After the introductions of judges, they announced that two judges from both categories, new media and photography, would present their work and also be available for a question and answer session. The first judge was a new media judge who worked for MediaStorm, Eric Maierson.
Maiseron showed two new media projects he had created, with help. The first was nonfiction and followed the life of a woman, Virginia, who was a single mom and also took care of her dying father. The video used audio, video and photography and was pretty interesting to watch. The second video was fiction, which he did not say until afterword. It used audio and photography and three different women read scripts about their lives. After showing the video, Maierson took questions from the audience. The two that I remember most clearly were how did he find people to interview and why did he do a fiction video? For finding people, Maierson briefly mentioned Ira Glass’s storytelling series (one of which we watched in class) and how difficult it was to find people to interview. I can’t remember the reason for the fiction video, but in all honesty, I did find it strange that he showed a scripted video for a journalism event. That being said, it was neat to see how he used audio and photographs in it.
Photographer Alexandra Avakian spoke after Maierson and she also had a pretty impressive career and projects. She showed several amazing and moving photographs, including some about her battle with breast cancer. She also talked about some of the difficulties of being a woman photographer in foreign countries in conflict. However, she also made a point to say some of the dangerous situations she was in were at the hands of Christian soldiers, so the danger was not necessarily always about different religions. What I especially liked it when she showed pictures of beautiful children in these foreign countries and said she did it to show that there is beauty everywhere. I loved the pictures and her attitude about them. I know I could not do that (I don’t have the talent or courage!!) and I thought she was quite brave to do so.
Next was another new media judge and perhaps, my favorite demonstration. Chad Stevens is heavily involved in a movement in West Virginia against mountaintop removal for mining. I was not even aware that this was taking place and to hear Stevens talking about it got me upset for those people. He also showed two videos, one of which a “trailer” for a documentary that has not been finished yet. The videos were amazing and really drew me in to the cause. But what I found most interesting were his thoughts on journalism. He admitted that he was walking a line between journalism and advocacy and when questioned further, he said there wasn’t objectivity in journalism, only transparency. I found that very interesting and I can’t say that I disagree. I try very hard to not let any bias show in my articles, but that does not necessarily mean that it isn’t there. We are all human and we all have our opinions and I liked how he admitted that. In terms of logistics, I think he used audio and video well.
And the final speaker and judge was Chick Harrity, who talked about the many presidents he had covered throughout the years. He was pretty funny when he talked about the presidents and also had a couple of moving photographs. One photograph was of a baby in a box and he talked about how that photo garnered such a huge response that they went back and did a story on the family and eventually, people raised enough money to bring the baby to America for a surgery to fix a heart defect. And perhaps, most moving of all, that same girl presented Harrity with his lifetime achievement award from the WHNPA in 2007. I also found it really interesting when he talked about past presidents and how often they went out in public and interacted with people.
Overall, I had a really great time at the panel discussion. Viewing the judges’ projects was really interesting and so was listening to them talk about their careers and give advice for ours. It really helped to see professionals use the skills we are learning now.
(Me after the panel discussion -- taken by John Bawroski)
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