Last weekend, several staffers from The Post traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend MediaFest ‘22, a networking conference hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association.
Posties spent four days at the conference attending informational sessions and meeting students from other media outlets at colleges across the United States. We sat through keynotes of Washington Post legends Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the “Washington Post TikTok guy” Dave Jorgenson and more. We were able to view other student work and note which publications we’d like to model our own after. On the last day, we excitedly awaited the announcement of awards.
At this year’s MediaFest, The Post picked up four national top-10 awards for podcasting, our website, our newsletter and our 2022 Orientation Guide special edition. The Post’s director of photography, Jesse Jarrold-Grapes, was featured as a finalist in the conference’s photo shoot-out as well.
As student journalists preparing to graduate and enter the industry, it’s reassuring to be recognized for our hard work. For decades, the field of journalism has been seen as a volatile one, where journalists are underpaid and underappreciated and where uncertainty looms around every corner. Of course, I’m in no place to comment on the validity of those claims, but I will say that the prospect of joining a workforce with so much buzz around it certainly doesn’t settle my nerves.
What does, though, is knowing that I’m part of a student publication that has gained national notoriety for its work. I’ve mentioned this several times in my past columns, but I truly think students at The Post — and at Ohio University as a whole — are some of the most impressive in the entire country. We work hard to do what we love, and when that work is noticed and celebrated, it makes us want to work even harder.
I’d be remiss not to congratulate WOUB, Thread Magazine and OU’s chapter of SPJ on their honors as well. Together, we proved Ohio University is the place to be if you want to get into the media and win awards while doing it.
Winning awards isn’t the reason we do what we do, though. It’s because we want to help inform others and tell their stories. Above all else, The Post will continue its commitment to that duty, awards or not.
Ryan Maxin is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University and the editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to chat with him about his ideas? Email Ryan at rm554219@ohio.edu or find him on Twitter at @ryanmaxin.
