Newspaper Journalism is a fun class that promotes creativity, leadership, and teamwork. As the course selection process for next school year begins, consider joining Newspaper.

Journalism helps students build skills that are important for their future, such as creativity, communication, leadership, working with a team, managing deadlines, and more. All of these skills can be applied to any career, not just journalism.

The class is student-run, which means that while there’s an advisor to help and answer questions, students mainly work with each other to problem-solve. There are many leadership opportunities within the class. While everyone on staff has a role, at the end of every year, students have the opportunity to apply to be editors for the next school year. 

Whether you want to be a reporter, photographer, or editor, there is a place for you.

In addition to the many roles Newspaper offers, students are also able to write about whatever they want. The class includes five sections: News, Sports, Perspectives, Spotlight, and Visuals. While each staff member has a “home” section that they mainly work with, there are lots of opportunities to explore different skills. For example, sports reporters could write a news story, or a prospective reporter could take photos for a gallery. 

Journalism students also get the opportunity to go on a trip every year to the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention. In the past, students have gone to Nashville, Philadelphia, and many other places around the country to attend the conference. The conference focuses on building journalism and leadership skills, along with giving students the chance to learn from both other students and professional journalists from around the country.

Our visuals and multimedia team all work together to make the front page covers of our magazines, and support visuals for all our content. In a close-knit environment, ideas are spread throughout the whole team and the class.

The three main visual types that the Stampede supports are photos, digital and interactive graphics, plus video packages. When it comes to making our award-winning content, we have a relaxed pitching process, where the visual and multimedia editor will chat with our visuals team and talk about who wants to make said visual for the stories that week. 

When it comes to having fun in this class, everyone has work time where you can converse with your peers or your friends, and share what happened recently. Also, if you’re struggling with a certain idea for a story, you have people who will always back you up. 

This section of the class holds a real-world basis where you learn multiple different programs and tools to help you be successful. These programs, including Marq, where we make all of our Stampede issues, Adobe Express, and Canva, are also helpful tools for making digital graphics. Procreate, a student bought program, can also be used to assist in drawing skills and adding detail to graphics. We also use different editing software for videos and interactive graphics, such as maps and timelines.

Some skills you will also learn are basic camera use and composition. We will teach you all about the rule of thirds, leading lines, and more, with the supporting instructions on how to work a camera. Another important skill we can teach you, if you so choose, is podcasting. You will learn the podcast room, how to set up microphones, and also how to manage a sound system.

Our visuals and multimedia side of our program has something for everyone who wants to help contribute to our journalism team. We need you just as much as writers!

Newspaper journalism offers students the unique opportunity to share their voices with the entire Metea community. Being a part of this staff is an amazing experience and something you won’t regret. 

So, if you are interested in writing, being a part of a team, or just have an open slot in your schedule, talk to your counselor about adding Newspaper to your schedule for next year.