CORVALLIS - More than 1,000 high school journalists and their teachers will visit Oregon State University on Wednesday, Oct. 13, for the 19th annual Fall Press Day. The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at OSU's LaSells Stewart Center and the CH2M HILL Alumni Center.

Keynote speakers at the conference include Scott Chambers, president of Chambers Communications in Eugene, who will speak on "Zapping Traditional TV: Media Trends in Oregon Broadcasting and Production."

Chambers Communications recently completed work on a multi-million dollar film and television production facility in Eugene, and its Eugene TV station, KEZI-TV, recently opened a bureau on the OSU campus.

The other keynote address is called "News in a Virtual World: What the Future Holds for Newspaper." Presenters are two rookie journalists - Matt Thompson, whose thesis about the television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, culminated his bachelor's degree from Harvard University; and Robin Sloan, a 2002 graduate of Michigan State University, who has spent two years at The Poynter Institute.

Thompson is now the first and only exclusively online reporter for the Fresno Bee, while Sloan is the designer and editor for INdTV website, a new cable news channel for young people.

In addition to the keynote talks, some 75 sessions will be held for the young journalists, ranging from yearbook layout to video production. Heavy emphasis will be placed on the basics of newspaper reporting, including interviewing, news judgment and feature writing.

Professionals from Oregon media will conduct many of the sessions, representing the Oregonian, Salem Statesman-Journal, Corvallis Gazette-Times, Polk County Itemizer-Observer, Eugene Register-Guard, KEZI-TV, KPTV-TV, and others.

"Fall Press Day is an opportunity for high school journalists to learn from the professionals, get inspired and spend the day on a college campus," said Frank Ragulsky, student media faculty adviser at OSU and director of Fall Press Day. "For many of these young students, this will be their first trip to a four-year university."

More than 200 students will compete on-site in writing, cartooning and layout competition.

Fall Press Day is hosted by OSU's Student Media Department through the Northwest Scholastic Press, which is the professional support organization for Oregon journalism educators.

Source: 

Ann Robinson, 541-737-4604

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