The Feather speaks on social media, gives advice to others

With spirits high from the day before, Feather staffers enter the second day at the CSPA convention with a bright perspective, March 15. Not only did The Feather engage with other students throughout the five sessions offered today, but they also taught two sessions.

Bright and early, students attended many different sessions around campus, including “Strangers on the Street” by Sabrina Schmitz and Mike Taylor. They spoke about the importance of good interviewing and how it can change the way you write your story.

Schmitz got involved with journalism because of her love for writing and telling stories. During her session, she explained how detailed interviewing can improve your story and make students better writers.

“I feel like I watch a lot of kids struggle and they put it on themselves thinking they are a bad writer,” Schmitz said. “Really they are just spending their time on the wrong part. They need to interview for longer and get the real story and then the writing part becomes a lot easier.

“(Interviews are important) for the journalist because it makes their ability to tell that story a lot easier,” Schmitz continued. “You want those quotes to do the storytelling for you. If we don’t get the good quotes, it almost forces us to put our opinion in there when it’s not needed. For the person, sometimes people don’t ask them those questions and they do have a story to share and that gives them the opportunity to open up and tell somebody about their experience.”

During the last two sessions of the day, The Feather got up on stage and taught students about their use of social media as well as the paper itself.

Advisors Greg Stobbe and Kori Friesen spoke about the importance of social media and how it can promote all publications. They described the three main media sources The Feather uses (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) and showed how they are each useful.

For the last session of the day, editor-in-chiefs Mariana Fikse, ‘18, Alexander Rurik, ‘19, and Samuel Cross, ‘19, talked about The Feather and how they became an award-winning newspaper. Each editor went through the process of assigning, editing, and publishing their articles.

This was Rurik’s first time speaking as an editor. He enjoyed teaching other students different ways to improve their publication.

“Today’s session was awesome,” Rurik said. “I thought we all did pretty well and it was definitely an enjoyable time for me. What we do as a team for The Feather is special and it’s cool we can share that and help others be the best they can be.”

After the convention, students walked around Soho, Manhattan for dinner and shopping. Staffers went to many different stores, including the Nike Store, American Eagle, and Brandy Melville. For dinner, students went to Grotta Azzurra and ate authentic Italian food.

Kaylie Clem, ‘19, shopped in SoHo and enjoyed looking through some stores she usually doesn’t find back in Fresno.

“It was a lot of fun to see how big the shops were and to shop for things that weren’t just souvenir items,” Clem. “Unfortunately one of our photographers Cayla Rivas couldn’t come on the trip. We wanted to get her something special and Soho was the perfect opportunity.”

Tomorrow, The Feather will attend two sessions and find out if they are recipients of a Gold Crown. Check back tomorrow for more news.