Brian Jones, managing editor

This fall, Berry’s student media outlets, Campus Carrier (Carrier), Valkyrie Magazine (Valkyrie), Ramifications (Ram) and Viking Fusion (Fusion), attended two national media conferences, winning several distinguished awards.

The two conferences included College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI), and College Media Association (CMA). Philadelphia hosted CBI from Oct. 14 to 17, and CMA took place last week in Kansas
City, MO.

Both conventions catered to different outlets, with CBI having more of a radio and broadcast focus, and CMA focusing on newspaper and periodical publishing. The Viking Fusion staff attended CBI, while Valkyrie, Carrier, and Ramifications staff attended CMA.

At CBI’s National Student Production awards, Fusion won three accolades including second place for Best Website, third place for Best Live Sports Broadcast, along with a fourth-place award for Best Live Sports Broadcast.

Fusion also took home 11 Pinnacle awards at CMA, including an Honorable Mention for Media Website of the Year and first place in Video Advertisement.

For Valkyrie, Ram and Carrier, the Pinnacle awards were also a sure-fire success.

Valkyrie won four awards, including second place for Magazine Cover and placed third organizationally for Feature Magazine of the Year.

Ramifications took home three awards, including an Honorable Mention for Literary Magazine of the Year and first place in Literary Magazine Spread and Cover.

Lastly, Carrier received seven awards – including first place in General News Story (print/web) and an Honorable Mention for Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

All of Berry’s media outlets were nationally recognized for organizational awards.

Beyond accolades, student journalists gained useful insight from field professional panels and peers across the country.

Senior Katie Grace Scaramuzzo has worked in the News Department of Viking Fusion since her freshman year, eventually stepping into the role of News Producer. CBI has always been on her bucket list, and this year she finally got to attend. Scaramuzzo said she got to speak on three panels, one of which being a roundtable for women in student media that she hosted herself.

“It was by far my favorite panel that I attended or led,” Scaramuzzo said. “It was just an opportunity for women to talk about their encouragement or maybe their dis-encouragements within media, and the struggles that we go through that aren’t really talked about as much as they should be.”

As far as expectations went, Scaramuzzo said her anticipated attendance at this event was rather low – only to be proven wrong shortly after.

“I was expecting 15 people to be there, and I walked in this room and there’s like 50 people,” Scaramuzzo said. “[I said], ‘Oh my God, I don’t have a moderator either. It’s not like a panel. It’s just me.”

Scaramuzzo said this overwhelming number of people ended up being her most memorable moment from that event, saying the roundtable ignited a vehicle of change for women in
student media.

“It was just a really pivotal moment for me because I was like, ‘I have this opportunity to make change on a bigger scale that I didn’t expect going into this 50 minutes ago,’” Scaramuzzo said.

Students like Scaramuzzo planting seeds of change at these conferences didn’t stop at CBI. Junior Katelyn Wilburn serves as Editor-in-Chief of Valkyrie Magazine, previously working for the Carrier in addition. This November marks her second year attending CMA.

Wilburn said both years were distinctive in purpose for her, as Wilburn does research in the psychology program within prison systems. Wilburn said being in D.C. last year allowed her to social justice panels geared toward her research.

“I’m really big on issues such as homelessness, drug addiction, punishment in prisons, retribution versus rehabilitation – those kinds of issues,” Wilburn said. “I went to one on reporting on homelessness. I also went to one on reporting within prisons, [which] was about prisoners who created their own newspaper; they had some awesome sessions.”

Transitioning to this year, Wilburn attended more leadershipfocused sessions in hope to obtain useful information for her newsroom. She said both years attending CMA opened doors for two distinct avenues of change and leadership.

“This year, I wanted to go to some of the setup sessions that were about management,” Wilburn said. “I wanted to do better for my team, so that was the main goal this year.”

Valkyrie Advisor Chip McElroy said CMA was a great experience, but has some room to grow in the realm of inclusiveness.

“It did feel little newspaper heavy,” McElroy said. “Targeting a bit more on the newspaper side of publication more than the magazine, lifestyle or literary side of things, even though they do give awards for those. [Nevertheless], I thoroughly enjoyed the engagement and breadth
of ideas.”

McElroy also said that the conference finds its specialty in peer connection and growth, expanding the horizons of student journalists.

“You go there to learn and there’s no better way than peer to peer or different perspectives of faculty members that you don’t get at your current institution, which is awesome,”
McElroy said.

McElroy said that CMA is the catalyst for the future of journalism, and that starts with the individual Berry student getting inspired.

“Conferences are motivational,” McElroy said. “I think the best part about that for any of our media students, but certainly for Valkyrie, is that you get to be inspired.”

At both conferences, student publications from across the country attended, which allowed space for networking.

Freshman Brooklyn D’Ambrosio is an editor for the Chronicle at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.

D’Ambrosio said that whether in Rome Georgia or in the upper-midwest, love for journalism and telling stories is universal across the country.

“Everybody [at CMA] is here for the same thing,” D’Ambrosio said. “Everybody wants to tell stories and make an impact. And I think that’s really amazing.”

For D’Ambrosio, growing up in a small town never opened her eyes to the world of journalism. It wasn’t until college that she realized her creative reporting background had a key to the professional world.

“I love human interest stories,” D’Ambrosio said. “And I’ve been working at my own magazine for a long time since I was little. I’ve always loved creating my own product. But at my high school, there was nothing.”

D’Ambrosio said working at Chronicle and going to CMA hit the bullseye for what she’s been manifesting since she was a kid: creating.

“What led me to journalism has just been my entire life in creating as much as I can and finding community in it,” D’Ambrosio said.

National conventions like CMA and CBI recognize nationwide excellence among student journalism. D’Ambrosio said that the first step to a world of increased reputable journalism comes from simply engaging with the craft, which these conferences strive to fulfill. “Even if you’re not interested in writing necessarily or photography or contributing to its paper or publication at all, it affects you,” D’Ambrosio said. “The media you consume, the media that surrounds your world, it impacts every single person in it.”