San Diego: Journalism students present at national journalism convention

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Shay Lari-Hosain

Juniors Juhi Gupta and Vasudha Rengarajan answer questions about keeping the flow of news constant on a news site in their presentation at the NSPA convention in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO – Harker Aquila staff presented a breakout session about online news coverage to students and advisers attending the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) convention in San Diego on Friday.

 

The seminar, entitled “Putting the ‘new’ in online news,” was led by Aquila multimedia editor Juhi Gupta (11), Winged Post managing editor Apoorva Rangan (11) and Aquila features editor Vasudha Rengarajan (11).

 

Over 300 sessions in newspaper, yearbook, online, and law were held from April 10 to April 13 at the NSPA convention, themed “making waves.” Aquila’s presentation, one of the few student-run seminars, demonstrated to students how best to maintain fresh content and organize reporters with a program-wide system that enables daily, up-to-date coverage.

Juniors Juhi Gupta, Apoorva Rangan, and Vasudha Rengarajan discuss a three-step strategy for keeping coverage regular and comprehensive during their presentation at the NSPA convention.
Juniors Juhi Gupta, Apoorva Rangan, and Vasudha Rengarajan discuss a three-step strategy for keeping coverage regular and comprehensive during their presentation at the NSPA convention.

Juniors Juhi Gupta, Apoorva Rangan, and Vasudha Rengarajan discuss a three-step strategy for keeping coverage regular and comprehensive during their presentation at the NSPA convention.

The team discussed challenges faced when planning for the presentation.

“The process is not intuitive on first glance,” Apoorva said. “[It was hard to] make it more accessible or make sure more people understood what we were saying, bringing it down to the basics.”

The staff found the session a “new” and “engaging” experience nonetheless.

“We actually had something to contribute to people coming from across the nation,” Juhi said. “People were very invested in what we had to say. It was amazing to see what we could help them with.”

The seminar concluded with a Q&A session, in which the editorial staff of various publications from around the nation inquired on how best to incorporate such strategies into their own journalism programs.

 

The Upper School journalism program went on to secure the second place Best of Show Award in the category of Broadsheet Newspaper at the awards ceremony yesterday.