Benefits of journalism staff

By Arin Handy, Dylan Miner, Legan Wright (Journalism 1 students)

Most people think that writing a newspaper or article is difficult, but the GHS newspaper staff proves that idea wrong. In newspapers, broadcasting, photography, and yearbooks, everyone can show their creativity in different ways, even in the same course.

These are the projects that the Journalism staff produces, such as the yearbook and Timberlines newspaper. Many of these projects have brought the journalism staff state and national awards. Arin Handy photo

“A good reason to join is that it improves your writing skills and socialization skills. You put yourself out there to get a story and it’s normally people you don’t know. You have to have a conversation to get a story out of them, having that skill and writing skills will be very beneficial for college and future career,”  senior Audrey Poynter, yearbook co-editor and newspaper reporter, said.

Once they started to get to know the other students, they became more expressive and showed just how creative they were.

“My favorite thing about newspapers is that there’s something for everyone. We have reporters, we have photographers, we have page designers, media specialists, social media coordinators, so there’s really something for everybody to do. Everybody can be creative in their own way,”  senior Rachel McDonald, newspaper editor-in-chief, said.

“On the Journalism fieldtrip, we went down to Franklin College, and we were assigned our own classrooms. We got a lecture from a Journalism professor. I personally took a font course and learned what the different implications of font are. Then, I signed up for the Indiana high school students’ association board,”  Poynter said.

Students join a journalism staff for different reasons.

“I joined the newspaper because when I was in eighth grade my next door neighbor had been the editor and chef for the newspaper. She would talk to me about how much she would always enjoy the newspaper and that I really need to take journalism as my elective. I didn’t even know what journalism was, you know, fourteen years old. So then I just got interested through her, then when Ii joined journalism one I quickly worked up and it was a lot of fun. Then my second semester of my freshman year Mrs. Green asked me if I wanted to move up to newspaper early, so I took that opportunity, so I actually got an extra semester. So I guess just being a part of a high school newspaper was right for me. It’s been a lot of fun,”  McDonald said.