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Current NCSMA Scoop
January/February 2006

Peace, love and journalism: Register for summer Institute scheduled for June 19-22

Students and teachers are invited to enroll in the North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute June 19-22 on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

NCSMA student officers have chosen a ‘60s theme, “Peace, Love and Journalism.” Join us here for journalism instruction and workshop fun.

Instructors will travel from across the state and nation to offer their expertise in newspaper, yearbook, magazine and broadcast journalism.

The Institute is open to all advisers and to students who are rising ninth-graders through rising 12th graders. The schedule includes 20 hours of instruction, plus time for a pizza party in the Kenan Stadium skybox, a talent show on the Quad and a tie-dye event on the lawn.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sponsors the Institute. The intensive workshop is designed to teach creative and effective ways of communicating through scholastic media.

Students may enroll in one of the following divisions: newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine, photojournalism, desktop publishing or TV news. Advisers may enroll in any of those six divisions, or they may enroll in the advising division.

Students may also apply for staff positions on The Rush, the Institute newspaper (see page 6). The Rush staff will produce the Institute’s official newspaper in four days. TV news students will produce the Institute’s newscast.

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Column: Nod to honors credit for journalism classes
by J. Alan Peoples
NCSMAA President

How rigorous should a course be at the high school level to be awarded honors status? Before I answer that question with my opinion, let’s look into a typical journalism classroom to see the various jobs and assignments students have to tackle.

My last column outlined the many steps that a journalism class must go through to acquire all the needed equipment to produce publications at the high school level. These steps included such diverse jobs as raising money for computers on which to produce the publication and selling ads to local businesses to raise funds for publication. Beyond these issues, journalism students must maintain a budget, schedule and take pictures for the yearbook and other publications, and create a distribution system for the finished product.

Workshops
All the while, they are writing the text and recruiting good staff people for the next cycle. Attending a summer session, such as the North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute, where the training is invaluable, is also an important part of the overall process.

I do not advocate the awarding of honors credit to just anyone who is on the staff. I feel that the credit should go to those who have been to one or more workshops outside the school, have been on the staff for more than one credit session, have achieved the status of at least assistant editor on a publication, and have met all the prerequisites to get to the honors level.
Many other courses offer honors credit for extra hard work or research, and they also have prerequisites. It seems to me that it would be only fair for journalism students to get at least the same minimum benefits as other honors courses. At our school, as well as many others, journalism courses are the only courses that have to sell our products to raise the money for publication.

Interdisciplinary
Journalism courses are also interdisciplinary. Our staff works on math and business skills when we set a budget, plan and implement the fundraising and sales, and work on the distribution of the finished product. We also work on projected sales by using the cost and time factors from past years to plan for the next year. We work on research skills and writing skills as we pare information to work within the timeframe and into the allotted space in the publication.

Our writers are most often some of the best in the school, and, even when they are not on our staffs we must approach the better writers and ask for their submissions.

One of the biggest draws is for the literary arts magazine is that it is sometimes the only outlet for the creative students to get their work published.

Honors courses take students to a higher level of skill and independence. An honors classroom has self-motivated students who can focus on a project, lead as well as be a team member, seek answers, and maintain a high level of energy.

Look into a classroom where a yearbook, a literary magazine, or a newspaper is being published, and these are the students you will see. They deserve honors credit.

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Column: Trials, tribulations, tasks of deadline week
by Suzy Chen
NCSMA President

Ahh, deadline week: the greatest seven-day period in the life of a literary magazine staff writer or editor.

Inevitably, Murphy’s Law will somehow find a way to surface during this interval. Perhaps all of the computers crash just as your tech editor has finished saving everything onto a jump drive. Perhaps your teacher’s car breaks down before she has to drive a hard copy of the magazine to the plant. Hey, maybe the publication gods just really, really hate you.

You should not, however, find obvious mistakes that should have been picked up during the final editing processes. After Ms. Hambacher, our adviser, and I have edited all of the written submissions, each entry must be checked off by three different members of the staff. The signed off copy and the spread have to match, for starters.

Furthermore, everyone is free to ask questions about the grammar. If a mistake is found, the process starts again. Three different people must, once again, painstakingly go through the poem, story, feature, or review. It doesn’t matter if the mistake was a misplaced comma. We don’t care.

So, imagine, during deadline week, when I sat down at the computer to print the first of 36 and found a mistake. And then another. And then another. There were quotes around some pull quotes and not around others. The text in certain pull quotes didn’t match the copy in the actual spread.

One of the prose pieces didn’t have an end mark at the end. I found comma splices. I saw “three hour” and “three-hour,” “special effects” and “special-effects,” “Depression-era” and “During the depression…” in the same spread.

Even after the best efforts, there will always be some sort of grammar inconsistency that no one managed to catch. That’s human error. But at the same time, deadline week isn’t the time for laziness. When May arrives, we want to celebrate a year of hard work and dedication—not bemoan everything we could have caught.

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News in brief

State Journalist of the Year winners announced

First Flight High School journalist Danielle Landskroener has been named the 2006 Rachel Rivers-Coffey North Carolina High School Journalist of the Year.

Landskroener serves as Editor-in-chief of the Nighthawk News.

Alternates were Sarah Dutton of Manteo High School and Andrew Dunn of Apex High School.The N. C. Press Association established the annual scholarship award and named it in honor of professional journalist and former NCPA president Rachel Rivers-Coffey, who was killed in a horseback riding accident.

NCPA will award a $500 scholarship to Landskroener, and $200 to each alternate at the Institute’s annual Awards Brunch. Each student’s journalism teacher will receive matching funds for use in his or her journalism classrooms.


Asian American Journalists Association hosts free J Camp


The Asian American Journalists Association is hosting J Camp, a high school journalism program for gifted students of color. The program will be held from July 29 to August 3, 2006 at New York University in New York City, NY.

Previous speakers at the six-day camp include Carl Bernstein, Aaron Brown, Tim Russert, and Helen Thomas, among others.

Applicants must be current freshmen, sophomores or juniors. A maximum of 40 students will be selected. Applications are now being accepted but must be received by April 14. For more information, go to the AAJA website at www.aaja.org .


Honors journalism course information available online


Honors journalism course materials have been posted on the NCSMA web site, http://www. ibiblio.org/ncsma . The information includes course goals, objectives, a pacing guide, and other helpful items for both newspaper and yearbook.


Dow Jones Teacher of the Year applications due July 1


Dow Jones Newspaper Fund is now accepting applications for its National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year Program.

While others (including students) can nominate a teacher, the application form must be completed by the teacher. Teachers are asked to confine their responses to a total of five typed pages along with three letters of support, an updated résumé, a 35mm headshot of the teacher and six copies of two editions of newspapers or newsmagazines or printouts of Web-only editions published during the current school year.

Application materials must be postmarked by July 1.

Contact the fund at (609) 452-2820 or by email at newsfund@wsj.dowjones.com.


NCSMA offers Institute tuition, scholarships for 11 students


NCSMI will award three full-tuition scholarships to minority students and six $75 scholarships to any student based on need. The scholarships will apply toward the $160 registration fee.

Four of the scholarships are named in memory of NCSMA associates. One, the Elizabeth Anna Windsor Scholarship, honors the memory of the daughter of Salem adviser Kay Windsor and her husband. Elizabeth died Oct. 11, 1996. A second scholarship honors the memory of longtime Kinston High adviser Oran Perry, who died Feb. 8, 1998.

The third scholarship is named in memory of Paula Carole Faircloth, daughter of Clinton High adviser Mary Lou Faircloth and her husband. The fourth is named in memory of John Bittner, UNC-CH professor of electronic communication.

Merit-based scholarships


Students are also encouraged to apply for one of two merit-based scholarships covering $160 Institute tuition. Both were established by the N.C. Scholastic Media Advisers Association in February 2005. Both honor two UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication icons.

Professor Chuck Stone and Dean Richard Cole retired last May.

Stone has addressed scores of NCSMI students each summer. He is a tireless advocate for student press rights. The Chuck Stone Institute Scholarship for Courage of the Press honors a student who also respects student press freedoms.

Cole is a former director of NCSMA. During his 26 years as dean of the School, he hailed the association as one of the most important outreach efforts of the School. Cole, noted across the country for his leadership abilities, was UNC’s longest standing dean. The Richard Cole Institute Scholarship for Editorial Leadership recognizes a student who has also exhibited exemplary leadership.

All applicants must write short letters discussing their career aims and why they want to attend the Institute. Advisers should write supporting letters stating why the students deserve the award. Applications should be postmarked by May 25.

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Column: Cool, comfortable Institute news
by Monica Hill
NCSMA Director

After years of asking students to pack a fan for our Summer Institute, we are so excited to invite everyone to an air-conditioned dorm this year. Our assigned dorm is in the center of campus on Stadium Drive. For those of you who have attended in the past, I know you join me in celebrating this shorter trek to Carroll Hall, home of the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Carmichael Residence Hall to Carroll will be half the journey you traveled in the past.

The quality of instruction, however, will remain as high as ever. And the registration fee will remain as low.

NCSMA offers one of the most cost-effective scholastic media workshops in the country. We look forward to seeing you here in Chapel Hill June 19-22.

Stars of stage and screen

Robin Sawyer of First Flight High School and two of her students were invited to participate in a Fred Friendly seminar at Columbia University earlier this month. Sawyer and her students represented North Carolina scholastic journalism so well. They spoke passionately about their beliefs in student press rights.

This seminar was an impressive one. Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry moderated the event. Watch the CSPA Web site (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa) for information on obtaining a copy of the seminar DVD.

Congratulations


Sawyer and Brenda Gorsuch of West Henderson High were each awarded a Gold Key from Columbia Scholastic Press Association during the recent CSPA convention. CSPA awards Gold Keys to “educators and others for their support of excellence in teaching journalism and in advising the student press.”

Cheers,


Monica

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