On November 12, 2010, classes from ten New York City public high schools, along with teachers, administrators, journalists and journalism educators from around the country, convened at Baruch College in Manhattan. Rookie Reporter Brianna Fugate was in attendance at the conference.

Last month I attended the High School News Literacy Summit at Baruch College. When I first got to the college, I had to sign in and got my own I.D. I was really excited about this- I don’t know why :)

While I was there, I got to meet professors and journalists from all over the country, and I met a lot of other students from the Bronx, Queens, and even some from where I live, on Staten Island.  We were all there to learn how to filter and evaluate the news and information we get on social media -- which is something I never thought about before this conference.

When the workshops started everyone was allowed to choose which panel discussion they wanted to go to.  Some of the many topics that they discussed were: Social Media: From Facebook to Twitter, Spreading the News, Blur: How to Know if It’s True, and Should You Believe in Blogs? - which were the three I attended.

I really enjoyed the “Blur” panel. There we talked about the whole Shirley Sherrod “racist speech” and how it got her fired from her position at the department of Agriculture.

Ms. Sherrod made a speech at the NAACP and a blogger took her speech totally out of context. This blogger posted a video on YouTube stating only half of the story. I’d heard of this situation before, but I didn’t really know what it was all about. At the time, I thought Shirley Sherrod was a racist, but after seeing the WHOLE video I realized how easily things can be distorted.

This conference also allowed me to interview the conference attendees on my Radio Rookies story, which looks at cyber-bullying. Stay tuned for that!

Edited down video that became a firestorm: 

Full Video: Shirley Sherrod's NAACP Speach
(Section in question starts at 16:39)