VOX is proud to present our fifth annual VOX Media Cafe (VMC) program for teenagers who live all over metro Atlanta. This summer, we will be hosting two different sessions with students from all over metro Atlanta in each. These sessions involve taking a deep dive into the realms of journalism, such as photography and audio. Volunteers have graciously given up their time to help students who want to either pursue a career in journalism or be exposed to it. This week, students were able to explore journalism basics, photojournalism, audio broadcasting, and interviewing, in addition to practicing basic writing skills.

Volunteer Duane Stanford (Bloomberg Media Group, pictured above) came to instruct VMC campers on how to brainstorm story ideas, which is the first step in creating the final product. Stanford showed students how to catch all angles of and shape the direction for a topic. Later on the first day of VMC, campers took a tour of the CNN Center.

The VMC campers got a lot of insight from volunteers Mary Stuart Hall (The Galloway School), Leah Mahan and David Gist (both Turner Broadcasting) on photojournalism. Together, everyone went out to pinpoint a scene for photos. These photos each captured a central idea that the students wanted to highlight about the city of Atlanta. After their adventure, volunteers helped students learn how to edit their photos. At the end of the day second day, each group showcased their final product.

VOX’s Senior Editor, Rich Eldredge trained campers how to conduct an interview, how to select questions that are suitable, and how to think on their feet. There was a red carpet set up in which campers had to ask a list of questions as “celebrities” walked down the carpet. VOX’s five summer interns dressed up as their favorite celebrities. Later, VMC campers applied these lessons to a real life press conference with up-and-coming singer Victoria Canal. Canal gave VMC campers an exclusive performance in the VOX space, followed by an exclusive press conference. This experience was highly valued and left campers excited on their third day.

Thursday and Friday are all about audio broadcasting and breaking news!