The Vision gathers awards: Take a look at the 2023 SCPA journalism conference
Jaycee Stone, News and Feature Editor
The South Carolina Press Association journalism conference is a time of learning, growth and a multitude of opportunities. We, The Vision, had the chance to get in on the adventure and even grab awards.
The conference took place Friday March 31 starting at 10:30a.m. and finishing around 3:30p.m.. It was held at Clemson University. We as student journalists were able to listen in on some ideas that they could use for their own paper or website.
Another aspect of this conference is the awards that are open for the under 5,000 division and the over 5,000 division. Two Vision staff members won an award. Abigail Dickerson, visual arts editor, won second place for the best photo story award. Brayden Allen won third place for best sports story.
Vision Editor In Chief Seth Atkins said, “I am immensely proud of us as a staff. We work hard to produce our finished publications. Dickerson and Allen have represented The Vision Media well this year. This conference is always a good learning and community building experience for me.”
We had the chance to attend the South Carolina Press Association Convention along with other universities such as Bob Jones, University of South Carolina and even Clemson.
According to the South Carolina Press Associations website, it serves to strengthen the Palmetto’s State’s newspaper industry, enhance public understanding of the role of newspapers and protect basic freedoms of press, speech and the free flow of information.
They have many services to offer to the public and have an eye for helping those college students that are wanting to get their feet wet in journalism. They have a tab to different jobs you can apply for, contests you can enter and ideas of advertising.
It was a chance to connect with others and to see where their thoughts lie in reference to their communication with their college.
A time was set apart to let the students ask specific questions they had. It also allowed the host to also ask some questions directed towards the guest speakers that were there that day.
Questions like how to get a job in journalism, what are media employers looking for in staff and what advice can be given to the young journalists of today were asked during the discussion.
Other things The Vision staff had the chance to engage in were the breakout sessions. One specifically for editor-in-chiefs/editors included David Ferrera, editor-in-chief of The Tiger at Clemson University. He was very helpful in leading discussions with others that joined in the group. Other sessions include photography, sports, news and graphics.
Before the breakout sessions, there was a social media engagement that the staff from Clemson University led. This included an activity to let everyone join in on showing some of their favorite posts made by more-known news outlets like The Washington Post and CNN.
The idea of this day is to get us to gain some insight to specific things other schools may do and to help us with our own things we should try. It also gave us a chance to be surrounded by like-minded people with the same thing as everyone else – to get things out to the public when we can.
Another show and tell from The Tiger, those that came to the conference had the ability to take a tour into their work space. We had the chance to ask questions and see how The Tiger’s set up looked.
Going to this conference allows us to see all the hard work that is put into different stories. Those stories are also done by fellow journalists of the same age. The conference also helps to see how dedicated the South Carolina Press Association is in congratulating the hard work of college student journalists.
We can’t wait to see what the next year holds for The Vision.
Featured photo taken by Randall King
