- type your response in a Google Doc first, then copy and paste it when you're done. That saves you the agony of having the comment box time out on you.
- your comment should include your thoughts about our media program. What, if anything, from the presentation could we incorporate into our program?
- Are there any thoughts in this presentation that would severely disrupt our audience?
- What is the best idea?
View this presentation on convergence media and the future of high school journalism programs (both newspaper and yearbook). After viewing it, leave a comment here. Things to keep in mind:
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63 comments:
Our yearbook and newspaper have a lot of growing to do. After going through the slide show I think it is a good idea to make our online newspaper more well known. Myself, being on the staff, have never seen our online newspaper. We should update the online version everyday, if it is possilbe. I think another good idea the slideshow had was doing letters to the editor. that way we can see what others are feeling about the newspaper and go from there.
Hm... well, I think we should be more active online. And our newspaper and yearbook staff should be ONE! Hahaha. It shouldn't be just the photographers that work together for both those parties. And... I am all for the magnets and lanyards! It's a good way to label ourselves and let others know we exist.
In journalism, we all have a part to play in creating newspaper. May it be editor in chief or staff writer, we all have a way to contribute to the paper.
1. I think the most important thing that we can take away from the presentation is the use of dividing departments by section and also dividing the staff so that we employ set writers for each section of the paper, instead of throwing them around so much. Opinion, of course, would be an exception because we want a variety of voices, but the overall gist of it is that we would have experienced writers in each department, assigned to types of stories that they will become familiar with over time. Opinion writers could be drafted from these other departments.
2. Another useful tool for our journalism program would be the use of social media, especially twitter, to provide more breaking news coverage. Unfortunately, twitter it blocked here at school.
3. Allow newspaper and yearbook coverage to overlap. This has been a major issue, and major point of conflict between the heads of yearbook and newspaper. We always tend to bash heads with each other when trying to publish the same photos. This isn't so much the case with stories, but photos have been an issue. Either photographers need to take more than one photo of comparable merit or yearbook and newspaper must literally share photos. It doesn't seem right that one publication must be left in the dust and appear of lower quality while another publication is put on higher priority. And if sharing is still not possible, perhaps allowing for concessions where yearbook and journalism take turns using good photos on the occaision when photos are the same. (In the presentation, the yearbook is put on the lower priority where coverage is passed down to from journalism, but this is not fair either.)
4. Fillers as back-up are a good idea. (There have been many a time where there was too much empty space on a page, but at the same time these filler stories do not need to go in print and can be dispensible if there is not enough room on pages.)
The blogs would be unnecessary unless just to give students practice writing because it is unlikely that other students will read these blogs on a regular basis.
Having both a strong yearbook and newspaper, the Titan Template should move online. Or focus more online. Majority of the student body and readers are online constantly and looking up information there. If we began to publicize the online newspaper or news stories, the traffic should increase. We could place advertisements in the newspaper and yearbook too.
Our newspaper and yearbook staff need to start progressing towards the internet. Most news are now mostly read on the internet. We need to be more active in posting stories online and publicly advertising that they're available online.
This presentation made it evident that our school newspaper has a lot of room to expand and grow. Developing our online newspaper would be extremely beneficial to our journalism program. Many people get their news online, so having our newspaper online would allow us to deliver breaking news. Also, it would give a wider range of audiences access to our paper. It would be more logical for our journalism and yearbook staff to merge together. We already have class together, but we are always seperated. I also like the idea of having a journalism logo. It would give us an identity as well make us a more prominent presence on campus.
I agree with Savanna-- Yes, even though we have an online newspaper, I myself haven't seen it. I don't even think I remember the website URL, or have any clue on what it really is. There are definitely many improvements that can be made on the online newspaper. Just like the newspaper staff, where we have our EIC's, AE's, etc. and a layouts team, we should have a specific group of people for the online staff.
Technology is advancing by the day, which means that even though we have a print newspaper, having an online version would be extremely beneficial. Just as Tracy said, social media would help a lot, to get the word out about our online newspaper, but too bad most websites are blocked at our school.
So far, the program we have is going great. Everything is put together nicely and is running pretty smoothly. Putting together all forms of media staff has pretty much already been done. There are multiple classes with both students from yearbook and newspaper and both use the same photos taken by the class's photographers. What we haven't done is make a huge web out of the system like having an entire editor for both yearbook and newspaper. I don't think that having the newspaper based entirely on a website is a good idea though as students wouldn't have the drive to always check on it. I know that the web is pretty much the newest and best way to get news but it probably will not be the most effective in terms of the student body.
We can incorporate many things into our program such as actually having an active online newspaper. To be more active, we can, as said in the slide show, create a twitter and a facebook account to provide much more news. The majority of our school population use the internet for their resources, so if we create a more organized online newspaper, perhaps the students will actually read it.
I think the Convergence Media slideshow has many good ideas of which we can work off of. I agree that we should have a stronger online newspaper, I mean, I've never even seen it before. We should also seperate the yearbook and newspaper, meaning, they should be more independent of each other instead of people bouncing in between both, but still work together. While building a more publicized online newspaper, we can also work to make our current successful yearbook and newspaper stronger.
Every time we have an issue out, someone reading it complains that our paper is boring. It's not because we don't write well, or we don't take pictures well- people simply are tired of reading about the subject matter that we write about. Ms. Wojo has also been telling us to think outside the box or to try to write stories of interest to different people on campus. We could do more of the fillers listed, because they seem interesting. In addition, we really should have a bigger online presence. I think blogs are an amazing idea, but I don't think every staff member necessarily has to blog- one or two or three would be enough.
As mentioned in the presentation, we should concern about making newspaper once a week or requiring staff to write daily. We should access to social media, however, our school blocked those websites. However, we should try to improve our online newspaper and promote it, as most HHS students do not know about the website. We could print the website on our newspaper. We could update news more often online and allow reader to post a comment regarding to certain stories.
ummmm okay soooo, basically this computer is lame cause it deleted my first comment, so i here i go again. There are many changes and improvements that can be made to the newspaper to make it better. Letters to the editors help improve the newspaper, but we need more involvment of the student body and their opinions. Also the one line newspaper needs to be exposed more to staffers and the students. Everyone has a job when it comes to the production of both the online and regular newspaper.
Our yearbook and journalism staff has made numerous improvements throughout the years, yet there is still more room for improvement. After viewing the powerpoint, I think...
- The journalism team should gather around (fishbowl!) and look back at the last issue published. Critique it. Evaluate it. That way the team can step back and look at the big picture. What worked and what didn't work so well?
- Adding on to Savanna, I don't remember the last time I checked the online newspaper. As a matter of fact, I don't even know the URL.
- As we are limited in the amount of photos, photographers should take more photos. Then, yearbook and journalism won't have to "fight" for photos. The more the merrier.
I agree that we need to "upgrade" our ways of thinking and working on the yearbook and the newspaper. The times are changing and so must we; we have to adapt to survive.One of the things that really struck me as a great idea were letters to the editor. Its a great way to get opinions from our readers, not just about the newspaper, but about school events. It seemed odd to me that we didn't ever have any when I first came to HHS.
Our newspaper printed is good, but our online in not up to par. We have an online website that no one knows about and if they do it is almost impossible to find it(personal experience) because it is not on the school's site. I don't think we do short updates on events online, then make an article for the online site because we are more focused on releasing the printed edition which is what most people see. People do not see our onlie edition too often. I guess it's important to have an online edition to keep up with the time, but I do not think it is the best idea to work too hard on always updating an online paper. Speaking from a student's point of view, we are too lazy to go out of our way to read an online school paper. We are lucky to have an audience for printed paper.
I think merchandise is a good way to raise money and also give ourselves a label. The online newspaper should be constantly updated and publicized through facebook, twitter ad other social networks. I think the online newspaper can go really far if it is set up right. I like the way the slideshow had set up how the story writing goes on a 6 week basis. I also like the idea of all the departments working together
Do we even have an actual online newspaper? I know we went through all that hassle because of it at the beginning of the year, but it just disappeared for me. I think, because we already have a strong base for journalism and yearbook, more attention and work should go online. Make it more known that the Titan Template is online.
In order to shift with the future of journalism, it is imperative for the newspaper staff to utilize interactive resources to lure viewers to engage in the work of our student journalists. The most important aspects to include are blogs, which can be written by a new staff member each day, and social networking sites, such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Of all the ideas, the most paramount one is the need to keep and print hard copies simply because they are ultimately the prime and most authentic sources of what early journalism is.
I think this is something we need in order to make people interested in our program. The only thing I think needs to be different is that it needs to be completely seperate from the regular paper. It will take more work (online ads, setting up) but at the same time, most of the work will be in the teething stages of the set up. The best thing would probably be teaming up with some of the students from web design to help with the initial set up. Other than that, it is a really good idea.
I think it is essential for the newspaper to be online next year, and this slide show did a great job of highlighting how we will need to adjust next year. It emphasized the convergence of all staffs, and the amount of stories staffers would be expected to write. I also like the breaking news idea that we post a picture with a caption on twitter, then we write a brief, then a full-blown story. I think this was the most important piece of advice: "If you are not breaking news, you are not an online newspaper."
Jenna's right to say that we must adapt to survive. Creating a presence online (that people actually know about) is important. (Last time I checked, I think a broken url is still the link to the online newspaper on the school website - probably an old, bad koobougie link.) Anyway, it would be interesting to make a twitter, even if it is banned at school. People have a tendency of clicking on things in their twitter feed even if they don't have immediate interest. Finally, I really like the idea of Letters to the Editor, to collect both student rebuttals to specific pieces, or general advice on what they think we should be doing with the paper.
Our journalism and yearbook team are great and have improved greatly. Although, there is always room for improvement in both of our classes. The presentation is correct in the sense that we should be released about every week, but there is no possible way to complete these tasks unless we split the staff up in certain weeks of the month. Assigning certain writer, photgropher, etc to a certain week or two during the span of the month. In addition, creating a twitter account or a blog will help the staff greatly in the sense that our information will be easier to access and read.
I think in addition to our already growing and successful yearbook and newspaper, we can use social networking websites to reach out to more people and attract them to our papers. Due to the fact that almost everyone nowadays has a twitter or facebook account, having one for our newspaper and yearbook would be beneficial.
I actually think the set up of our media team is pretty good. The newspaper and the yearbook each has their own staff, but staff members freely work on both publications. I think this is one of the highlights of our media team. The division of departments featured on the presentation I think would be too, for lack of a better word, messy. If there is one editor in chief that must watch over all the departments and all that is in them, it would have the chance of becoming disorganized.
To report on more immediate news, I think it would be nice to have a online media site. However, since not many people know about it, it should have heavily advertised to attract a large audience. The news reported on the site would be pointless if there is no one who will look at it.
With the increasing popularity of the internet, journalism is also expanding it's influences into the world of cyber internet. What would greatly improve the efficiency of the journalism is if there is definite and distinct differences and sections between the world of paper journ, web journ, and yearbook. There should be specific individuals who work for a specific section of journ.
I think the slide show had great ideas. Some were unnecessary though, like the idea of logos on everything and anything you can stick it on. I like the idea but it wouldn't be on my top 20. I am appealed by the idea of using video as a medium for all things newsy.
I think that the newspaper and yearbook staff needs to be more well known and put out there. I think that merchandising would be a good way to promote the publications as well as the staff. I also think our online newspaper should be more active online. We should put our online newspaper and its options out there more because I don't think much of the campus knows about the online newspaper.
I think we can really use our online newspaper a lot more. With the mass use of the internet and social networking, it would be beneficial if we really increased our news mobility of the online newspaper. Some suggestions were to update daily or very often, to include videos and sound bites, and to make it interactive.
I think that yearbook and journalism should merge as one, so that we could benefit from each others writing and really incorporate some big news stories into the yearbook. Of course the article would be modified but there is no harm in using the same story twice.
I think our school's yearbook and newspaper staff is one of the strongest, but there is always room for improvement. There were several ideas from the presentation that I think should be incorporated into our journalism program. I definitely think both the newspaper and yearbook staffs should come together and share their skills with both publications. Not only with photography and advertising, but with stories and layouts as well. We certainly need to keep up with technology and make more use of our online newspaper. One of the other ideas I liked was showcasing the talents of students in both the newspaper and yearbook. This way, HHS students will be like a part of the publications, and highlighting individuals' talents will make the school feel more connected.
This slide show made a lot of good points. For one, I think the 2 groups should merge together because both publications would have more man power that way. There would be more diversity in the writing and the types of photographs. For example, instead of having one sports writer specifically for Yearbook, by combining the classes, you can have 3 different sports writers for both publications. Also, I think it would be a good idea to be more active online. This way, the publication writers and photographers can be more interactive and connected to the rest of their community and school. We'd be more "plugged" in. Lastly, it would be a good idea to market ourselves with magnets or lanyards or other materials because this would create a strong image for our publication (I think we need a publication logo). If we expect our publication to grow, we need to create a strong and connected presence in our community and on campus.
The proposal and suggestions stated above is powerful to create a highly organized high school newsroom. By implementing a weekly plan and specific grading system, staff will have more incentive to work professionally and effectively. I believe that writing everyday can be a crucial way to improve the school media. Frequent and regular practice in writing will not solely promote staff's skill in writing, coverage can also be widen. Thus, the school media can be more informative and educational.
Grades by assignment. My first day of yearbook, Wojo talked about articles and photo assignments. As a writer, I was introduced to an intense grading grading system: half credit for a misspelling, complete fail for a misspelled name, and so forth. But I mean, it never worked out that way. According to my articles, I should have failed at least half those writing assignments.
Yearbook had trouble meeting deadlines as well as the mini-deadlines that were assigned for individual spreads. We never really met those either. I should have failed that class according to that grading system. However, I didn't. And nevertheless, we put out a kick-butt book. :D Sure, there was some stress piled on us during the class, but it was still a fun experience. Sure, the grading system encourages a professional working atmosphere, but it just doesn't work with some staffs. Our staff happens to be that kind.
I think it'll be really cool if we had a online newspaper, because people could comment on articles and we'll know what our peers feel/think. It would help both our yearbook and newspaper department become better writers. Also we'll have a better idea of what our peers want to see in the yearbook and newspaper. That way it'll be fair because almost everyone that chose to would have a say so in what went i the yearbook/newspaper. We should have both the newspaper and yearbook staff work together and not be so segregated, to make sure they don't cover the same stories and to help oe another. However, having both departments work together could be distracting to both sides. For example yearbook staff might get to caught up in newspaper work and neglect the yearbook and vice versa. The best idea would be to blog about school events so we could see other perspectives about the event.
The most important thing that I pulled from this presentation is the need for our school media to be up-to-date. It is vital to follow up on everything, including even the seemingly insignificant rumors, and to maintain social connections. Our media also needs intense online involvement. We tried to at least create an online newspaper this year, but it didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. Staff needs designated people to focus on maintaining the online newspaper, but it also needs all writers to contribute. Even a brief story update is significant. And having a section for readers to contribute -- with staff approval -- and allowing comments on stories would make it interactive for readers and may also improve the newspaper's up-to-date-ness. I also like the idea of having more than just an online newspaper, but an online media site that includes both newspaper and yearbook content. Another important point is that the JTeam staff should become active on social networking sites, video blogs, and photo blogs (as STAFF). This would further improve the media staff's ability to keep readers and other staff members up-to-date, and would also allow more information to filter through for staff to use. I believe that our print publications are extremely important and should not be abandoned or ignored, but we should also begin making our mark on the Internet, seeing as how it is such a significant part of the media and of the public's life.
After going through the slide show, I think it would be an extremely good idea to expand and branch out to our online audiences. Our newspaper and yearbook are doing fine now are already honored and praised, but imagine what more we could do if we had online sources to update and regulate. Plus, more people actually check and look online than looking through our prints. All in all, branching out would be a wonderful idea.
Two things that caught my eye were the online news and the organization of our writers. We need to utilize our online resources. By the time we issue out a paper, probably about half the news are old news. We should have more "breaking news." As with the writers, I like how they divided the staff to write certain things. There are Feature writers, news writers, opinion writers, and etc. Right now, it's just our editors assigning stories out to different people everytime. This would help with better communication as well. Instead of wodnering who wrote what, we can simply narrow it down to certain people.
I think it's most important for us to merge all aspects of journalism into one: newspaper, photo, yearbook, video/broadcast, and radio. This will allow students to learn the various ways to cover stories--through writing, photography, videos, and radio broadcasts. Merging these also broadens their points of view by allowing them to analyze facts and opinions from different stand points. The use of student media may also be useful, although it would take a while for popularity and consistency to build. we won't be getting thousands of hits overnight; it will take time to build and shape. While I enjoy the use of student media as well as online journalism, I don't believe an almost complete shift to onilne journalism, as this slideshow suggests, is necessary.
The yearbook and journalism program are doing well but both need improvement. I feel as if the work put into the yearbook and journalism programs need to more recognized. Our names should be out there! I definitely believe that expansion on the internet needs to be the next step. We NEED to get the word out there about the online newspaper. I want people to recognize the writers of the yearbook and journalism people even at a common place like the grocery store. We need to expand to the social networking sites and get the name out there. More exposure leads to more resources which can in turn help the programs progression.
Keeping consistency within media outlets is the main goal of convergence media. It is still important to establish each outlet independently and allowing each to grow before taking the next step in bringing them all together. Otherwise, the news just becomes a copy of each other and you wouldn't know the difference between a yearbook, a newspaper, or online newspaper except for a few writing styles. Our school is still growing and a lot of what the presentation mentioned would take a long time to incorporate. The focus of reporting almost 24/7 is a goal that I hope all journ productions can achieve since yearbook and journ are trying to gather new and eager students.
Overall, I think we have a strong media program. Although we have an organized staff and distinguished newspaper, we should report on and publish news more frequently, especially through our online website. To do this, it would be interesting to incorporate social media outlets in our program. Although the Internet is becoming more popular, we need to stay strong with our print publications. Our audience would be angry if printed newspapers were discontinued.
I remember looking at the online newspaper once. Only once. As far as I could tell, it had the same stories, were released at the same time. It exists, but it has no appeal. We should probably draw more attention to it, and keep it clearly connected to the newspaper, but at the same time differentiate itself to make it distinctive.
I think that having an active online newspaper would be very good. We would have an online staff! Everyone would know about what is happening at our school outside of our school.
If it is possible, having an online news page would be nice in our program. I think anyone who at least contributes something to the newspaper should receive a decent grade. The policy of doing assignments for points that the presentation suggested seems quite ridiculous. The best idea is to keep the newspaper tradition and not ruin it.
I agree that this Journalism/Yearbook class should be expanded to have bigger, better and "ground-breaking" news and alos expand to other sources of media. What I disagree, however, is how much news is being "emphasized". I feel like that if everyone is obsessed on learning the news and giving the news, not enough people are going to act on the news itself. It's good to know the stories but it's even better to fix it if necessary. I think that eanding news into things such as twitter, blogs, and other fast sources might distract us too much.
If we are to pursue a full online newspaper site, then we should follow most of the guidelines of the presentation. We should, as a team, work on making ourselves known, constantly go over writing style, and distribute more of the work so that not a few "merged" editors have to do the majority of it. As for the six week folders and once a week story, I think we fulfill these requirements and mold our ideas with these online comments. To much writing, however, is counteractive because it begins to be to bothersome, and one might not apply themselves to the newspaper or yearbook as much.
After viewing the presentation, I noticed our journalism program has been drastically improving
in terms of the requirements for convergent media. However, we are still developing as a whole and still need to improve in particular areas. For example, our yearbook and journalism staffs should be more cohesive and I believe incorporating video journalism would also serve as a benefit. There are some areas in the presentation I do find somewhat unnecessary, including reaching out to all of those social media websites. It is important to be more involved with social media, however, the extent to which the presentation provides is somewhat overbearring. Students should focus their attention on producing a story rather than trying to maintain over a dozen websites.
After viewing the presentation, I noticed our journalism program has been drastically improving
in terms of the requirements for convergent media. However, we are still developing as a whole and still need to improve in particular areas. For example, our yearbook and journalism staffs should be more cohesive and I believe incorporating video journalism would also serve as a benefit. There are some areas in the presentation I do find somewhat unnecessary, including reaching out to all of those social media websites. It is important to be more involved with social media, however, the extent to which the presentation provides is somewhat overbearring. Students should focus their attention on producing a story rather than trying to maintain over a dozen websites.
Practice makes perfect. The yearbook and journalism staff at Hercules High may be pretty good right now, but there's always room for improvement. Therefore, I believe it is a good idea if we branch out to online audiences. Going on the internet is on most people's daily schedule, therefore, having an online print would be an excellent idea.
I agree with a lot of suggestions that were featured in the vidoe. It would be a smart idea to have our articles online in addition to articles in the newspaper. Some people, myself included, tend to read stories that are online rather than on print. Others, such as the adults, like to stick to the newspaper. If we put articles on both the website and the newspaper, then we can satisfy everyone. Also, like many people said, I think that we need to make the online website more popular, a majority of the people at our school, even many people on staff never knew about the online newspaper. Things like riting blogs and Letter to the Edtior would also stregth the newspaper. It shouws that we are trying to relate to the students and we want them to be more involved in the newspaper. But things like having weekly or daily, I forget which one, meetings with the principal doesn't seem like it would work. Writers are barely able to get an interview with hime for one day, there is no way he would have meetings with us so often.
The slideshow and my experience at the journalism state convention are reminders that our journalism and yearbook program needs to expand beyond its current state to improve. However, I know things must be done in baby steps. From last year's paper, we have greatly improved with the googledocs and spreadsheet system, but honestly, we need better communication, whether it be by e-mail or phone, and not only among the staff members, but with our audience too. I think if we could get our online newspaper up and running, it would be great. More students would have access to the newspaper/yearbook, and possibly be able to communicate with us more on what they want covered, questions, concern and comments. Also, what would be pretty cool is if we could use twitter for instant updates.. too bad its blocked at school :(
Merging the various aspects of journalism is important, but I think there is a limit for just how much we should merge. If, hypothetically speaking, we merge everything, what will distinguish newspaper from yearbook if we all covered the same things in the same light? Of course that is too extreme, but I believe that, while sharing is caring and it's good for the journalism department, we should also strive to be different from each other. I think we can start a private online pdf storage site for the issues that we publish. This way, if we wanted to look up something that we wrote about before hand or if we wanted to get some inspirations for future layout designs, all we need to do is look online, instead of searching the dusty, yellowing papers on top of the shelves. On the other hand, I completely disagree with creating MySpace Groups and such. I believe that it is, for one, invading students' privacy. Also, while following up on rumors is a good way to train aspiring journalists to be more aware of their surroundings, it is completely unreliable. I think there is more effort that needs to be put into this process than the actual rewards we would get.
Looking at this holistically, I don't think it would work well for our program. Although it is ideal, it seems to require way too much work from each individual. Unless we are all taking light loads, there is no way that students can possibly dedicate this much time to make the proposed system work effectively.
This slideshow posed several important points in regards to media - points which are entirely applicable to both the Hercules High journalism department and yearbook staff. As much as it pains me to say, newspapers are dying. The Internet is becoming more and more popular as individuals become increasingly inclined to Google news as opposed to locate it on the daily newspaper. Because of this, our paper must adapt and put a larger effort in both updating and publicizing an online supplement. Another way the Internet can improve our paper and yearbook is to utilize social networking sights to gain wider readership, be more involved with our readers, and better inform them. Further combining our newspaper and yearbook would prove beneficial to the two separate departments, as overlaps can be worked on as a team effort, thus increasing efficiency.
Journalism requires a lot of versatility. The yearbook and newspaper need to grow and expand, after looking at the slides. We should be online more and make that more accessible to the school public. We should, as a journalism team, be able to update hourly the online newspaper.
After reviewing this educated presentation, I am now educated myself of what this journalism and yearbook program at our school needs and must seek. First and lastly, our journalism and yearbook department need to catch up with the rest of this growing society of online. Everything is going online, so to speak, and we are required to follow that trend because we are journalists. And it also mentioned the reason for keeping a print edition as well. I believe this is an important factor because it is true as it claims, that it is permanent and won't be lost or erased. Basically, online is where our programs lack as HHS Titan Template and yearbook.
I like the idea of combining Journalism and Yearbook (although it's kind of already like that). It would allow circulation of various angles and story ideas, as well as pictures. However, judging by the presentation, the deadlines seem very tight and that can prove extremely stressful for staff members.
On the other hand, yes, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook will prove qutie advantageous and I think Journ and Yearbook should make use of them.
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