Student journalists come to Windsor for ORCUP conference

Student journalists across Ontario were given the chance to learn more about the media from industry professionals.

Windsor hosted the Ontario Conference for Canadian University Press the weekend of March 29-31, bringing in journalists who have been in the industry for years to share their experiences.

The Lance, the University of Windsor’s student newspaper hosted the event after putting in a bid for the event to come to the city.

“After voting from representatives of 60 or so different Ontario region papers we got to work at organizing the entire thing,” said Stephen Hargreaves, managing editor and art director of The Lance.

From the 80 newspapers a part of the CUP, 35 delegates came to Windsor to attend the events.

Hargreaves said he was happy with the turnout.

“We did have representation from all the way from Ottawa and down to of course Windsor,” said Hargreaves. “So it was nice to see the diversity and representation.”

Several speakers spoke at the conference giving insights into media unions, news design trends and story telling.

“I’m very passionate about getting the message out about telling a story,” said Marty Gervais, former journalist with the Windsor Star, professor at the University and Windsor poet laureate. “I’m not sure what is being done in a lot of journalism schools today but I think the fundamental success of any journalist is to tell the story.”

Fred Sorrell, publisher for Windsor Independent, said it was the creativity that drew him to the conference.

“You’re not leeching off each other but (we can) just come together,” said Sorrell. “We’re all working on the same thing, we can all start together by getting these key points together then when we go off on our own we’re all going to come up with a totally different aspect from these same roots.”

Gervais said one of the most important things the journalists who attended should remember is to take everything they learn, record it and then share it.

“We learn so much about our society and our culture and our politics and the way we live and the way we look at life by telling a story,” said Gervais.