November 5, 2014
Budding journalists from across the Los Angeles region gathered to compete in writing and photojournalism contests, learn about the media business and hear a keynote speech from an Associated Press reporter at the recent Generation J High School Workshop hosted by the CSUN Journalism Department.
The five-hour event, which attracted 150 students and 30 advisers, was hosted in collaboration with the Southern California Journalism Education Association and the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with additional assistance from the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles.
Keynote speaker Tami Abdollah of the Associated Press told students in a packed Manzanita Hall lecture hall what it’s like to write a story at the scene and the importance of developing a social media platform.
“As a high school journalist, I felt the same, I wish we could do more, or had more power. I wish we had more people listening to us,” Abdollah said. “There is something powerful in journalism. I challenge you guys to look critically at what’s going on around you and to make sure your fellow students know what’s happening in their schools.”
A highlight of the morning was the chance to compete in various on-the-spot contests including news writing, feature writing, photojournalism and opinion writing.
In the news writing event, students watched eight minutes of a White House news conference in which President Obama announced U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent resignation. Then they wrote a short story based on what they observed.
“I thought it was very helpful,” said Cayla Newman, 15, freshman at El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills. “I think the reason why I’ve progressed was because my teacher has done press conference write-ups with us and we would ask her questions. In this case, we couldn’t rewind back so that was a little bit harder and out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed the experience a lot. That was the best part.”
Saba Mahmoudi, in her second year as a staff reporter at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, also competed in the news writing competition.
“I think I did a better job than the previous time. I’d heard about it before, which helped me, but we are obviously nervous because of competing with so many people who are good at what they do,” Mahmoudi said.
Brittany Hsu, a junior at Temple City High School who is part of the newspaper staff, competed in a photojournalism contest.
“I thought it was very interesting getting to hear the judge’s critiques of all the photos,” Hsu said. “We submitted two or three photos and then the competition was basically hearing the judge’s critique.”
While the entries were being judged, students attended two workshop sessions on a variety of topics including investigative journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations, social media and multiplatform journalism. The event ended with awards announced for each of the competitions.
Kimberly Messadieh, journalism adviser at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, brings her students to the event year.
“My senior editor-in-chief wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to pursue news journalism or sports journalism. But after hearing Lisa Nehus Saxon, a Palisades Charter High School adviser and sports journalist who broke the locker room barrier, he realized that sports reporting was his passion.”
- Negin Daneshfar