DURHAM, N.C.—Last week, the Office of Student Media participated in the 11th Annual HBCU Student News Media Conference in Durham, N.C., where they took home first place in best student newspaper: twice weekly or more—besting Howard and Florida A&M in the process.
North Carolina Central University was the host school, along with the Black College Communication Association.
There, the staff of the Southern DIGEST attended sessions on editing, investigative reporting and keeping up with the latest trends in new media.
Amber R. Perry, a senior political science major from Independence, participated in a panel titled, “How I Got the Story.”
Along with students from North Carolina A&T and NCCU, Perry discussed obstacles in reporting in-depth stories, especially when administrations and sources were not forth-coming.
“It was really great to not only vent my frustrations about flack we get about reporting the so called ‘negative’ stories, but talk about how to overcome those problems. A lot of times, we read really great, informative stories and no one is around to discuss how they were able to get that information.” Perry said she hopes dialogues amongst student journalists continues.
Editor-in-Chief Venicia Gray attended an editing session hosted by the training copy editor of the New York Times, Don Hecker.
“Being a good editor doesn’t always mean searching for misspelled words or grammar problems; it spans from being a competent writer to searching for stories and asking the right questions.”
On the last day of the conference, a job fair and an awards banquet were held. Hosted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, students were able to interview with local papers as well as national companies such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post and USA Today.
“I gained valuable experience from talking to recruiters, learning how the scope of journalism has changed since last year, the necessity of picking up a second language and what papers are looking for in new journalists,” said Larry Young, sports editor.
Young, a junior mass communications major from Baton Rouge, also took the opportunity to have his résumé critiqued by industry professionals.
Reginald Stuart, a corporate recruiting consultant for the McClatchy Company was the keynote speaker for the awards banquet.
“Our future’s being questioned. They say our future as a communication medium is dying. It’s not dying, it’s changing.”
Stuart stressed the importance of journalists not completely leaving their profession, but possibly taking a detour.
“As people of color, we cannot leave the industry all together. Look at newspapers from the 1950s and 60s: news media’s projections were narrow…they only covered the negative.”
In his closing remarks, Stuart said there were six points all journalists must live by; having a foreign language, traveling abroad, getting internships, creating a strong résumé, having patience in an uncertain market and not being so “specialized” that one cannot branch out and do other things.
Young placed second in best sports news and honorable mention for best overall sports.
Perry placed second in best news series for her coverage of the Student Government Association’s Student Senate.
“Although we didn’t win a lot individual awards, I think it’s very telling of the hard work we at the DIGEST have put in this year. Yes, our staff is small, but the ones who are here are dedicated to solid reporting and making the paper the best it can be,” said Gray.
Christopher Jones, the interim director of the Office of Student Media Services, agreed with Gray’s remarks.
“I think knowing the disappointment the staff faced in Baltimore last year kind of fueled the staff’s commitment to returning the DIGEST to number one speaks volumes about their character. I think it gives the staff a level of satisfaction in knowing that for every late night, every story lede, every complaint, was well worth it.”
Granted the criteria for the awards are subjective, Stuart said judges were asked to look at newspapers whose reporting was relevant to the campus and its community.
“Topics like students without classes, campus security issues…of course Barack Obama coverage was nice, but we wanted to see stories in relevance to the campus…voter registration and forums that discussed his issues.”
When asked with was next for the DIGEST, Gray said good things.
“We’ve got our momentum back, and paired with our win and the sessions we attended, we can go only up from here.”
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DIGEST earns top HBCU student newspaper honors
February 17, 2009

Southern DIGEST editor-in-chief Venicia Gray, center, copy editor Amber Perry, second from right and sports editor Larry Young, second from left, represented the student newspaper during the 11th Annual National HBCU Student News Media Conference. The trio was joined by student media interim director Christopher Jones, far right, and publications assistant Fredrick Batiste, far left.
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