This team pictured above (not everyone is pictured!) consists of the editors I spend up to 9+ hours with each day for over a week at a time-- repeating every month and a half. One of the best things about being a part of a high school newspaper is getting to know amazing people you otherwise would not have had the opportunity to. Teamwork is the foundation of a successful publication. The combination of communication and open-mindedness of all ideas shifts The Harbinger's gears.
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Organization System
Upon settling into the role of Editor-in-Chief, I revamped our "folder system" to accommodate our goal of equalizing our print and online domains in terms of timely, quality content. Before, our system of organization for folders was catered towards our print issues. To promote article production cycles for our website, I reformed the folder system. This system is designed for timely articles appearing online first before in print; in-depth, longform content typically appear in print first and thus follow a different system.
Workshops
As student journalists, we're always striving to improve and learn new skills. To do so, I've created workshops for editorial board and staff meetings to introduce new concepts and teach new writers about the basics of journalism, with the aim that each lesson will build off of the other to broaden the journalistic perspective of our editors and staff.
Feature Writing
I took what I learned from lectures on feature writing by Medill professors and applied it to my own work as soon as I got home. However, I wanted to share what I learned with editors at our weekly Monday editorial board meeting so we may all produce incisive, thorough feature pieces.
I took what I learned from lectures on feature writing by Medill professors and applied it to my own work as soon as I got home. However, I wanted to share what I learned with editors at our weekly Monday editorial board meeting so we may all produce incisive, thorough feature pieces.
The Reporting Process
Many staff writers join The Harbinger with no journalism experience. To incorporate them into our team, we need to introduce them to the basics of journalism and the reporting process.
Finding a Unique Angle
The Harbinger has always reported on clubs like Mock Trial, Model UN and the likes; we write articles about their competitions and hopes and such. I continuously emphasize the importance of finding unique story angles within a club, sport, class or group of people. Exploring a specific facet of public interest as coverage of our school's various clubs and sports creates more interesting stories. To demonstrate this, I presented a great example article at a staff meeting: "The Pregame PB&J: How The Comfort Food Became The NBA's Recipe For Success." We discussed how the article showed an NBA team from a unique perspective. After reading an example of a story with a specific, focused angle, writers know what they're looking for and become more apt to discover the hidden narratives in our community. |
Multimedia Guides
Creating multimedia pieces can be intimidating at first, because you don't know where to start, what protocols to follow and whether it's reflecting the standards of journalism we uphold for every work we publish. To encourage multimedia production and make the process less troublesome, I wrote up guides, taking the trials and errors of my own experience into account. Once editors and staff members had a solid guide to help them with their digital storytelling processes, they felt more confident with creating digital work.
How to create a video
How to create a Snapchat story