Reconvening for the fourth time, the Fresno City College (FCC) Journalism Day invited students to hear from professionals across various different fields, Oct. 25. Organized by FCC journalism professor Dr. Dympna Ugwu-Oju, the event hosted around 175 students from seven schools.
Starting at 9 a.m., the event started with a speech on the importance of journalism by FCC President, Dr. Carole Goldsmith. The event hosted 17 individual breakout sessions, allowing students the opportunity to hear and learn from various media professionals, often with hands-on opportunities.
Breakout sessions included topics such as “Telling Stories Through Social Media and Podcasting” by Joshua Tehee to “What’s Real About Fake News” by Jim Boren and Tim Drachlis.
The FCC Journalism Advisory Board and FCC student newspaper, The Rampage, helped to host the event. Unlike most years, 2019 featured two journalism days (first one Feb. 22) in order to introduce a new organizer for the event. Current organizer, Ugwu-Oju, plans on retiring at the end of this school year and made the fall semester journalism day smaller for the her replacement’s introduction.
Importance of young journalists
Dr. Dympna Ugwu-Oju, Fresno City College journalism professor, Fresno City College Journalism Day Organizer and The Rampage adviser
Oct. 25, 2019
“We need people who are young and enthusiastic and eager to come. It’s about your future. Somebody needs to continue to do that work after the older generation is gone. And that’s why it’s important. We need young people writing stories about what’s going on and uncovering the ills of our society and making sure that the right things are acted on.”
The following podcast features Feather staffer Jewel Chandler, ’21, interviewing Sanger High School student, Sofia Buitrago.
Observing The Rampage
Sofia Buitrago, Sanger High School student
Oct. 25, 2019
“My favorite session so far has been the session where we went to go tour the Rampage and got to see how they create their newspaper and all the stuff that they do for it. It was pretty cool seeing how they run it compared to our school and how we do it.”
Role of curiosity in journalism
Tony Botti, public information officer for Fresno County Sheriff’s department
Oct. 25, 2019
“I would say be curious, whether it’s in the job of journalism or life in general. If your eager to learn more and be curious and ask questions, that’s a good thing. Your gonna grow more as a person and if you enter into the field of journalism, you’re gonna be that much stronger of a reporter.”
Journalism brings exposure
Carmen George, Fresno Bee reporter
Oct. 25, 2019
“I always say journalism is like a crash course of life. Even if you’re not going to become a journalist, being a journalism student or writing for school papers is going to really open your eyes to your community and help you learn a lot more about what’s going on around you.”
New ideas to apply
Elias Soliz, Sunnyside High School junior
Oct. 25, 2019
“I learned a lot of new techniques on doing things differently for my video productions team. It gave me a different perspective on it. We learned a lot more about designing our own news website as well, and showed us all the different news layouts we can do.”
Learning from professionals
Addison Schultz, editor-in-chief of The Feather Online
Oct. 25, 2019
“I always enjoy learning from more experienced journalists and writers because they are actually out in the field and writing the world’s stories. This is inspiring to me and challenges me to advance in my writing as I tell peoples’ stories in my community. I always learn something new at FCC journalism day and I’m glad I get to share this experience with other journalists in the Valley.”
Continuing the next generation of journalists
Joshua Tehee, Fresno Bee entertainment and music writer
Oct. 25, 2019
“Well, I think for one, it’s important because it is building the next generation. It’s ensuring that ten years from now, we will have another group of people who are interested in journalism and understand journalism. Journalism could easily just sort of die out if we don’t do stuff like this.”
Importance of truth and fact
Kris Hall, The Rampage online editor
Oct. 25, 2019
“Whether you are a journalist, police officer or a scientist, no matter what you occupation is, you need to make sure to get the facts right. That is really what we do here is to make sure we get the facts right. But the importance of being a journalist is helping other people who aren’t there at the time get the facts.”
Versatility of lessons taught
Vidal Sandoval, Sunnyside High School junior
Oct. 25, 2019
“There is a lot you can do with those classes. Knowing how to write news pieces you can write about literally anything, from sports to current events to entertainment. And you can change up everything you write using what they taught in the design class.”
Careful social media usage
Victor Romero, Monache High School senior
Oct. 25, 2019
“The first session I went to was about Facebook. It gave you the concept that if you become a news reporter, you should act professionally and keep more of your personal stuff private. It was really fun; it was great insight on what social media is like now.”
Identifying fake news
Tim Drachlis, Fresno State Roger Tatarian Fellow
Oct. 25, 2019
“The issue with fake news is that it’s there and students don’t often have the tools necessary to distinguish truth from fiction, so we do more to help educate students as to how to figure out what’s true or false. The more knowledgeable a student is, the better they’re going to be.”
Taking opportunities
Jada Avila, Sanger High School senior
Oct. 25, 2019
“For my first session with Liz Kern and Vanessa Vasconcelos, they taught me to put yourself out there; don’t wait for the opportunity, go get the opportunity. Don’t wait around. They taught me to put yourself out there and make the opportunity available to yourself and make connections.”
The following podcast features Feather staffer Morgan Parker, ’21, interviewing Director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust, Jim Boren.
Informing society of fake news
Jim Boren, director of the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust
Oct. 25, 2019
“What we do know is that we need to be an informed society, not just to inform our community, but also protect our democracy. Students are on the front lines of it, being very into social media, and if they’re not sharing fake news that is a good thing. If they have the ability to find out what’s fake news, they can flag that on social media.”
The Feather would like to post other comments from students who attended the FCC J-day. Please post comments below or send the editors an email via [email protected].
For last year’s article on the FCC Journalism Day, read Join The Discussion: Fresno City College Journalism Day 2019.
For more articles, read ClovisFest draws thousands to Old Town Clovis, unites community, Oct. 26-27 or Community college free via California Promise Grant.
Vijay Stephen can be reached via Twitter.
Annabelle Messer • Oct 29, 2019 at 12:38 pm
Great Article Vijay!! I had a great time at the FCC Journalism Day and loved capturing it. I learned a lot from some of the best in their profession and had the opportunity to even work a news camera!