Ralston Valley [e]Xpress Newspaper

A Note: The Free Spirit Conference and this Site

Take 51 of the nation’s top high school journalists (one from each state and the District of Columbia), put them together for a week in the nation’s capital and what do you get? The Al Neuharth Free Spirit Journalism Conference. I had the opportunity to attend this event and came away with some serious reporting, in short, what you see here. This page serves two purposes:

1. To chronicle the Free Spirit Conference
2. To  serve as the Ralston Valley Xpress and [e]Xpress’s first foray into online multimedia, including video, audio, photography and traditional text reporting.

As in everything we do, we appreciate any comments, good or bad, or any suggestions you may have. We’re here to serve you and we cannot do so without your input! Just send us your comments using the form below.

Click here to jump straight to the video and audio multimedia content.

Hold the Obituary: We’re not Going Anywhere

A column by Michael Auslen, Editor-in-Chief

It seems like everyone today is predicting the death of journalism.

No one thinks we have a chance of surviving the decade. What with the rapid decline in newspaper sales, the rise of the unskilled workforce native to the blogosphere and the consistent politicization and growing emphasis of popular culture over legitimate news on the cable news networks, most people would argue that journalism is on its last legs, that very shortly someone’s going to flush the toilet on us.

But, you know what? Everyone’s wrong. But why would I, a simple high school journalist, know that?

1. The journalism industry is filled with people who have intense passions for their work; people who truly believe (as I do) that legitimate journalism is must for a democratic society, that, to quote Al Neuharth, “a fair press is as important as a free press.”
2. The next generation of journalists is ready to go. We have knowledge that the journalists and media executives of the present don’t. More importantly, we have a love for this field and, like those a generation or two older than us, understand accurate reporting’s role in a democratic system of government.
3. We’ve been here before. Do you honestly think this is the first time journalism has gone through changes or the first time the popular theory was that the industry was going down the drain? Well, it’s not. How about the invention of the radio? Television? These were new forms of communication that certainly didn’t help the newspapers. In fact, in the 1980s, many people believed that the end of the newspaper business was eminent. A copy editor at USA TODAY told us on our tour that when he got his first reporting job, the old hats at the paper told him to get out while he could because newspapers were on their way out. They’re still around.

Yes, newspapers are probably on the way out. While this saddens me, the fact of the matter is that once an effective business model has been discovered, online journalism will be able to do so much more for us than print journalism could ever dream of doing. You needn’t look any farther than this page you’re on right now. I’ve put up a photo slideshow, audio clips and videos from interviews. You can comment on what’s here and I can respond. If I get new content from a Free Spirit Scholar from another state, or find an interview I forgot to edit, I can update it right here.

But there’s more coming (and even out now) than what this page can contain. For example, at the Free Spirit Conference, Freedom Forum Vice President of Diversity Programs Jack Marsh and the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute’s Manager of Multimedia Education Val Hoeppner showed off some of the up-and-coming free Web and smartphone tools, including live video and audio streaming to the internet, software and online services that allow the creation of professional multimedia presentations in a matter of minutes and new ways for users to interact with content creators.

All of this will make news, actual information that matters, even more accessible to you, the consumer (because the word “reader” won’t entirely fit before long).

Yes, we’re changing. Yes, my personal dream career (newspaper reporter) is probably not going to exist by the time I’m out of college.

But think of the possibilities!

Journalism will no longer be simply something that comes to your doorstep at five o’clock in the morning and to the TV at six o’clock each night. Journalism will accompany you everywhere. News will actually be new when you get it.

The future of journalism and, therefore, of our world is unknown, but, after meeting the future leaders of the journalism world (my fellow Free Spirit Scholars), I’m more excited about this field than I ever have been before. So put down the pen, or, perhaps more accurately, take your hands off the keyboard! Don’t write us an obituary; journalism’s here to stay.

Photos

Below is a selection of the photos taken at the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Journalism Conference

Audio Clips

One of the greatest things about the Free Spirit Conference was the myriad of people we got to meet. Below is a selection of the interviews conducted by and sessions given to the Free Spirit Scholars.

Videos

Below are videos of some of the sessions at the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Journalism Conference

Al Neuharth speaks to Free Spirit Scholars at the closing medal ceremony of the event.

Animoto

This tool is quite possibly the coolest thing since sliced bread. Check out what we can do with a dozen or so photos of Free Spirit Scholars and a 30 second excerpt of “Don’t Stop Believing”.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

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