The 18th annual National Association of Black Journalist Multimedia Short Course was held at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on March 17-20.

This three day accelerated seminar brought 18 NABJ members from all over the country to mentor and teach young journalism and communications students how to enhance their skill set, as well as how to navigate the Journalism industry as a business.

Anthony Wilson, NABJ short course coordinator and anchor for ABC 11 in Durham, North Carolina, said this program is successful because all the professionals who volunteer are currently active in the field right now. That enables the participants to get the most current advice and updates from individuals who are working in the position they are advising about.

This year’s program brought 35 students from 14 different universities, including the University of Western Ontario, which is the first time an international student not attending school in the United States has participated in the short course at NC A&T.

Students were responsible for arranging their own transportation to Greensboro.  Once here they were housed and fed due to monies raised by the A&T NABJ short course committee headed by Gail Wiggins. This year’s sponsors included Cox Enterprises, NABJ, Capital Broadcast and A&T’s Institute of Advanced Journalism Studies.

During the program, the students were broken into two groups and then alternated between workshops and field time, where smaller groups of students worked under strict deadlines to complete news packages for the newscast that everyone came together to tape on the last day.

Each student was selected based on how advanced their current skill set was, which foreshadowed what job they would occupy during the end of the program newscast.

After the newscast, there was a critiquing session where each of the professionals reviewed the work of the students.

While the newscast was the biggest focus throughout the entire short course, students were also enthusiastic about the personal assistance they received from the professionals.

Most of the smaller groups had a mentor with them as they went into the greater Greensboro community to shoot their news packages.

Under the mentors’ direction and the information given from the workshops, many of the groups were able to complete their packages significantly earlier than the deadline established.   

“This is the best experience that can happen to a journalist who is serious,” said Erika Bazemore, senior Electronic Media concentration here at A&T.

As a returning participant, Bazemore said she was excited to attend for a second time because of all the people the short course exposes students to in the industry were specifically here to help with the students needs.

The short course was universally described as an “intense, pressure filled environment” but very necessary.   

“Students will gain invaluable hands on experience, tips, and strategies that will help them get into the position [they desire] and maintain it,” said Gail Wiggins, A&T’s NABJ short course committee project coordinator.

Workshops such as “Politics in the Newsroom” and “Writing the NABJ Way” helped to reinforce these and the other ideas that make up the short course, which is “providing an eye opening experience where the participants can undrstand all aspects of the business.”       “This is a very beneficial [program] because of what we are being taught and at what pace,” said Tiffany Edmondson, junior Broadcast Production major at Jackson State University. “It [was] a very professional pace, inspiring us to go back to our home schools and internships and put forth that extra effort [that was demanded of us here.]”

Wilson described this year’s group of participants as one of the programs best, which directly correlated with how eager they were to learn.

However some A&T students felt the program unjustly excluded students who were studying print journalism, especially given the current plight of the Journalism industry and its transition into convergence. 

When asked specifically about this, Wilson said that newspaper writing and broadcast writing are still very different and due to the time constraints, teaching print students the basic skills necessary to complete the task at hand in addition to the other lessons the course is designed to provide is not currently feasible.

He also suggested that those students who were really interested in gaining these skills should look into taking an elective course that taught them because a semester’s worth of time could possibly be better to make sure they do not miss anything.

Overall, the NABJ short course was welcomed and highly apprecitated by everyone who was affected by it.

“The students here do not need to take for granted the opportunities that are here,” said Monique Johnson, student from University of Western Ontairo. “Because where I come from everyone looks out for themselves for the little opportunities we do have.”     

• LaRia Land