TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2008
Lessons from online Pacemaker finalists
The online Pacemaker finalists have been announced, and winners will be named at the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association convention in April. Here's what I liked about a few finalists:
Silver Chips
Montgomery Blair High School
Silver Spring, Maryland
I really like this site. It's engaging, and the color scheme is attractive. Having two lead stories keeps the page from being overwhelming. The image teasers at the bottom are nice, especially the pop-up info boxes that appear when you move the mouse over each picture. There's a lot going on on this site. The left rail frequently changes, displaying games and other ways to interact.
North Star
Francis Howell North High School
St. Charles, Missouri
This site reminds me of a networking site like MySpace and Facebook, which makes it fun and appealing. It's a clean layout and it has a great variety of content, from articles to videos and podcasts. Viewers can even play games on the site. I'm guessing the interactivity keeps people on the site longer.
Wayland Student Press
Wayland High School
Wayland, Massachusetts
This
site is great! There's great use of color and space. The information is
easy to read, and the teasers with images are good. I like the
content, which is rich and engaging. Everything
looks professional. The best
part is how it all got started. Although Wayland High School lacks a
journalism course, freshman Robin Kim asked his teachers about starting
a student-run Web site a year ago. Read the story here.
Take a look at the other finalists:
Posted at 4:10:32 PM
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
Build your resume with internships
If you're serious about pursuing a journalism career, start building a resume. How? Find internships. Internships have taught me valuable lessons about having a journalism career, increased my skills in writing and reporting, and have been a confirmation that journalism is my chosen career path.
Apply for as many as you can find. If you're just getting started, consider working at your town's local newspaper. Sometimes interns are not paid, but the experience is the most important. During my senior year of high school, I interned at my hometown's newspaper,
Northwest Florida Daily News. This improved my resume and gave me experience for internships I have had since then.
Consider freelance writing, too. You can be a freelance writer for anyone, anywhere. I was a freelance writer for
Florida Trend's Next: Your Future After High School in St. Petersburg while living in Fort Walton Beach. Send your resume and clips of your work to as many publications as you can. I attended a session at the
FSPA convention last year where
Kristin Harmel, author and journalist, spoke about magazine writing. She encouraged internships and freelance writing. Harmel said the editor of one publication she freelanced for didn't even know she was 16 at the time.
You can do it. Harmel advised to pitch story ideas to publications. Send an email with
the subject "Query or Pitch about (your idea) from experienced writer."
She did this for publications including
Women's Day,
People, and
Accent
on Tampa Bay. Through a simple call to the editor of the
Daily News, I had an internship there within a couple of weeks. Give it a try.
Harmel also suggested the book
Writer's Market, which tells you how and where to get published. It's printed every year and lists thousands of listings for book publishers, consumer magazines and more.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008
'L.A. Youth' offers ideas, inspiration
A newspaper that claims to be the largest in the country by and about teens,
L.A. Youth, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. L.A. Youth, a nonprofit organization, launched the paper in 1988 after the
Hazelwood Supreme Court decision prompted many school administrators to oversee the content of school newspapers. The program promotes critical thinking, writing skills, literacy and civic education by giving teens a voice.
A press release reviews the newspaper's celebration plans, including a special edition featuring its best stories and words of congratulations from Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers and more.
The
L.A. Youth site has a wealth of resources. I was drawn to the vast coverage, from restaurant and music reviews to tough issues like drugs and family problems. The site also offers interaction with polls, feedback and potential life-changing opportunities for you to find jobs and internships.
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2008
Students break news of hidden cameras
Take risks but be fair and comprehensive when investigating a story, advises a student editor whose staff broke the news of hidden cameras in their school hallways.
The Boston Globe wrote
in an article:
Several hidden security cameras hung in the halls of Newton South High School for months, not yet operational and apparently undetected, until reporters for the school's student newspaper started asking questions.
...Newton South's student newspaper, the Denebola, broke the story in its Dec. 19 issue under the headline "Secret Cameras installed," with an accompanying editorial criticizing administrators for not telling students they would be watched.
The editors won't say how the paper learned of the existence of the cameras, which are hidden inside dark-tinted domes or disguised as smoke alarms. But they said in a statement that the story, written by juniors Jason Kuo and Nathan Yeo, was held a month so they could get comment from the school's principal, Brian Salzer, who had been in China. He confirmed to the students that the cameras had been put in place.
In a followup story, the superintendent took responsibility for installing the cameras, explaining they had been used in another school in the district to control thefts and vandalism. He said he would await a district policy before using them again.
Alex Schneider,
Denebola editor in chief, gave this advice to journalists:
Student journalists should be ready to take risks. One of the
most important aspects of the episode was that we were not afraid to
approach the principal and ask uncomfortable questions. In
Massachusetts, we have the law on our side and the comfort of being
able to print what we want. That's not what we did here. We were
careful to take an honest approach to investigating the story -- one
that would be comprehensive and fair.
Read the student paper's
original coverage, or the school newspaper's
press release about their coverage.
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2008
The art of infographics
Staff members on the
Harvard-Westlake Chronicle began a series of "How to" infographics that ran throughout their 2006-2007 issues. Take a look at an award-winning one, "How to Jujitsu." Michael Kaplan, editor in chief, and artist Andrew Lee worked on the infographic together. Lee created the drawings and Kaplan designed the page using InDesign.
In an email interview, Kaplan explains the process to create the infographic. Here are some tips:
Conveying information.
In "How to Jujitsu, I determined what information
was going to be conveyed through the infographic, and after learning
about the five keys to Jujitsu, I decided that the graphic should focus on
these keys. I also arranged the graphic so that your eye would be
initially drawn to the panel at the top, but the temple in the
background persuaded the reader to also look at the graphics on the
lower half of the page. I also told Andrew Lee what to draw so that the
figures would correspond with the information."
Designing the page."For a black and white page, I think we
did a good job of really playing with different blacks and grays so
that all the information would not be an assault on the reader's eyes.
We also tried to make sure that the graphics did not all blend together
by using different sizes for each graphic of a person doing jujitsu."
Relationship between graphics and information.
"When designing a graphic, don't try and make the information fit into a
preconceived graphic. You always need to make sure that the information
or chatter actually explains your graphic and that the graphic depicts
exactly what is said on the page. Also, it is not a bad idea to take a
look at design books, professional newspapers, and other high school
newspapers to get ideas for your graphics. Don't plagiarize, but you
can use these graphics as building blocks for your own graphic."
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2007
Controversy: reporting on the 'N' word
My former high school newspaper,
Smoke Signals from Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, FL, had the chance to cover a racial controversy that arose from another local high school's attempt to perform the play "To Kill A Mockingbird."
This controversy dates back to Sept. 18, when a panel met to discuss the issue of using the "N" word in the play after two black leaders in the community asked that the word be taken out. Initially, school officials honored that request on Oct. 23 until issues of copyright violations came up. Officials learned the literary context of the play could not be altered without permission. The community became involved and people wrote in to the town's local newspaper,
Northwest Florida Daily News, voicing their opinions. On Nov. 1, officials held another meeting where the decision was reversed to allow the students to perform the original play.
Smoke Signals editor and senior Amanda Sullivan said in an email interview:
The
only challenge we had was keeping up with the ever-changing decisions
of the county board. It seemed like every time we turned around they
were changing their attitude towards the decision they had just made.
This definitely made covering the issue more of a challenge.
This story is also an example of how you can use
alternate story forms. The staff used a timeline to show the developing decision of the school officials and a facts box about the book
To Kill a Mockingbird and the author, Harper Lee.
Megan Whitehurst
, Smoke Signals junior staff reporter, wrote the story on the controversy. She said in an email interview:
It
was very interesting learning about the power of words and how one word
could cause so much controversy. You have to be very careful about what
you write or say because without even knowing it you can have a very
strong impact on someone. As a journalist I would say that it is
important to remember when reporting your story you must present both
sides of an issue and treat both opinions respectfully. Since I was
writing the article and not the editorial I had to keep my opinion out
of it so that students could form their own opinion based on what actually happened.
Read the coverage of the controversy and staff editorials on censorship.
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007
Students break news of quake online
After a 5.6 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area, students on
The Paly Voice online staff at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, Cal.
published a story online within about 30 minutes.
Michael Bloch, editor-in-chief and junior, and Anna Bastidas, junior, "expanded the story as the night went on, mostly by talking to students about where they were and what they were doing when the earthquake hit,"
The Paly Voice adviser Paul Kandell said in an email to a Journalism Education Association listserv.
The quake happened Oct. 30 at 8:04 p.m. In an email interview, Bloch explains how he reported the story:
How did you respond so quickly?
I
was at home and just about to leave for the gym when the earthquake
happened. I immediately went to a doorway and stood there until the
earthquake was over. I then checked on my family to see if they were
OK, and once verifying that, went to my computer. Within about five
minutes I created a bulletin on the site's ticker (
http://voice.paly.net, top middle of the page). After that, I focused on writing the story.
Within
minutes of the earthquake, I went online and started searching for
phone numbers of officials throughout California who would have
information about the earthquake. Once I had my initial interviews with
them, I moved on and tried to find students at Paly who had interesting
experiences during the earthquake. On Facebook a few weeks ago I created a group called
“The Paly Voice.” At the time of the earthquake, there were over 300
students in the group, so I sent out a message to everybody in the
group, and sent out an email to my staff asking for them to email me
quotes of people they knew. Because some phone lines were down in the
area, people turned to the internet for information, and hundreds of
students were online, and immediately people started sending me stories.
What was it like being the first one to cover the earthquake?
After
the earthquake occurred, I focused mainly on writing the story and
getting the information out to our community as quickly as possible.
Only about an hour after writing the story, when the fervor started to
die down, I started checking my emails from friends, and with their
congratulatory messages, realized that I was one of the first people in
the world to cover the story. (I guess my story went out to more than
just the community!) In fact, I heard from fellow staff members that
my story on The Paly Voice was the first one to appear on Google News.
What is something you learned from this experience other student journalists can learn from?
Act
quickly and be precise. Try and be prepared for emergencies by having
the contact information of people who work in law enforcement, fire
departments, courts, airports, transportation, water facilities, energy
facilities, etc. You never know when a disaster may occur, and already
knowing who to contact for information can be very helpful and save
time.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2007
Good writing on a tough, touching story
Look at how this writer used description and a well-crafted beginning and ending to tell a story about a student who died. Use these techniques for any story.
Tim Shedor, sophomore of Shawnee Mission East's student
newspaper
The Harbinger Online, wrote a story about the death of a student, Jay Crnkovich, in
Remembering Jay Crnkovich. Crnkovich was born with cerebral palsy and had to use a
feeding tube and a machine that enabled him to communicate with
others. Shedor uses vivid description and flashbacks to tell about Crnkovich's life:
They tried to help Jay live a normal life. He wore
a Hawaiian shirt when they took a trip to Disney World last summer and
watched him ride the carousel and pet the animals of Animal Kingdom. He
ate breakfast with the whole crew; Goofy and Pluto were his favorites.
The hotel had a swimming pool, and Jay took advantage of his
opportunity every day to paddle around. His parents carried him through
the water as he tried to flex his unbending legs. They called him "the
Frog."
Shedor focuses on Crnkovich's interest in Hawaiian shirts and does a
good job of connecting his details throughout the story, especially in
his lead...
Freshman Jay Crnkovich lay inside his casket, surrounded by Hot Wheels and dressed in his favorite button-up Hawaiian shirt."
And his ending...
"He was buried on a sunny day. The sky was clear
and few clouds stood in the way. It was a little hot, but the mourners
didn’t sweat. They were wearing Hawaiian shirts."
This story came to our attention on the listserv of the
Journalism Education Association.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007
Interview a World War II veteran
Here's a project you might want to get involved in.
Every day, 1,000 World War II veterans die. So the Library of Congress
wants your help in finding war stories to create an archive for their
Veterans History Project. The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) is helping
students find veterans to interview and will help you work with a local
television or radio station.
The project is an "in-camera" exercise, which means no editing is
allowed. Unedited tapes and recordings must be sent in with a list of
what topics were discussed in your interview.
Want to get involved? E-mail
Carol Knopes, the director of education projects RTNDF.
Find
more information about the project from the Library of Congress.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
On-the-spot news: Tell us about it
Poynter wants to use "Your Turn" to showcase excellent student reporting. If you have examples of in-depth or enterprise reporting, send us a link so we can see what your paper is doing and acknowledge good work.
Here's a great example of good on-the-spot reporting about a school shooting. You may never cover a shooting, but you can still be presistent, thorough and react quickly when something newsworthy happens at your school.
Last spring, Steve Thompson, the newspaper editor at Dow High School in Midland, Mich., was in class when word spread of a shooting in the parking lot. A student turned a gun on his former girlfriend then shot himself.
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The issue covers a school shooting at Dow High School. |
Thompson wanted to get to the scene as fast as possible.
"Right after the first shots were fired, the school went on lockdown. But, with my reporter's notebook in hand. I ran to the cafeteria to see what was going on," Thompson wrote in Extra, the supplement to Journalism Education Today, the magazine of the Journalism Education Association.
Surrounded by local media, law enforcement, parents and teachers questioning his motives and trying to keep students from looking out the windows, Thompson recorded the day's events on paper as well on camera. He was the first reporter to speak with the wounded girl's mother.
The staff produced a
special edition a week later, incorporating new information from the principal, the girl's mother and eyewitnesses.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007
Finding 'unrecognized devotions'
Peninsula High dove into multimedia storytelling with an interesting, well-produced series called "Beyond the Commons." Members of the
Peninsula Outlook newspaper staff profiled students with unusual interests outside the school walls and created 6-minute (or so) stories with clean audio, interesting natural sound and good still and video photography.
See them all
on their Web site or
on You Tube. Or just watch this one, about Olivia Konicek, a senior, who enjoys wood-making and even started her own business:
How do they find these students? Word-of-mouth, initially. And when James Luce, the student director of the series, told adviser Derek Smith there weren't any more talented students in the school, Smith said he "flipped out." He took Luce and a few other reporters down the halls and into classrooms.
"Some of them were shocked at all the cool things going on, especially in the shop class. They didn't know we had welding equipment at the school and that sparks were flying one building away from our journalism room. In about 15 minutes, we found a whole list of people with unique talents," Smith said in an e-mail interview.
Posted at 11:58:50 AM
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2007
48 hours to multimedia success
The 40 high school students were in the final days of a two-week workshop at Poynter. They spent an hour Monday afternoon getting familiar with the software they would use to edit their sound and pictures. Tuesday morning, Poynter faculty member Al Tompkins taught them about storytelling online, focusing on what makes compelling and memorable audio and video.
Tuesday afternoon, the students went out on assignment. Cameras, digital audio recorders and notebooks in hand, they spent an hour or two collecting sound and images to tell a story. In two hours that afternoon and three hours the next morning, each team of two to four students agreed on the focus of their story, figured out what they collected that they could use, downloaded it and started editing.
Their deadline? Lunchtime, exactly two days after their multimedia training began.
Here's the best of their work, proof of what student journalists can do, on deadline, with a little training and a lot of motivation. The students would agree their stories aren't pefect. But they're impressive. And their next attempts will be even better.
StarbucksStarbucks story, using a digital video camera and iMovie, by Karlyn McKell, Plant High, and Samantha Stephan, St. Petersburg High.
Click to watch SoundSlides presentation
Poynter Writers Camp story, using a digital still camera, iPod with microphone, Audacity to edit sound and Soundslides to create the slideshow, by Justin Sanak, Seminole High, Jordan Silver, Shorecrest Preparatory, and Chris Tufts, Carrollwood Day School. Posted at 2:46:21 PM
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TUESDAY, JULY 3, 2007
Poynter workshop students get published
Forty high school students spent two weeks at Poynter this summer, learning about the craft and values of journalism. Three of them saw their work get published this week in the
St. Petersburg Times in a
package of stories about what freedom means to teens.
- Anna Scalamogna, who'll be a junior at Clearwater Central Catholic High, wrote about her brother going away to college, but gave her story a twist that landed the article on the front of the newspaper's feature section.
- Jamie Sheirer, who'll be a senior at the same school, wrote about freedom and friendship, and how her best friend doesn't share her interest in politics.
- Lindsay Holmes, who'll be a senior at East Lake High, wrote about the significance of freedom as a young adult, compared with the innocence of childhood.
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