By Megan Lopes

Boston, MA- Twelve students from Lowell High School participated in the New England Scholastic Press Association (NESPA) Conference at Boston University on May 1 and attended a keynote address by a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist.

Greg Marinovich, a South African photojournalist and co-author of The Bang Bang Club, gave the keynote address. Marinovich won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography in 1991 for his coverage of the 1990 killing of a South African woman Lindsaye Tshabalala.

“Everyone can be a citizen journalist today…everyone can cover important stories in their community,” said Marinovich, who grew up in an Afrikaan family during the height of the apartheid system in South Africa.  Apartheid is an Afrikaan word to describe a system of government which is based upon the concept of separation of classes on the basis of race.

During the conference students from all over New England participated in workshops on publication questions such as how the student editors decide which story to publish; how to write a news lead; how to motivate a newspaper staff; how to write an interesting profile story;  how to use social media to draw attention to a story; what’s an interesting headline;  and what is different about writing for broadcasts?

Aaron Robinson, a senior, and Andre Ragel, a sophomore, collaborated in a workshop with student peers from different schools to select the best stories for a mock student publication.

“We had to do a quick analysis of a potential stories to run in a simulated student magazine.  Then, we had to defend our reasoning about our choices,”  said student journalist Ragel, an aspiring meteorologist.

Alex Mai, a sophomore at Lowell High School, learned about detailed observation of others creating a profile story.  She learned to watch other’s interactions and others’ reactions to them.  Stephen Ducheneau, another sophomore, learned how editors keep up morale while working on a newspaper and how reporters cope with the stress of the profession.

Claudine Ngene, junior, participated in a workshop with professional photojournalists to better understand how to take a quality photo and also learn the difference between original and digitally enhanced photos.

“Sometimes the original picture is not reflected…they can arrange a picture so the audience will see the picture in a better way,” said Ngene.  “I was surprised by some pictures….mostly by the National Geographic photos…I was like wow, what a difference from the original photo.”

Marinovich, the keynote who presented a slideshow of his photos from a mining strike during apartheid, recounted moments in his life at which he first questioned the morality of the system.

He likened the treatment of blacks in shanty towns by the police in Johannesburg to recent riots in the United States’ impoverished neighborhoods which result from police mistreatment of black Americans over time.

“The pictures looked like rebels with guns,” and some of the pictures could not be shown because they were deemed too graphic, according to Ducheneau.

The “Bang, Bang” Club, of which Marinovich was a member, describes journalists who covered the factional violence by black political groups and the  police during the  transition of South Africa from apartheid toward democracy.  He also had the opportunity to meet President Nelson Mandela who is credited with keeping the peace in the post-apartheid period.

“[in South Africa]…it got to the point where you didn’t need to speak to the authorities anymore because you knew what story the police would tell to explain the deaths of the black protesters,” he explained.  “I went into the ghettos to tell the protesters’ stories….but sometimes they just weren’t willing to talk…”  Photos helped tell the stories, he said.

Marinovich explained how he could only show a selection of his photos which did not explicitly depict the violence of the period.

After the presentation Ragel asked Marinovich, “… if [he] ever had to put his camera down to help someone?”

Marinovich complimented Ragel on the question and said, “…you can help someone and you can also get the shot.”

R.D. Sahl, a New England Cable News anchor, introduced Marinovich.  Sahl explained how happy he was to be there because he got his start in journalism on his high school newspaper in Colorado.

At the end of the conference, Lowell High School received a meritorious achievement award from NESPA for an online digital newspaper, the LHS Digital Newspaper, which is produced by the digital journalism-communications classes and other contributors at the high school.

www.LHSdigitalnewspaper.wordpress.com

Matthew Brennan, a digital journalism-communications teacher at LHS, called the event “a once in a lifetime experience to listen and speak to a member of the Bang, Bang club who witnessed first hand the transformation of South African society.”

Matthew Brennan contributed to this story.