Perspective: Herd Media attends Society of Professional Journalists conference

I and three other student journalists from Herd Media got to participate in the Society of Professional Journalists’ national conference from October 1-3. Student attendees included Editor-in-Chief Chrissy Julien, Sports Editor Harold Espinoza and writers Alyssa Breiner and me, Samuel Espinoza. The opportunity has allowed us at Herd Media to be united as a group. It also gave us plenty of ideas on how we can make our stories the best version they can be.

The Society of Professional Journalists, also known as SPJ, has been around for 114 years. They’re a nonprofit focused on promoting ethical journalism, protecting the First Amendment and providing training resources for media professionals. SPJ’s first first national convention took place in Greencastle, Indiana, 111 years ago.

The conference being a national event meant that all of us at Herd Media got to meet and listen to people who have been working professionally in journalism all over the country. Just as importantly, we got to connect with aspiring students and learn from the way they run their student media.

For our sports editor Harold Espinoza-Lopez, the exposure to peers and professionals allowed him to expand his horizons.

“I learned practical strategies from Cameron Teague from The Athletic on how to stop relying on standard post-game press conferences and box scores. And why it matters,” said Espinoza-Lopez. “Because instead of just writing about who won or lost, I learned how to use a game as a springboard to cover deeper story angles like athlete health, labor rights and institutional power. I learned that our value as student journalists comes from providing independent context, not repeating what’s already on social media.”

We got to hear from some of the most influential people in the industry, like Chief Media Analyst at CNN Brian Stelter and Walter Robinson, the former leader of the Spotlight group at the Boston Globe. For us at Herd Media, the opportunity to learn from some of the best is extremely valuable, especially as the panels emphasized the cutthroat nature of the industry in our polarized media landscape.

The next SPJ national convention will take place in Dallas, Texas. It is yet to be confirmed if the team at Herd Media will travel to this one, but until then we’ll have plenty of opportunities to connect with others and master our craft to make our coverage as good as it can possibly be.

Feature image courtesy of our friends from The Daily Beacon