Journalism students from West Henderson High School (North Carolina) receive a trophy from Marilyn Chapman as the winning team in the National Journalism Quiz Bowl at the National High School Journalism Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

Journalism students from West Henderson High School (North Carolina) receive a trophy from Marilyn Chapman as the winning team in the National Journalism Quiz Bowl at the National High School Journalism Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

The National Journalism Quiz Bowl was a new event at the JEA/NSPA convention in San Antonio, and JEA mentor Marilyn Chapman (South Carolina) played a key role as the quiz bowl moderator.

The National Journalism Quiz Bowl was adapted from the SIPA Quiz Bowl, a popular event at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association convention. Chapman, who is a long-term SIPA member, worked with other SIPA members to introduce the idea of the Quiz Bowl to the JEA board and then prepared the questions needed for the preliminary exam and the buzzer rounds.

Chapman said that they had hoped to get eight teams to compete and were very pleased to have 21 teams sign up. The Quiz Bowl coordinators used a written test to eliminate some teams. Twelve teams competed for the final.

“It really was a lot of fun with kids who were bright, enthusiastic and very competitive,” Chapman said. The students were from eight states from California to Virginia.

The National Journalism Quiz Bowl will be held at the JEA/NSPA convention in San Francisco.

Chapman offered these tips to teams that want to prepare for the competition:

  1. Read news for current events.
  2. Know journalistic terms for newspaper, yearbook, broadcast and literary magazine.
  3. Learn AP style.
  4. Know photography terms and techniques.

Check the convention materials for more information about the National Journalism Quiz Bowl and other convention competitions and activities. The convention information will be posted at http://jea.org and http://studentpress.org.