Last week, The Reporter attended MediaFest 25 at the Fall National College Media Convention in Washington, D.C. from Oct. 15-18.
The traveling crew consisted of forum editor Ninette Portero, media adviser Manolo Barco and myself.
We spent the first part of our day settling into our hotel, the Grand Hyatt Washington, which also hosted the convention we were attending. That same day, we began our adventure into Washington, D.C. with a night-time tour of some of the monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial.
The weather was colder than what we are used to in South Florida, but as the bus zipped around the city and the wind snapped against our faces we enjoyed the sites, sounds and lights of the area.
For the next two days, we attended a plethora of insightful workshops and sessions that gave us perspective into photography, editing, social media and building a successful freelancing career. We also attended workshops by the Student Press Law Center, a session by the Washington Post’s Rapid Response Investigative Team and a workshop on the future of artificial intelligence in journalism, just to name a few.
Other highlights at the conference included a keynote that included former New York Times Executive Director Dean Baquet and former Indiana Daily director of student media Jim Rodenbush, who was fired amidst a fight between school leadership and editors at the paper over what content is printed in the publication. He received a standing ovation.
On our fourth day in D.C., The Reporter attended the Associated Collegiate Press Awards Ceremony in hopes of winning our sixth Pacemaker Award. Unfortunately, we did not win, but we were recognized as finalists in the two-year newspaper/news magazines category.
We ended our visit to the nation’s capital the following day by taking a day tour of the district, visiting some areas we missed, including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
MediaFest 25 was a fulfilling experience for us as aspiring journalists. Getting the opportunity to hear from industry professionals with decades of experience as well as peers from around the country was priceless.
Thank you D.C., and hopefully we can take home that sixth Pacemaker next year.
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