L.A. Times High School Insider, CSUN Journalism Department and Southern California Journalism Educators Association are hosting J-Day, the annual youth journalism conference at CSU Northridge on Saturday, Nov. 7. Learn from workshops led by professionals, test your skills in media contests and meet in small groups for roundtable chats with reporters.`
An adviser or parent must register on behalf of their student(s) and register them for contests. Maximum capacity for the event is 200 attendees and registration closes Friday, Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). All students must be registered to attend.
J-Day is free to attend for high school and middle school students.
Schedule of events:
November 7: CSUN J-Day
8:30 a.m. Student arrival and registration (breakfast available)
9 – 9:20 a.m. Welcome remarks
9:25 – 10:55 a.m. Writing & multimedia contests
9:25 – 10:55 a.m. Adviser session: Supporting Scholastic Journalism
11 – 11:30 a.m. Workshop 1
11:35 – 12:05 p.m. Workshop 2
12:05 – 12:55 p.m. Lunch (provided)
12:40 – 1:20 p.m. Keynote speaker
1:20 – 1:45 p.m. Award ceremony and closing remarks
Note: A finalized itinerary will be sent to registrants.
Competition details and guidelines:
Writing and multimedia competitions will be in the categories below. Registration is limited to 5 students per contest per school:
Competitions:
1. News writing
2. Features writing
3. Opinion writing
4. Sports writing
5. Photography (news, feature, sports) **
6. Video journalism/Broadcast **
Participants in news, features, sports and opinion will attend a live presentation, handwrite their stories and submit them. Students will write with pen and lined paper — they may use their own or there will be pen and paper available for participants.
**For the photography competition, each student can submit 1 photo only — choose between 3 categories: 1 news photo, 1 feature photo or 1 sports photo. All photo submissions must include a 1-2 sentence caption. Captions should describe what’s happening in the photo. Photo competition entries must be submitted to this Google form by Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 11:59 p.m. Photo submissions should be from the fall 2026 semester.
**For the video competition, each student can submit 1 video. Videos must be between 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Videos can be of any type of story (feature, sports, broadcast news story, etc). Video submissions should be from the fall 2026 semester. Video competition entries must be submitted to this Google form by Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 11:59 p.m.
Email hsinsider@latimes.com with any questions.
REGISTER HERE!
