Minor Reflections

Writing and Reporting:

This semester, I have engaged in writing and reporting through a variety of avenues including producing video packages and writing the script for the InFocus bi-weekly video shows. Over the past few months, I have written scripts for 8 stories. For the scripts of shows, I have continued to write the announcements, package tosses, and overall banter. Regarding reporting on local news stories and features, I have been able to take on many more stories than I have in the past two years. Looking back on the 8 video packages I have worked on, the one that stands out is a story about UC Berkeley's plan to build a space center at NASA's Moffett Field campus. For this story, I was able to travel to Berkeley's campus and talk to a student in a space-related organization along with shooting b-roll of campus. In addition to two other interviews with related sources, I believe that my reporting turned out well and I am proud of the finished product.

Broadcast Journalism:

In September, I anchored my first show as a member of InFocus. Since then, I have been consistently on the show role calendar and have appeared in four shows an an anchor overall. In addition to this position, I have also helped with the teleprompter a few times. Regarding our bi-weekly shows, I have coordinated the director position for the shows by overseeing and helping the regulars in this position through setting up the switcher, adjusting the lighting, and ensuring that the camera shot is composed correctly. Looking back at the semester, I am especially proud of how we managed our situation with equipment, as we had to adapt at the start of the school year and work with a different set up.

Editing, Leadership, and Team Building:

This semester has marked my 5th of being an executive producer. This school year, I have continued to keep up a show calendar, outlining the content of our bi-weekly shows, as well as helping update the assignment calendar which tracks the progress of everyone on staff. Through this spreadsheet, I can know who might be behind on a package cycle, whose story is ready for airing, and an overall check on if a cycle needs to be longer or if more extensions need to be given out. I feel as if these resources have helped me further my leadership as an executive producer as staying organized if key to supporting the staff in their work for the greater good of the publication.

Web and Social Media:

This year, I have helped with uploading content to the InFocus website and social media pages as well as making sure that all these websites are up to date. Continuing from last year, I made a spreadsheet that acted as a checklist for content on the Youtube page and on the website. Over the course of the semester, this was helpful for checking in with social media and web/user managers. While I think that our presence on social media could have been stronger, especially with Instagram, when we did upload packages, recaps, or other updates/stories, I saw noticeable engagement from our 850+ followers.

Commitment to Diversity:

As a publication, I feel that a commitment to diversity in our content is a key value. In our shows, I believe that we have done a successful job in upholding this through the variety and diversity of anchors (grade level, experience, gender, etc...). Although I feel as if our anchor schedule does reflect this, there were some points raised at the middle of the semester about not representing certain classes enough. In response, we held a respectful and productive discussion about the anchor schedule, and it was agreed that it only helps InFocus to showcase all classes equally and give everyone that opportunity to gain experience.

Design:

This past summer, I participated in a summer journalism program, Speak Up Stand Out, and taught middle school students about the fundamentals of journalism and the process of writing an article. Nearing the end of the program, the counseling team, made up of Paly journalism students, were responsible for creating magazine pages in InDesign with their students’ articles along with their chosen pictures and other design elements (block quotes, graphics, shapes). While it was my first time using the application, through trial and error and many YouTube videos, I was able to craft pages for my campers’ stories and see them published in the end-of-camp magazine.

Photojournalism:

After taking an introductory course to Photography in my Junior year, I was able to grasp fundamental concepts like depth of field, composition, exposure, and shooting modes. While working with video on InFocus, this knowledge of operating a digital camera transferred quite seamlessly. On the leadership team of Camp MAC, Paly’s high school journalism camp, I oversaw and helped counselors lead a lesson regarding photography and its uses in journalism. With greater understanding of photography in addition to videography, I hope to capture more stills in the future to supplement stories and convey visual information to my audience.

Law, Ethics and News Literacy:

As an Executive Producer, reinforcing the importance of not only recognizing but practicing strong news literacy and ethics has been a priority for me. While a discussion about copyright laws and the California Journalism Ed Code at the start of the year has been a great way to introduce the broad structure of this complicated topic, more nuanced situations come up later in the year. One such instance that stands out to me was a dialogue regarding covering political topics for a package. While some in the staff were understandably hesitant during this specific package pitching, it was important to me to and my fellow Executive Producers to convey that, as student journalists, we are protected in reporting on these sorts of topics. When executed ethically and objectively, they can stand out as some of the most salient stories through using our platform to inform the school community of what’s occurring locally, nationally, and even across borders. For instance, one of the most memorable packages I have worked on was coverage of a controversial candidate from the 2022 PAUSD school board election, which, after it aired, received positive feedback from members of the school community about tackling issues that have a direct effect on our communities. Going forward, I hope to have more lessons about the rights we as student journalists have, which I believe will lead to more stories about these significant topics.

Marketing and Audience Engagement:

With InFocus being shown in the majority of classrooms across campus, marketing and engagement with audience is key. In terms of marketing the show, I have overseen the posting of specific content from major shows on our Instagram page. Specifically, montages from Spirit Week and various, relevant, news stories have been posted this past semester, which I believe has spurred additional interest in the publication and reached even outside audiences. In terms of interacting with our audience, there have been a few instances of communication that have arisen from questions about our announcement system. One member of the Paly community, in particular, had a few inquiries throughout the year about why their announcement had not been aired. In sending emails to this member clarifying some nuances of our system (dates of airing an announcement, types of announcements on video show vs PA system, etc…), we were able to answer their questions and reinforce our appreciation of their submission of their club’s events and updates.