FROM A NEW LIGHT
Bailey Hansen
After the first two days, and a long hard wake-up the next morning, I got down to learning. I had signed up to do all of the sessions the day with my friend (they were also sessions solely involving the topic of my leadership position as sports editor).
I wouldn’t quite say that I learned anything new, but I would say that it was told to me for the first time from a perspective that I understood.
Never before had someone put the concept of interviewing in such an amusing and understandable way for me. You see, the presenter spoke to the crowd about the concept of an onion, and in the concept, the onion is the person. The outer layers are the things that everybody knows about that person, and that most amateurs use for their stories. However, as you get to know the said person, you are peeling the layers of the onion, and ultimately getting a better story. I still have questions about the onion concept, such as:
- How do you know when you’re getting too deep?
- How can I word the story in a way that won’t hurt the person that is featured in the story?
I don’t know if I got a clear answer to either of the questions, but it got me to the point where I wanted to learn more. It brought motivation to continue if nothing else. I continued through my classes, all with different facts and features presented.
However, another session that struck a chord was the session on mental health and suicide. I learned not only about how to tell the story but also about the meaning behind having a school newspaper.
For me, my entire journalism career was started by the yearbook, and that’s all I cared about, but I soon realized that there are things that the yearbook can’t cover, such as mental health, and that’s where the paper comes in.
I gained more respect for the newspaper than I ever thought I could, because like every other person, I would just look at the pictures and put it down, but after realizing what topics could be included in it, I realized that not only did I want to read the paper, but I also wanted to help write it.
So again, if nothing else, I learned how to appreciate what others can do, and I also got motivated to one day do those things myself.
Sports editors learning together at a conference session | Kelly M.