What Real Industry Issues Can Teach High School Journalists
Posted by meredith on 04-23-2009
A few months back Anastasia wrote a post on reinventing online high school newspapers in the hopes of grooming a new generation of journalists for the new media frontier.
Earlier this week an article in The Chicago Tribune spotlighted several high schools in the area that were heading in that direction not by choice, but by necessity. As with mainstream and college papers before them, production costs and slumping ad sales were forcing high school newspapers to cut down, and in some cases even eliminate, the print versions of their papers in favor of online editions.
Setting aside the technical quality (or lack thereof) of these digital templates, I found the determination that journalism advisors and staffers were putting into their rescue efforts extremely inspiring. Not only the measures taken to stay afloat financially — in one example each staff member was required to sell three ads and participate in a monthly bake sale — but also the commitment to maintain the quality of their work editorially. In fact, the shrinking number of pages and limited story space was actually motivating young reporters to work even harder to put in their best effort.
But this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's spent time with high school students who identify themselves with their position on the newspaper. Even without the imposing threat of dwindling ad sales and the cutthroat competition to see your story in print, I remember taking my duties as reporter and feature editor very seriously– spending hours before and after school in the journalism room with fellow staffers, dedicating a few Saturdays each semester to traveling to and from write-offs, and just generally pouring myself into my articles.
And while I'm not naive enough to think that commitment and heart alone will save the future of the newspaper industry, I can't imagine there being much chance for survival without them. That's why it's so important that journalism advisors (believe me, I'm drafting a thank you email to mine right now) and concerned professionals continue to cultivate these qualities by working with students. By applying high school passion to real world strategies (alternative models, survival of the fittest-to-be print, etc.) in a safe environment (i.e., without the danger of being laid off) these students are readily preparing themselves to brave those same conditions and practice that same type of fortitude without a safety net. And that's good news for all of us with a stake in the media industry.
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Categorized under: Newspapers
