The most advantageous part of the website and social media accounts is our ability to break news immediately and push information out in a timely manner. One of my staff's biggest goals has been to become a trusted news source for the student body, but also community. Especially in sports, we work to beat the local newspaper and website, The Daily News Record, in posting breaking news whether that be a basketball game's final score or where a senior athlete is committing to play.
Web: Coverage, Engagement Elements
1. Visuals, Packages
I very recently began to mess around with the many settings within WordPress. We have always posted our articles the same way just due to a lack of knowledge about our website platform. However, when we put together our package on fighting in schools, I wanted it to look well put together, just as much as the writing and thought behind the package was. I learned how to make a featured image "immersive" and we now plan to use this feature for all of our multimedia packages. |
2. Infographics
My staff is definitely a fan of using our Canva skills to put together infographics or other visuals. However, we have tried to place an emphasis on only using them for a purpose. To the right are four examples of how we have done this. We use infographics to provide the reader with something else to consume content from or another place for their eye to roam when opening our website. |
My Top Instagram Posts
When COVID-19 hit my freshmen year, I got to dive deeper into social media use as everything was online. Often, my staff has not always prioritized quality photography and writing when it comes to social media, but I have made it my goal to work to produce and post quality content on every platform, even social media.
Instagram is definitely our most used platform (@hhsmedianow). We also have a staff Twitter account (@hhsmedianow), a sports Twitter (@StreaksSports), a Snapchat (@hhsmedianow), a Facebook (@hhsmedianews) and a TikTok (@hhsmedianow), but they are used less frequently.
An important aspect of especially social media that we emphasize on our staff is timeliness. Social media is another instant source of news for much of our student body so we post about events while they are still happening.
Instagram is definitely our most used platform (@hhsmedianow). We also have a staff Twitter account (@hhsmedianow), a sports Twitter (@StreaksSports), a Snapchat (@hhsmedianow), a Facebook (@hhsmedianews) and a TikTok (@hhsmedianow), but they are used less frequently.
An important aspect of especially social media that we emphasize on our staff is timeliness. Social media is another instant source of news for much of our student body so we post about events while they are still happening.
Using social media to link back to the web
VA Journalist of the Year Social Media Coverage
Winning VA Journalist of the Year came as a shock to me. My adviser, Valerie Kibler, planned a celebration that week and Mrs. Erin Harris, JEA Virginia State Director, zoomed into our classroom. The staff was told to be there to listen to the guest speaker for Scholastic Journalism Week, however she announced my award.
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TikTok Use
One of our long standing goals has been to get our TikTok account up and running due to it being so popular in our generation. We have really executed this this year. We started posting daily during spirit weeks and during our events such as newspaper distribution day and have gained over 100 followers.
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Resources
I made this presentation after an online convention I attended my sophomore year. I went through the steps of posting online journalistically and offered tools to step up our social media game.
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