National conference provides learning opportunity for Lantern

CNN reporter Abby Phillip responds to a question on Saturday, Nov. 2 during the Fall National College Media Conference. Students had the opportunity to ask Phillip questions following her speaking time. Photo by Cat Gonzales

Matthew Will
Editor-in-Chief

The Butler Lantern newspaper staff had the opportunity to attend the Fall National College Media Conference put on by Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and College Media Association (CMA) at the beginning of November.

From Thursday, Oct. 31 to Sunday, Nov. 3, student journalists from across the country, including a few from Canada, gathered at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington, D.C. to learn strategies to enhance their publications.

The conference had over 15 time slots throughout the week set aside for sessions spanning across the hotel conference space. If there was a time frame that a student did not have a session they wanted to attend, a convention space was set up for journalism graduate schools, advertisement assistance and website hosts to meet and discuss a potential partnership.

Headlining the conference was keynote speaker sessions set aside for everyone to attend.

The keynote speakers of this year’s fall national college media convention were Marty Baron, Nina Totenberg, Abby Phillip and members of the Capital Gazette newspaper.

Baron is the executive editor of the Washington Post and launched the investigation on the Catholic Church cover-up of sexual abuse cases involving clergymen while working for The Boston Globe. The keynote gave two student journalists the opportunity to interview Baron.

Totenberg is a legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). Her talk with the Student Press Law Center’s (SPLC) Sommer Ingram Dean revolved around what women can do to have successful careers in journalism.
Phillip, who covers the Trump Administration since 2017, has been an on-air reporter for CNN. Phillip shared her support of conferences like these and the opportunity they give students and gave her advice on how to grow in the field.

“Journalism is a form of public service and a way to give people the truth,” Phillip said. “Focus on informing people, not persuading them.”

The final keynote session featured the Capital Gazette newspaper staff in Annapolis, Maryland. On June 28, 2018, five people were killed and another two were injured in a shooting occurring inside the Gazette’s newsroom. The staff talked about their obvious struggles in bouncing back to some form of regularity after a tragedy as such as well as how to stay on the beat when covering difficult stories.

Journalists across the country return to their student newsrooms with new knowledge and strategies they hope to use in their own publications.

The impacts these conferences bring change more than just a single student’s mind frame but affect every staff member they interact with in the newsroom.