Arkansas College Media Association 2022 Trip

by Haley Carter

NorthWest Arkansas Community College Eagle View newspaper’s student staff, and the Arkansas College Media Association annual conference have been united once again, but this time in Jonesboro Ark., at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Jonesboro — Red Wolf Convention Center, at Arkansas State University, April 8, 2022. NWACC’s now graduated, Eagle View newspaper staff, and student Dana West who has an Associate of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as retired Eagle View Faculty Advisor and Journalism Professor, Denise Nemec, attended the 2022 ACMA conference. I attended the conference as well, as one of the student staff for the first time, and I wanted to share this story about the annual conference that NWACC students get to be a part of. I want to share how gratifying it is to be a part of the Eagle View newspaper’s group of student staff members.

The Arkansas College Media Association founded in 1929, usually hosts the conference on the first Friday of April annually, showing recognition to college students in all forms of media within The Natural State, according to the Arkansas College Media Association’s website, different forms of media that are recognized are newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, broadcast journalism, websites, social media sites, as well as podcasts. Special speakers are brought in to help students learn about information on media and journalism. This year’s conference speakers focused on the future of multimedia journalism.  “I learned some dos and don’ts about social media, about the Freedom of Information Act, and how to shoot videos using a smart phone.” Nemec said.

Each year the conference is hosted in different locations “NWACC hosted the conference in April 2017,” said Nemec, “Other locations where the conference was held during my time as adviser include University of Arkansas Fayetteville, University of Central Arkansas, Henderson State University, Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, Ouachita Baptist University, and University of Arkansas—Little Rock.” Out of all the colleges and universities in the state, NWACC is the only community college that participates in the ACMA conference, Nemec said. 

As a newcomer to the event, I was ecstatic to learn about all of the things I had from the conference. Each of the speakers who presented, from Mike Poe’s documentary filmmaking presentation, “Big Dreams on Little Screens” to the panel of journalists who spoke about the way journalism has changed through the years in the presentation, “The Changing Face of Media,” gave me so much information to gather and store for future use in my journalism journey.

I was given a backstage pass to some of the journalistic ideologies within the industry of multimedia journalism, such as how television anchors aren’t what people in the field are striving to become, as they used to back before social media, which was stated in “The Changing Face of Media” presentation by Grendel Levy, who is an Emmy award winning News Director. Now people are more interested in getting quick and accurate local news fast, so it’s important to remember that real journalism is about how accurate the coverage is, versus how fast something can come out, since it takes loads of editors to check and fix things the reporters have written, said Gretchen Hunt, who is the editor of Paxton Media Group, at “The Changing Face of Media” presentation.

I learned that most of the journalists who were there, even when I spoke with Mike Poe, who is a documentary filmmaker, artist, podcaster, and graphic designer from Little Rock, started out with making newspapers in a school setting before venturing out into their related careers. After the presentation “The New Faces of Media” I spoke with one of the other speakers, I.C. Murrell, Senior Reporter of the Pine Bluff Commercial, he said that most people in any journalism career start out with newsprint before going further into the world of journalism and media.

“As faculty adviser, the most enjoyable part of attending ACMA conferences is seeing staff realize their involvement with Eagle View makes them part of a large network of other students in Arkansas committing acts of journalism,” said Nemec, “ACMA conference sessions are led by professionals who offer helpful and sometimes profound tips, insights, and tactics for improving student media production, skills, and knowledge.”  Nemec said, “It’s also a thrill to hear Eagle View staff members names called during the awards presentation. In some years, Eagle View has brought home as many as thirteen awards.”

Emily Patten, an NWACC graduate with an Associate of Arts and who will be transferring to Southern New Hampshire University to Major in Computer Information, could not attend the event, but was recognized for her achievements as a comic strip creator, as well as a reporter with the Eagle View newspaper. “Winning the award was very cool and very unexpected; it was a very nice end to the semester. I would recommend to just go for it, if you’re interested just try it,” said Emily Patten, “I was surprised because I didn’t think I’d win anything, I didn’t think I had made anything that was worthy of a prize.” Emily’s statements about winning her awards is proof as to why being a student staff member on the Eagle View newspaper is such an amazing experience; it’s an example of learning how truly deserving of recognition a person who’s contributed so much within their semesters on campus is.