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Teaching Guide |
THINK SMART!
This teaching guide is
designed to complement the 20-minute video, Think Smart. Click here to request
the video. Please note that video supplies are limited and may no longer be
available.
Organizing any special event, even a small
birthday party, requires planning and making many decisions. But how would you like to be responsible for
orchestrating an event for more than 200 people? That’s
just what the journalism department does each spring at Eastern Oklahoma State College in
Wilburton for Media Day, an annual event the college sponsors for high school journalism
students.
“Media Day takes collaboration,
imagination and determination,” says Barbara Bashore, head of Eastern’s
journalism department. “The idea behind
the event is two-fold: (1) It’s a public
relations/recruitment tool to entice high school students to attend the college, and (2)
it’s a learning tool for our college students who assist with planning and
implementation of the event.”
Let the Decisions Begin
It all begins in Eastern’s fall public relations class
where students participate in brainstorming sessions to plan Media Day. The annual
event consists of mini-sessions presented by professional journalists, individual and
overall competition for newspaper and yearbook staffs, and an awards luncheon.
With a budget of $2,500, the students
determine when Media Day will be held, what journalism sessions will be offered, who will
be asked to present the sessions, what the awards luncheon menu will be, what kinds of
awards will be presented, and what will be given as door prizes. They also are
responsible for creating a program, a flier and a letter to be mailed to about 100
Oklahoma high schools, requesting entries and attendance.
Details,
Details
As newspaper entries are received, they are separated
according to school size (5A to B). Professional journalists are hired to do the
judging and are paid $50 per category – news reporting, feature writing, editorial
writing, personal columns, critical reviews, sports writing, photography, cartoons, front
page layout and inside page layout.
Eastern journalism students are responsible
for separating the entries by category and school size, making copies of judging forms to
accompany each, and putting them in large envelopes to be taken to the judges.
Once judging is complete, a list of
first-place individual winners is given to the college scholarship office where
certificates are made, entitling the students to a $600 tuition scholarship to
Eastern. College students prepare certificates on a computer for first, second and
third places and honorable mention. The same process is used for yearbook
winners. Large trophies are presented to the high school publications that win first
for over-all excellence.
Final Preparations
The day before Media Day, students make copies of programs,
put the correct number of luncheon tickets in envelopes, and create a registration sheet
that lists reservations for each high school. They also get tablecloths and a
centerpiece from the college catering service to use in the sponsors’ lounge.
On the day of the event, Eastern students are
assigned to assist speakers who are professionals in newspaper, radio, television, novel
writing, creative writing, public relations, photography, advertising, movies and/or
yearbook. Speakers receive a $50 honorarium and are invited to the awards luncheon
where they are given special recognition.
A few students also are
hosts/hostesses in the sponsors’ lounge that offers pastries, coffee and soft drinks
and has the trophies on display. Others are responsible for manning the registration
desk, providing directions to the sessions, and distributing tickets for the luncheon as
each high school group arrives.
Whew!
The Awards Luncheon
After the mini-sessions are over, Eastern students take the
trophies, critiqued entries and lists of winners to the student union ballroom for the
awards ceremony. At the doors to the ballroom, they take tickets and return stubs to
be used in drawings for door prizes. After food is served and door prizes are
given, the students are in charge of announcing winners and handing out certificates and
trophies.
At the conclusion of the luncheon, entries are returned and
photographs are taken of the winning staffs to be sent to hometown newspapers.
Finally, Eastern students gather materials and return them to the building where Media Day
began. The next day is spent reviewing the event and determining whether changes
should be made for the next year.
Then it all begins again.
Media Day Notes
Approximately 200 high school journalism
students and sponsors attend the Eastern Oklahoma State College Media Day each year.
“Eastern students get cost information
for about three different meals from the college catering office, and we pick one that
costs no more than $5 per person,” says Bashore. “We then charge $7 per
person to those attending Media Day. With that money, we pay for the meals, the
trophies (four at $20 each) which we order from a local trophy shop, and put any leftover
funds into the Press Club account so the college students can have an end-of-the-year
awards dinner of their own.
“Money to pay the speakers $50 each
comes out of the Media Day director’s journalism budget from the college. Some
years, but not always, we can afford to pay judges $25 per category depending on the
number of those attending,” Bashore says.
Certificates are printed on resume paper
purchased through the journalism budget from the college bookstore, using computers in the
journalism lab. Every winner receives a certificate, whether it is for newspaper or
yearbook, first place or honorable mention.
College maintenance workers set up the awards
luncheon tables and chairs in the ballroom, and the college audio-visual director sets up
a podium with sound system. Orders for the catered meals must be submitted to food
services within a week of the banquet. College students serve the meals.
According to Bashore, Eastern’s Media
Day has always been self-supporting. The next one is slated for March 12,
2000. |
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Last Updated: 02/16/03
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