Class Changes for Reporter Recruitment
Two years ago due to Covid-19 complications, our Imua staff dwindled to less than twenty students. To recruit staff members, I encouraged my advisor to increase the flexibility of Imua, allowing potential class members to take one semester in-class traditionally, with the second semester as an independent research project that contributed to Imua’s online website. We tested this program with two students, Bryan and Edward, and the increased freedom allowed them to create “Boarder Bulletin,” a corner of the Imua website dedicated to articles about the daily lives of our boarding students, increasing day students’ awareness about different cultures. I mentored Bryan and Edward for the first few weeks when they rejoined our in-person staff, showing them the basics of inDesign and SnoFlow, to get them caught up with our in-person class, and they were soon able to adapt and continue writing articles for Boarder Bulletin, along with making contributions to our print publication.
I also did away with our traditional Beats system of reporting, where each new journalist was assigned two beats to cover each quarter, with one being sports-based and the other feature-focused. After sending out a survey at the end of junior year, I realized that many students were unhappy with the beats system, as they felt that it stifled their ability to report on events that interested them, resulting in sloppy, mediocre coverage. I took note of this and introduced a more relaxed system, where students could choose to cover anything they wanted to, as long as they completed three articles per quarter and four social media posts. The quality of our articles skyrocketed, and many teachers and administrators commented on the improved quality of our online site, along with the increased diversity of coverage when it came to school, local, and international news. With increased freedom, Sophie and Jude were able to write about anti-semitism, a topic meaningful to them because they felt like the Jewish- minority within our Episcopalian school had to be heard. Brandon could combine his love of superheroes with Asian-representation in the media to write a compelling piece on “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Kaelyn could combine her love for dance with journalism, as she covered the sexist connotations of why dance isn’t considered a sport. Allowing staffers to cover topics they loved gave them a new passion for reporting and drew the attention of many potential-staffers.
After discussing it with my advisor, the success of this new style of reporting convinced her to establish it as a permanent change in the course structure, and this year our staff grew to almost 40 members, many 8th and 9th graders intrigued by the flexibility of the class and the thrill of reporting on events they cared about.
I also did away with our traditional Beats system of reporting, where each new journalist was assigned two beats to cover each quarter, with one being sports-based and the other feature-focused. After sending out a survey at the end of junior year, I realized that many students were unhappy with the beats system, as they felt that it stifled their ability to report on events that interested them, resulting in sloppy, mediocre coverage. I took note of this and introduced a more relaxed system, where students could choose to cover anything they wanted to, as long as they completed three articles per quarter and four social media posts. The quality of our articles skyrocketed, and many teachers and administrators commented on the improved quality of our online site, along with the increased diversity of coverage when it came to school, local, and international news. With increased freedom, Sophie and Jude were able to write about anti-semitism, a topic meaningful to them because they felt like the Jewish- minority within our Episcopalian school had to be heard. Brandon could combine his love of superheroes with Asian-representation in the media to write a compelling piece on “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Kaelyn could combine her love for dance with journalism, as she covered the sexist connotations of why dance isn’t considered a sport. Allowing staffers to cover topics they loved gave them a new passion for reporting and drew the attention of many potential-staffers.
After discussing it with my advisor, the success of this new style of reporting convinced her to establish it as a permanent change in the course structure, and this year our staff grew to almost 40 members, many 8th and 9th graders intrigued by the flexibility of the class and the thrill of reporting on events they cared about.
Print, Online, and Social Media: Bridging the Divide
I realized that our online website was getting much less views than our social media account, which has 1,271 followers, and print copy which is distributed to the entire student population. At the end of my sophomore year I interviewed students to get a better idea of why they weren’t visiting Imua’s online site, and most said that they’d either never heard of the site, or that it was “too much work to check” when they already got their news from social media. To remedy this, I worked to integrate social media, print, and online by having the editor of each branch provide a status update on any new posts, articles, or videos they planned on posting at our weekly Editor’s Meetings.
From there, I pushed for QR codes to be used in print issues, especially for more complex articles, where a shortened version would be produced for print and students could use the QR code to read the full story online. I encouraged staffers to look into other ways to engage readers through mediums other than the printed word, including Knight Lab timelines on our online site and infographics on social media. I then advertised the new changes with posters, leading the staff on a 3-day mission to cover the school in Imua- promoting material. The week after our print issue was published our online site traffic nearly doubled, with 116 students reading our online articles.
From there, I pushed for QR codes to be used in print issues, especially for more complex articles, where a shortened version would be produced for print and students could use the QR code to read the full story online. I encouraged staffers to look into other ways to engage readers through mediums other than the printed word, including Knight Lab timelines on our online site and infographics on social media. I then advertised the new changes with posters, leading the staff on a 3-day mission to cover the school in Imua- promoting material. The week after our print issue was published our online site traffic nearly doubled, with 116 students reading our online articles.