By Garrick Hoffman, Liberal Arts Major

This year’s Veterans Day offered a unique experience when USM’s own Free Press student newspaper invited The Beacon to a series of workshops in the morning and afternoon. Among the workshops were topics on copy editing, journalistic interviewing, legal implications of journalistic libel and slander, and others.

USM professor Matt Killmeier conducted the first workshop, which covered copy editing. Here, Beacon and Free Press students learned about the nature of newspaper stylization regarding abbreviating, mechanics, and a variety of other editing know-how.

Seth Koenig of the Bangor Daily News graced the group with his journalistic aptitude and presented the next two workshops, which covered interviewing in journalism and how to “find the right lede.”

Next, USM Communications professor Dan Panici combed over libel and slander and the legal implications of these in journalism. This proved to be a fascinating examination of how law affects those who work in journalism.

Finally, USM student Patrick Higgins lectured about photography basics and how to apply them in the press.

Perhaps one of the most important nuggets of information amongst all the workshops was journalistic integrity and what this means for anyone who plans to work in the field. Those who do work in the field have a duty to honor, and the workshops illustrated just what those duties are.

After the wonderfully constructive and informational series of workshops, The Beacon thanks the Free Press for their thoughtful invite and welcoming atmosphere at their headquarters.