By: Lindsey Barrett, Aryan Ghodrat, Kaiya Keyes, Nate Ogan, Jack Shimer, Sarah Wilson, staff writers

The North Carolina Scholastic Media Association’s (NCSMA) fall workshop described new techniques involving media. 

NCSMA hosted a virtual workshop on October 15 from 9 am-noon, providing new strategies and ideas for Ravenscroft School journalism classes as well as campus tours from the colleges that co-hosted the meeting. Colleges involved were:  Elon University, North Carolina A&T, East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, Queens University, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

During the NCSMA Fall Workshop, students attending the online meetings learned about covering the election and about overall school coverage during COVID-19. Students had the opportunity to pick which breakout sessions they wanted to attend and to learn more about that subject. Speakers and professors across North Carolina spoke at these workshops to give an update on the world of journalism today.

Throughout the NCSMA Fall Workshop, the topic of re-imagining coverage for media courses was a common theme. Guest speakers suggested that student journalists cover broader topics than what is just happening at each individual school: they encouraged students to cover all aspects of the election such as what issues matter most to students and covering the positions of both nominees on a wider scale that would show the variety of topics about which people should be aware and are concerned. In other workshops, participants discussed covering different aspects of COVID-19 that are not on the forefront of most people’s minds, such as the perspectives of health care professionals. 

NCSMA encouraged student journalists to implement innovative techniques given contemporary news issues. Please help us in this endeavor by sending us your images and stories.