#spj8 conference wrap-up

Keynote speaker discusses media engagement of millennials

Keynote speaker Paula Poindexter of UT Austin addresses conference-goers. Photo by Melody Mendoza

By Laura Garcia
@reporter_laura

The University of Texas at Austin journalism professor Paula Poindexter gave a keynote speech Saturday about the importance of engaging the millennial generation.

The future of the media industry depends on it, she said.

“Is news engagement a thing of the past?” she asked the crowd of student and professional journalists.

If so, she said working journalists are part of the problem.

Her new book, “Millennials, News, and Social Media: Is News Engagement a Thing of the Past?” was the topic of discussion during lunch at the Region 8 SPJ conference at the Marriott Plaza hotel in San Antonio.

Poindexter said she studied her own journalism students and conducted a National Survey of News Engagement to determine how engaged young people are in the news.

She found that the age group of people born from 1983 to 1999 are less interested in the news. They are more diverse and less religious too.

Facebook consumed their time and while Facebook engaged millennials, the news media ignored them.

She said 39 percent of millennials said they seek news daily compared to 75 percent of babyboomers.

Poindexter cited a Pew Research Center study which 29 percent of 18-24 year olds said they read no news the day before they were studied. This makes them the most uninformed age group.

Find Pew's news consumption statistics here: http://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/in-changing-news-landscape-even-television-is-vulnerable.

Will the millennials follow their parents and start to consume more news?

Castro studied journalism before politics

Photo by Melody Mendoza

By Laura Garcia
@reporter_laura

Bienvenidos a San Antonio!

Mayor Julián Castro welcomed a crowded room of professional and student journalists at the Region 8 SPJ conference Saturday at noon during lunch.

San Antonio Pro Chapter President Eva Ruth Moravec introduced Castro as very “media accessible.” He filmed a parody video with the chapter for its Gridiron comedy show just days before he spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

He said he and his twin brother Joaquín Castro went to Stanford University with the dream of pursuing a major in communications.

“I once wanted to be a journalist,” he said.

But instead of heading off to news internships for the summer the Castro brothers ended up going to political internships. The rest is history.

He talked about a series of investigational stories in 2004 by Lisa Sandburg, which he says still has a huge effect on the city. Her San Antonio Express-News article called “Death by the Pound” reported that the city was sending more than 47,000 dogs and cats to the gas chamber every year.

“That article galvanized the community to do something about it,” he said.

Since then the numbers have been cut in half and the city is well on its way to being a no-kill city, he said, just like our neighbor Austin.

For more information on the city’s no-kill initiative spurred by Sandburg’s series, go to http://www.saafdn.org/animalnokill.

Photo by Laura Garcia

Photo by Melody Mendoza of student Ingrid Wilgen