Fall Media Day is an event held at the University of Oregon for young journalism students all around the state. They host seminars and workshops to further knowledge about how to write certain pieces, how to conduct interviews and so on. At the end of the day, critics gave out awards and evaluations for some high school newspapers and yearbooks.
The Oracle got the opportunity to attend this occasion along with the Intro to Journalism and podcasting classes.
Sophomore Wanying Liu, an Intro to Journalism student, shared that Fall Media Day was very educational. She said that she learned a lot about the newspaper business and really appreciated her experience at the University of Oregon.
“I really liked session four, ‘Smart Brevity.’ It talked about a style of news writing tailored to appealing to today’s reader,” Liu said. “It was good if you have a short attention span; it was super interesting and the speaker was really nice.”
During the event, a contest was held for whoever made the best story about Fall Media Day. Students had from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to complete a piece for different sections—news, video and so on. Junior Opal Green, column editor and member of The Oracle staff, created a feature story and was congratulated for excellence at the award ceremony.
“We all went into this really scary room with a timer set and we wrote for like an hour,” Green said about the experience. “It was an interesting experience.”
Newspaper students had the chance to walk around the campus, as well. The University of Oregon is nearly 400,000 square feet and has more than 20 buildings on school grounds. During the tour, students saw dorm properties and different departments, like the psychology and business buildings. The sessions and workshops were mostly held in the Erb Memorial Union, the center for student activities and involvement.
There are many young reporters all across Oregon, and this conference gave them a chance to be recognized for their work.
