On April 24, 10 Mass Communication students were invited to attend Rocky Mountain PBS’ annual Newsmakers Luncheon in Denver. Three seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and one freshman made the trip, along with Director of Mass Communication Professor Dan Flenniken.

“It was a really great experience,” freshman Steven Foster said. “It was an honor to be chosen and to represent CMU. I loved getting to know more about PBS, especially because they’re located at home in the Fine Arts Building, and what it was like to be a news anchor.”

The luncheon also included the presentation of the 2012 Be More Award. This year’s recipient was John Parvensky for his 26 years of working with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

“You can’t get too much better than this,” Parvensky said. “PBS is truly a classy organization.”

The event’s keynote speaker was senior PBS NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown. In his address, Brown noted the evolution of media from being a mass market to a niche world, and discussed the implementation of social media.

“It’s far too early to make any theories or assumptions on the Internet,” Brown said. “I’m in news and I see things change daily.”

Brown discussed the country’s move into being more progressive and less conservative, and the media’s move into being biased and playing up certain events.

“The country as a whole is very open, but it seems that politics are not, and it doesn’t seem like the news media is helping any,” Brown said.

The CMU attendees were sponsored in part by the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and CMU.

“It was great hearing what’s going on outside of Grand Junction with the awards given, along with the keynote speaker that spoke,” Kilman said. “It was a great opportunity for us CMU students to network and see what’s going on in the professional realm of things.”

Students also met with RMPBS President and CEO Douglas M. Price.

After the keynote address, the CMU students attended a Student Press Conference with Brown, and asked him questions pertaining to the future of social media and online content, among others.