As a high school journalism teacher, do you ever ask questions such as, "I wonder what a local journalist would do in this situation?" Or, perhaps you ask, "How would the local daily paper handle this." As it turns out, many us at the Institute felt the same way. Luckily we had a professional to help us answer these burning questions.
Matt Bunk, Managing Editor of the Arizona Capitol Times, proved to be just the resource we needed. Addressing common questions ranging from the state of the business to how to increase high school readership, Bunk patiently took time to inform the teachers.
“High school newspapers can report on issues that no one else is covering,” he responded when asked how high schools can bring community awareness of their paper. Patiently he visited with the small group he was assigned and provided professional feedback on the topics the fellows will be reporting as well as useful information about possible angles to explore and potential sources to tap.
Gaining real world, professional insight and suggestions will undoubtedly help not only my story for the Institute’s publication, but also my success in the classroom as I advise my journalism students.
Marc Garcia
Sunset High School
Dallas, TX
Posts
Meeting with Matt was great. I think he had an interesting point about the freedom that high school newspapers, in theory at least, have to report things no one else is covering--from the ridiculous to the sublime.
ReplyDeleteThe problem that still remains, however, is the authority that school administrations have over school publications due to Hazelwood. Teachers in NYC complain that some of their publications end up as PR instruments for their administrations.