Introduction
Through my time on newspaper, and as a teen who consumes media constantly, I’ve learned that students get their news through videos, primarily through Tik Tok or Instagram. This is because younger people engage with news when it’s being depicted visually through video content or pictures, or when reporters or influencers are speaking. This could be in correlation to shortening attention spans, because there are more ways of engaging such as scrolling, clicking, and more, or because it’s the most visually appealing and therefore stimulating. I have a deep passion for broadcast journalism. As journalism evolves with the needs, interests, and behaviors of viewers/readers do, I think broadcasting is becoming more dominant. This is incredibly enticing, because I want to report more using visual elements. And to give viewers a direct view of what’s happened, with in-person interviews, and other spoken information, whether that’s in the event of natural disasters, protests, elections, or something else, I’m deeply invested in presenting them with those realities in meaningful, eye-catching ways.
For National Substitute Teacher Appreciation Day (Nov. 21) my supervisor on the Shawnee Mission School District communications team, for which I intern, asked me to make a short promotional clip. I interviewed Terry Preston, a building substitute who specializes in special education, special education teachers and students and our secretary. My principal’s secretary is someone I speak to almost daily. She helps me find story ideas just about every issue. So when I asked her who a building sub was that she believed deserved recognition, of course I’d take her word for it. And the more faculty I spoke with about him confirmed it. This was my first experience with using portable bluetooth microphones, and taking video interviews with my phone. The application I use to take videos and store audio is called Blackmagic Cam.
In experimenting with multimedia coverage, I wanted to get more involved with my publications Instagram by doing video interviews. This is something I’ve seen do really well with audience engagement, especially when coverage is going into libraries, lunch rooms, or crowded events and asking people questions will small microphones. This is something I’ve recommended reporters on staff do to get polling stats, quotes for “We Heard You” sections and find breaking news reactions on a larger scale. When Spotify Wrapped came out, I filmed a reporter asking students during lunch who their top artists and songs where and what they thought about it. I edited these clips in Capcut and we uploaded the post that same afternoon.
On a visit to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last summer, I met with editors of the Daily Nebraskan who spoke about how they planned on starting a podcast. She talked about her inspiration being from the The Daily from the New York Times, which is also a podcast I listen to daily. What really resonated with me was how she said reporters have so many meaningful conversations throughout their coverage process, and readers are only given a small sliver of that, which doesn’t seem fair. I couldn’t agree more, which is why my staff is starting a podcast this semester. Our title is “The Final Edit.” And we’ve planned, starting in our first issue of 2026, to introduce a 30 minute segment after distributing our printed issues where our podcast editor will interview staffers, teachers, students, and administration about breaking coverage, opinion pieces, and our centerspread feature. Questions will be asked about the reporting process, what stuck out to those interviewed about their experiences with whatever topic or event is being covered, and extracting more information from experts. This is meant deliver news in a more engaging and accessible way, and reach new audiences through social media platforms. It’s also to act as a teaser for our print publication and attract more readers. The plan for this podcast, consisting of what it’s about, what resources are required, why this is important, and more was presented for my newspaper final innovation project. More visuals can be found on the slides.