Journalism and media students quizzed a panel of journalists at DePaul last Wednesday night, April 16, for Quiz the Media.

Students from DePaul, Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University set up in groups of two posed to ask questions to Maria Hinojosa (NPR’s “Latino USA”), John Quinones (ABC), Chris Bury (Al Jazeera) and Fernando Diaz (Hoy Chicago) for the Latino Media and Communication event. Radio host and producer Luis Perez moderated the event.

Both Columbia College and Northwestern each had two students representing their schools and DePaul had four. The eight students paired up with members of their own school as teams asking the reporters questions in the hopes of winning the most votes from the audience.

The teams asked a variety of questions from news stories about how the success of Latinos should be portrayed in the news and the risks journalists can face in the field.

“It’s not a risk,” Diaz said to the students. “It’s a lifestyle,”

The participants were recommended to be on the panel after Christina Benitez, Director of Latino Media and Communication at DePaul, asked journalism teachers at the three schools to help with the event. Once the students were chosen, they were coached in one practice round before meeting the expert panel.

“They’re all journalism students who seemed to have really a serious commitment to it,” Benitez said. “They all had good questions.”

Crystal Carrazco, a senior at Columbia College Chicago, found out about the event through her professor.

“It sounded interesting,” Carrazo said. “There were a lot of representatives from a lot of organizations.”

“(DePaul Professor) Rick Brown gave my name to Christina Benitez,” Pari Cruz, a DePaul grad student, said. “When I looked into it, it sounded great.”

Benitez began working on the event last year, but it was continually postponed due to scheduling conflicts with the four visiting journalists.

The wait paid off.

The four journalists offered advice to the students and the audience from their years of experience.

“It’s that fire in your belly,” Quinones said. “And you either have it or you don’t.”

Based on the students’ questions, the audience and the four journalists voted for each team in different categories like “Best Journalistic Spirit.” They voted with small iClickers and then the team that had the most votes overall won.

All teams received a gift bag from “Latino USA.” The winning team also received an audio recording kit. DePaul students Camille Padilla and Laura Rodriguez won the most votes for the night.

“This is the first time we did this,” Benitez said. “I thought the conversation was nice and great.”

There are currently no plans for another event next year, although Benitez said she would like to do it again.