Seeking Student Leaders with an Old Man

Image of me in class shot by a student.

It’s that time of year again—the MMU Times will be seeking applicants for the role of editor-in-chief.

It’s a key role for student media, and it’s a great experience for the student who is smart enough to grab for it. I hope we have several applicants.

Anyway, I leveraged the need to publicize that search with an introductory journalism class I’m teaching. Students were learning about interviews this week, so I invited the current student editor to come in and be questioned by students, who would then write a news story about the editor search based on what they learned.

In that class, students are required for report for the campus newspaper, and small-community journalism includes photography and videography, as well as writing. So, I brought in my Nikon camera and told students to shoot as they had the editor, Connor Mahan, in for a news conference. We also recorded it on the newspaper’s video camera.

Connor Mahan and me. I like this image the best. I'm using my phone to record the interview.

While there were pictures of Connor from class, one interesting aspect of the exercise to me was how many photographs of the old man I ended up with—although Connor was the primary source for the story, student photographers spent more time photographing Joe.

In part, I think that students gravitate to the familiar. They are more comfortable making my image because the act of photography seems like a personal connection, and it’s more comfortable to do that with someone you know.

Another image of that guy? In their defense, the camera was passed around the room and some students were shooting while I was the only one speaking. Professors do prattle on some.

But, a journalist is called upon to get over that, and to engage in personal contact with a stream of strangers.

It felt a bit odd for me to pick and edit photos from the class to use on this blog post. Seeing your own image is always a bit startling—the camera clearly adds years and pounds. I think that’s probably true of any “seasoned” person—in my own mind, I’m neither as big nor as aged as I appear others, and seeing my photograph gives me a peek into how others see me.

Weird. Not otherwise sad, really, because I don’t mind being of advanced years.

Anyway, most of the student images are badly focused or not framed well or ill-timed—but that’s normal. One aspect of training new news photographers is to get them to learn you have to shoot a lot to get a few good images.

It was a good exercise. I’ve not done it in this class before, but hope to continue it in the future. In the meantime, MMU students: This is your chance!

Apply today to be the student leader of the MMU Times.

Connor and me again.