Joe Bergantino, Edward Downes, Joyce Macario, Norman Moyes, Gerry Powers, Peter Southwick, Jon Surmacz and Sheldon Toplitt.

Looking ahead

Please save the date. Next year’s spring conference is scheduled for Friday, April 30.