By Sadie York
Hello wonderful readers of Westmont’s The Shield! Today I thought I’d take you guys behind the scenes of our month-long process of bringing the school newspaper to you! Upon reading this article, maybe you’ll even consider joining our team and applying to Journalism in the future.
Phase 1: Planning Day!
As a student in Journalism you essentially possess complete creative freedom. Whether that be writing, filming a video, creating a quiz, etc., whatever topic piques your interest, you can write or create content for (school appropriate of course). During planning, the class will narrow down each section idea, write down their desired articles under those sections, and vote on potential topics and nominees. Everyone gets a say and a voice in this process! Editors will then allocate each student to a page and a peer to work on said section.
Phase 2: Deadlines! Deadlines! Deadlines!
For the next few weeks each class is dedicated to completing your page, proofing the articles in your section, and meeting your deadlines. Every day of class, articles under a few sections will be due. It’s imperative everyone stays on top of their schedule and uploads these on the dot, as the collaborative nature of the class relies on punctuality. The flow of this middle period moves very fast, and soon enough it’s time to start wrapping up the issue.
Phase 3: Final Edits!
Now in the final stretch, it’s time to polish off our work. All the overseeing editors are assigned to around 3-4 pages to supervise throughout each issue. At this point of the process, where pages should be completed, the editors will then look over all the minute details and make comments/suggestions for the page editors to take into consideration. This final step allows for another set of critical eyes to ensure all our Shield standards are met, and ready for release. Once all final edits are applied to a page, the overseeing editor will hit publish. The issue will then be uploaded all together later in the week.
Phase 4: Debrief!
Woo-hoo! It’s now time to celebrate our hard work and review the issue all together. On the day of the issue’s release the Journalism class wears our Shield shirts to school and spend the period commenting on each other’s pages. We encourage all types of feedback, but always ensure criticism is sandwiched between positive observations. Within our debrief we ensure everyone has their chance to speak and receive proper recognition.
The class following debrief day jumps straight into planning and the cycle continues again. The Shield publishes 9 issues every year, so we certainly keep ourselves busy! Here in Journalism, advisor Andy Evans has cultivated a high-functioning, opportunistic culture, in which students are able to freely express themselves and their passions! We encourage voices from all over campus, and aim to represent new students/staff with each issue. Even if you’re not in Journalism, we love to receive articles written from outside the class, and can easily publish them into The Shield (simply email aevans@my.cuhsd.org for more information!) Hopefully this has given you viewers a little more insight on the procedures of curating The Shield!