NESPA to host conference

Student journalists and advisers from all over New England are invited to attend the New England Scholastic Press Association’s 63rd annual conference at Boston University on Friday, May 6.

With the doors opening at 8, sessions will be from 9 until 2:30 at Boston University’s College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.
Students, teachers, Boston University faculty and full-time journalists and media specialists will share information with the aim of supporting excellence in scholastic journalism.

TV journalist to give keynote speech

Kelley Tuthill, a reporter with WCVB-TV’s investigative unit, will give the keynote speech on Telling Stories with Impact.

Also at the conference, delegates will find panels, exhibits, round-tables, lectures and workshops where they can learn about the latest trends, and share concerns and ideas.

Here are some of the sessions and programs delegates can expect:

For advisers

• Exchange of materials for instruction
• Round-table on workable visions for the future of scholastic journalism
• Sign-ups for detailed publication critiques and on site visits after the conference.

For staffs

• Easy ways to get your paper online
• Ethical considerations for journalists
• Feature writing
• How journalism education is changing at the college level
• Investigative reporting
• Interviewing
• Law and the scholastic press
• Multimedia how-tos
• News writing
• Opinion coverage and writing
• Photojournalism and digital technology
• Public relations
• Social media law
• Sports writing
• Staff motivation and news publication management
• Starting a literary magazine
• Typography
• Yearbook design and writing tips.
• Awards and recognition

Presentation of the All New England Awards will honor outstanding print and broadcast productions in their school population categories. Publications and broadcasts will also receive special achievement awards.

Contests under way

The NESPA Publications and Productions Contests are open to all school print and online publications and broadcasts, both NESPA members and non-members.

Awards will be given to broadcast (audio and video) productions, magazines, newspapers, online news/magazines and yearbooks. DEADLINE for receipt of entries at the College of Communication: April 1, 2011.

The NESPA Special Achievement Contests are designed to identify and reward excellence in individual work and teamwork for New England’s secondary school media.

This competition is open to students who have contributed to a student broadcast medium or online or print publication at a public, independent or parochial senior high school.

DEADLINE for receipt of entries at the College of Communication: April 1, 2011.

Categories

• Broadcasting: Documentary, Feature story, Newscast series, News story, PSA
• Magazine: Artwork, Cover design, Fiction, Nonfiction, Photography, Poetry, Typographical design
• Newspaper: Advertisement, Artwork/cartoon, Bylined column, Editorial, Feature page design, Feature photo, Feature story, Informational graphic, News page design, Opinion page design, Photo illustration, Sports page design, News photo, News series, News story, Sports photo, Sports story, Review, Typographical design
• Online/multimedia: Interactive graphic, Podcast, Slide show with audio, Slide show with photos
• Yearbook: Advertisement, Caption writing (three spreads), Cover, Theme development and cover, Feature photo, Feature spread, Feature story, Headline writing (three spreads), Sports photo, Sports spread, Sports story, Typographical design

Summer workshop for news publication advisers

The New England Scholastic Press Association invites news publication advisers to a workshop, How to Advise a Scholastic News Publication, the week of June 27-July 1 at Boston University in the College of Communication.

Based on participants’ priorities, sessions will include how to:

• keep a journalistic balance
• deal with legal and ethical considerations
• teach the staff to cover the school and its community
• teach the staff to write and edit news, features and sports along with maintaining a lively forum for student opinion
• motivate the staff
• teach fundamentals of photojournalism and design
• maintain a good relationship with the principal, faculty and parents
• use special pages, special sections and spreads as training vehicles
• plan, set goals and schedule copy flow for print and online
• manage the business side
• critique the publication
• make the most of professional resources

In addition to a variety of lab assignments, participants will present critiques and complete curriculum projects. There will be lectures, discussions and lab work. Sessions will be 9:30-noon and 1-3.

Participants should bring with them a set of news publications students have produced during the 2010-2011 academic year.

The fee is $300. The deadline for registration is June 1.

NESPA provides PDPs to Massachusetts teachers.

Helen Smith, executive director of the New England Scholastic Press Association, will be the lead teacher.

For more information, please contact Helen Smith at phsmith@igc.org.

For details and procedures on membership, conference and workshop registration and entry forms, please download the PDF.