Twenty two teams of broadcast journalist, five hours, and frigid Boston temperatures — these were the main components of the Fall Frenzy event held at Emerson College on Friday, December 5th. Students equipped with cameras ventured out into the Theater District with a goal: getting a good lede.
The New England Scholastic Press Association’s Five Hour Frenzy gives student journalists five hours to go out into Boston, find a newsworthy topic that applies to a given prompt, and gather information, video interviews, and B-roll to create a full feature or news story.
“We had absolutely no idea what we were doing in the beginning. We spent a solid hour after the prompt was given just making phone calls and everything and no one picked up,” said Liam Fuller, a BHS News reporter. “That was a bit of an issue, but we just decided if people aren’t picking up, then we have to get out there, so we went out and literally just down the block we found exactly what we were looking for, which I don’t think we would have found if we hadn’t gone out.”
Groups encountered various obstacles along the way, such as businesses not picking up calls, hanging up on them, and even struggling to connect to the WiFi.
“It’s an opportunity for different groups to gain perspective. You think you’re the only ones with a certain challenge or difficulty, and you find out that other people have worse problems than you do, and it makes you feel better,” explained Helen Smith, the president of NESPA.
The New England Scholastic Press Association aims to promote and support high school journalism, and this event helps them to do so.
“It is a great team building exercise to go out and do something together and to learn how each other works, and to learn that you can just walk out to Boston Commons and ask people questions and film them and all of sudden you have journalism,” said Brian Barron, the secretary of NESPA.
Working through the ups and downs of the event provided a great learning opportunity regarding production, deadlines, and the aforementioned obstacles that could prove to be extremely valuable for journalism students. Lessons can be learned about perseverance.
“The purpose of the event is to bring journalism students together. Right now, it’s just broadcast. We’re hoping to grow to different formats in the future,” said Zack Gorman, the Treasurer of NESPA and an organizer of the event. “It’s to bring students across New England together to practice journalism in a real environment instead of just their schools and just their hallways.”
While it introduces student journalists to real-world journalism scenarios, the event also reminds participants that there are many like-minded students in New England that share their interest in journalism.
The overall feeling regarding the event was positive among Braintree students. Another BHS News reporter, Leonel Goncalves, described how he felt about participating in the event.
“I think that the journey that we made today was very memorable.This was a really fun, creative way to find our own project, and also work with people either we don’t know, or people we’ve worked with for a long time. It was just a lot of fun. I would love to do this again.”
