Provided by Bucks County Community College:
The Bucks County Community College sign at the Newtown campus.
Bucks County Community College’s journalism program and its award-winning Centurion student newspaper invite the public to “Journalism Careers in the Digital Age,” the program’s 18th annual Journalism Forums, on Monday, April 17, and Tuesday, April 18.
The free, three-part event features eight professional journalists participating in a roundtable discussion in the Centurion newsroom, located in room 127 of the Rollins Center on the Newtown campus. Among the speakers are five alumni of the college’s journalism program.
Session One will be held from 9 to 10:15 a.m. on Monday, April 17. Scheduled to speak are Jarrett Renshaw, an award-winning journalist who currently works as U.S. national energy correspondent at Reuters; and Tommy Rowan, staff writer for Philly.com and a former Bucks journalism student.
Session Two, which will be held from 8 to 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18, will feature Richard Conte, an editor at Dow Jones Newswires; Anthony DiMattia, a former Bucks journalism student who now works as a copy editor for the Bucks County Courier Times; and Charlotte Reese, another Bucks alumna who is now news director at WBCB 1490 AM radio.
Finally, Session Three, held from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18, will feature Michele Haddon, a former Bucks journalism student who now works as a reporter for the Intelligencer; Freda Savana, a staff writer for the Courier Times and the Intelligencer; and Tom Sofield, editor, publisher, and reporter of LevittownNow.com and NewtownPANow.com and a Bucks journalism alumnus.
Journalism professor Tony Rogers, who organizes the forums, said he was especially proud that five of the speakers were relatively recent graduates of the Bucks journalism program.
“This shows that students coming out of Bucks County Community College can find good jobs and build terrific careers for themselves in the news business,” Rogers said.
The speakers will talk about their careers, how they got into journalism, what it takes to get a job in the news business, and how technology has changed newsgathering, said Rogers. It’s also possible they will discuss recent issues and controversies in journalism, such as the rise of “fake news,” Rogers added. The speakers will give opening remarks, and then much of the time will be devoted to question and answer sessions with students.
“This is a chance for our students, both journalism majors and others, to get a sense of what it’s really like to be a working journalist,” Rogers said. “These speakers can provide a very fresh perspective on one of the most exciting careers out there.”
Students are learning from a seasoned news pro. Before becoming a faculty member at Bucks, Rogers worked as a reporter and editor for the New York Daily News and The Associated Press He is the author of the textbook Newswriting on Deadline.
The Bucks journalism program and the Centurion have co-sponsored the annual forums since 2000. Past speakers have included former NBC News President Steve Capus (a Bucks alumnus), New York Times reporter Charlie Leduff, Fox News senior producer Jerry Burke, and Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Bill Lyon, Tom Ginsberg, Michael Matza, Natalie Pompilio and Dawn Fallik.
The Journalism Forum is a way to educate the public while showcasing the two-year journalism associate degree program at Bucks County Community College. Admission is free. The campus is located at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown, Pa., 18940. For more information, visit www.bucks.edu/journalism, or contact Professor Tony Rogers at bucksjournalism@gmail.com or 215-986-8165.
