According to History.com, the first newspaper in America was printed in 1690 by Benjamin Harris. This newspaper was printed before the time of typewriters and before the First Amendment, and it held the future of American journalism between the lines of smeared ink. Traditional journalism is controversy told with neutrality, and an art of creative truth. It’s the DHS Update’s responsibility to carry on the routine of publication.
"We come up with stories, we interview, we write it, and then we publish it."
- Maddie Oliver, junior and Managing Opinion
STAFF ROLES
Like every newspaper, The Update has an Editor-in-Chief (EIC), Gillian Smith. Beneath the EIC in ranking are multiple roles that carry the paper. On The Update staff, there are nine editors on the editorial board. Being an editor entails not only working on your own stories and pages, but also being responsible for others’. These roles are: managing news, managing opinion, managing sports, managing feature, managing copy, managing design, managing photo, managing social media, and managing business. In the case of the current staff, the managing business role is split amongst two individuals. These editors view elements of the paper under the lens of their designated specialization in the editing process and hold the writer accountable for fixing errors.
BRAINSTORMING
The first step in The Update’s production cycle is brainstorming. The first phase of brainstorming is done individually, either on a document with categories or as a list of specific ideas posted in a discussion on the class’ Canvas page. These categories include various types of news and media, such as general news, feature, opinion, sports, etc. From there, the ideas are gathered and discussed between section editors and the EIC. All the ideas brainstormed will be discussed thoroughly. They look at angles, audience appeal, timeliness and significance. Sometimes, an idea will be picked apart and examined while trying to decide if it’s newsworthy, which could lead into a whole other idea. For instance, in this issue, The Update took an editorial idea about underclassmen not having enough advanced English options, and, after being thoroughly discussed, it changed into an idea about underclassmen not having enough information to make educated decisions regarding opportunities such as IB, Early Middle College, CTE and more. Once the storyboard is determined, these stories must be assigned. For the most part writers will get to choose which story they want although there may be instances where more than one writer wants the same story, in that case, the EIC will decide who fits best.
PLANS AND INTERVIEWS
A rough rough draft (RRD) is where the wonder of writing begins. This is the premise of the stories that will later make into the newspaper. In a RRD, the writer states the topic, the angle, and the potential sources. The RRD’s will then be checked by the writer’s section editor, and the writer will move onto the next step: interviewing. The interviewing process generally lasts a week, though there are exceptions and special cases for certain stories. If an interview is a smaller one, generally less than five minutes and with a student who doesn’t play a crucial role in the story, then we’ll visit that student’s class to conduct a brief interview based on previously written questions. However, if it’s a big story and the person being interviewed plays a major role, emails are almost always sent out, and from there the interview may be done in person, via email or over call. When interviewing, The Update staff always asks permission to record the interviewee and uploads the transcript and audio to Google Drive.
DRAFTING
The next step of the writing process is the rough draft (RD). This is where you step beyond the planning stages and start writing. Mistakes will, inevitably, occur, and so when the RD is finished it goes through multiple phases of editing. Managing checks will result in comments being left on the Google Document for the writer to look over. Sometimes these are simple corrections—spelling, Associated Press (AP) style errors, grammar, etc.—but other times they’re more complex corrections, ones the writer can’t just easily fix but must think about, like the re-wording of sentences, paragraphs, or even entirely new paragraphs. Once the section editor is done with their two rounds of edits it moves to the copy editor who specializes in AP style as well as grammar. Once the copy editor checks the story it is sent to the EIC for one more round of review before it is ready to be copied onto a larger page.
PAGE DESIGN
In the beginning phases, the staff interviews and writes. In the second portion of the production cycle, pages are where the main emphasis is placed. Once the story is written, each page of the paper is assigned to staff members to design. If someone isn’t working on designing a page, they’ll often help others with their page. The page designing process entices a whole other level of creativity. The first step of designing the newspaper is for page editors to draw their ideas out on paper to visually plan their pages. After the general layout is put down on paper, the designer will move online. Adobe InDesign is the application used by The Update staff to design pages. Everything down to the spaces between lines matter. But beyond the picky parts, designers get to have fun with placing graphics and images to find creative ways to work the words around those pesky details. Briefly aforementioned were the roles managing photo and managing design. While everyone contributes to pages, these two people play a major part in page design. Managing photo will take any pictures the writer was unable to capture, and managing design builds graphics. Both of these components make or break a page. If there isn’t a dominant picture, then there’s most likely a dominant graphic.
PRODUCTION
The week before The Update releases the paper, “Production” occurs. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the staff meets in Journalism Advisor Cammie Halls’ room until 6 p.m. to work on pages. On Thursdays, production lasts until 8 p.m. and all pages are due by 5 p.m., so that editors have the opportunity to look over each page in their respective section. Both The Update staff and beginning journalism students are invited to attend, but it primarily consists of the staff. Staff from Halls’ other classes (e.g. Bolt Media, Yearbook) occasionally attend as well. During production, The Update staff focuses on finishing their pages amid the chaos ensued by impending deadlines.
PUBLICATION
The week after production night, the paper is sent in to be printed. The Update always publishes on Friday, leaving the Thursday before to be used for stuffing the paper with ads and organizing them for easy delivery. Harris started it; we continue it. Newspapers are becoming less and less common due to digital media, making this form of journalism rare. The Update provides readers with an opportunity to consume physical media and learn about their school from the perspective of the students who wrote it. The Update is student-run and student-read.