Students Attend High School Journalism Day at USC

On March 2, hundreds of high school students from across Southern California participated in High School Journalism Day at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The event, sponsored by the McCormick Foundation, gave student journalists the opportunity to take part in workshops and seminars taught by professionals in the field and USC faculty members.

After a free continental breakfast, the day's activities began with an introductory speech at the Annenberg Auditorium, featuring CNN anchor Kyra Phillips and Anh Doh from Nguoi Viet Daily News as keynote speakers. The two accomplished media buffs each spoke about their experiences in the journalistic field, whether in broadcast or printed publications.

"It's like an education everyday; you have to become one of the smartest people on the job," commented Phillips, shortly after sharing a recent interview with the late Whitney Houston's close friend, Kim Burrell, on CNN.  Doh and Phillips also offered useful advice to the students, encouraging them to "challenge" their interviewees in order to better their news story.

Once the introduction was over, the high school students dispersed and participated in various lectures and panels that they had previously signed up for upon completing an on-line entry form. These included seminars on broadcast communications, newspaper layout, sports writing, and photo journalism.

In a session entitled Know Your Rights, Journalism Educators Association (JEA)-sponsored mentor Konnie Krislock lectured on the First Amendment Rights granted to high school newspaper publications. "Your rights do not stop at the schoolhouse steps," she advised. "Once you get into [journalism], it never leaves you."

A presentation dubbed New Media: Free Tools to Enhance Your Multimedia Storytelling was offered, where USC assistant professor Robert Hernandez showcased different methods to diversify on-line communications for school news or personal blogs. He demonstrated the innovative use of "augmented reality" which enables more visual interaction between a featured article and its audience.

Professor Marc Cooper's lecture on Ethics & Credibility in a Digital Age emphasized the changing medium of journalism with today's ever-advancing technology. He also encouraged students to include their own voice in publications, stating,"I became a journalist because I thought this practice left the audience short of information."

The lectures at the Annenberg Auditorium were interpreted in sign language by Mickel Gubin and Pam Pritzker. During the event, high school journalism advisor Adriana Chavira was awarded Educator of the Year on behalf of Cal-JEC.          

To conclude High School Journalism Day, a free lunch was provided and students were free to tour the vast USC campus. "[High School Journalism Day] gave me a better picture of what the field is like and the skills that are necessary to succeed," said Elizabeth Vasquez from John F. Kennedy High School.