Editor’s note: The Daily runs a media literacy column by Sarah Cavanah, interim executive director of Oklahoma Scholastic Media and former Daily staff writer, every Tuesday to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at The Daily and media coverage in general.

If you went in the Oklahoma Memorial Union on Monday you might have noticed it was a little more crowded — and the people were a little shorter — than normal.

That’s because it was Oklahoma Scholastic Media’s Fall Media Monday, a conference for high school broadcast, online, newspaper and yearbook programs in the state. Monday was the biggest Media Monday in recent history, with nearly 700 students and advisers cramming into the Union.

It seems kind of counterintuitive for scholastic media events to be growing while the media industry itself seems to be in free fall. After all, if every student who came to Fall Media Monday brought a dollar with them, we could have bought the entire Newsweek magazine operation 700 times over. But scholastic media, and in some ways collegiate media, isn’t just about the product. It’s about the process and the educational opportunities that process provides.

I should say right up front that I’m not a fan of standardized testing, at least not in the way it’s come to dominate schools. That’s despite the fact that I’ve made a good chunk of change writing standardized testing preparation curricula for schools. Actually, it’s because I’ve written test prep that I feel this way. I know the limitations of this form of measurement.

To me, if you want to know if a student can grasp concepts about government, English, business etiquette and math, send that student to cover an official body discussing budget changes. Have the student attend the meeting, interview the players and produce a concise report of what it all means for the community. That’s a better assessment of acquisition and synthesis of knowledge than a question with an answer of A, B, C or D. (Never in my life has a boss come to me and said, “Sarah, we have a problem. But I guarantee you the solution is one of the four following. Choose the correct one.”)

It’s not just reporting. Page layout requires students to understand concepts from both art and algebra. Photographers are better if they understand the scientific theories about light. Online journalists have to understand basic computer programming. And broadcast journalism requires planning, people management and teamwork to go off well.

Are all 700 of the students who came to Fall Media Monday going to go on to be journalists? Not even close. Will they all have an enhanced learning experience because they participated in scholastic journalism? Absolutely.

You might even say that when it comes to high school media, no student journalist is left behind.

— Sarah Cavanah, professional writing and journalism graduate