charlieardengee
Web & Social Media
Timely news coverage
One thing I value about journalism is its benefit to the public in terms of holding those in power accountable. All too often, I see convoluted news briefs with far too much information, so much so that it can make readers overwhelmed. Especially as news editor, I wanted to write these kinds of briefs myself as well as encourage others to write them. In this news story, fellow staffer Caroline Mascardo and I wrote about a piece of Iowa anti-trans legislature. I worked hard to simplify the complicated legal jargon for the general public. This story went on to win Second Place School News Story for IHSPA in 2021.
Photo by Gwen Watson
As news editor, I led and delegated the coverage of three different Iowa City events under the name "Speak up, speak out". These gatherings allowed community members to share their stories on racism within Iowa City, and served to give people a voice. This series was part of our carefully monitored protest coverage during the summer of 2020; we didn't want our coverage being used to track down and attack protesters so we took great care in naming, quoting, and photographing sources. I myself covered the final Speak up, speak out event with Caroline Mascardo as the photographer. You can read the article, which features a multimedia feature of a photo gallery here.
Our forest green breaking news banner has been an incredibly common sight for me over the past few years. Being News Editor during the time of COVID-19, online, and hybrid schooling was no easy feat. The sheer volume of my breaking news coverage is immense, and along the way I tried to incorperate ways to make it interesting. For example, I embedded social media posts, got student voices, and worked with other staffers such as Alyssa Skala to create supplemental infographics. I attended multiple school board meetings during this time, and once again carried out my goal of synthesizing complicated or difficult-to-access information for the public.
Multimedia
For my second cover story Viral., I went the extra mile and created this interactive timeline of the events that occured early on in the pandemic.
For this "Say their Names" rally coverage, fellow staffers Marta Leira, Alex Carlon, and I implemented sound bytes and a photo gallery to give readers an accurate feel of what being at the protest was like.
For my album reviews, I've utilised Spotify embeds so readers could check out the album themselves, perhaps even while they read.
Piktochart
I've used Piktochart to create engaging infographics such as this one.
Infogram
My Co-EIC Hanah Kitamoto introduced me to these interactive infographics when we wrote Indigenous in ICCSD together, and since then I've been able to help other staffers like Gender.
co-writer Zaira Ahmad with them.
Soundcite
Last but certainly not least, my favorite multimedia feature I've worked on for web was for The New Journalism Collective, a group of high school journalists from across the country who worked on national stories together. For this article, I was in charge of finding a unique multimedia aspect to include. I immediatly thought of the resources provided by the Knight Lab, particularly Soundcite, which allows sounds to be played when a phrase is clicked. With a lot of help from TNJC's programmer Isaac Song, we made it work. For this article about student artists and muscians experiences with COVID-19, I collected music samples for the sources which Isaac expertly helped me program.
See it for yourself here.
Social Media
Exporting night live coverage
I took over our @wsspaper Instagram account to cover what happens on our exporting night: the process of editing the paper and all the fun we have! This aimed to help boost recruitment for the journalism program and get people excited about our first issue of the year. It must have worked, because we got rid of all of our October issues in one morning. We usually at least have a couple stacks to deliver to outside businesses around Iowa City.
Revamping the @wsspaper TikTok
I'm not sure when the idea exactly came about, but I remember thinking that we could do a lot more to engage students and let them get to know our staff. The end result would hopefully build more trust between our publication and the student body, as well as bolster recruitment. We could even expand the reach of our publication to people miles away from our school. I already had a ton of ideas for potential staff TikToks, so I set to work recording and creating a publishing calendar. I also pitched the idea to Yearbook Co-Editor-in-Chief Cameron Reimers, and we worked together to create TikToks that featured print, web, and yearbook staff. Below are some of the results, from an intro video to fun staff jokes to a TikTok trend that aligned perfectly with one of our articles.
Modeling for the Instagram & Tiktok
I was often one of the only people who dressed up for spirit days, especially so crazily, so I was often featured on our Instagram stories even though we usually avoid using WSS staffers. Here are some examples for your enjoyment! Video credits to our Social Media Editor Helelia Wa Kalala.
Promotion on socials
Like every WSS staffer, I always promote my stories on our Twitter and Facebook page after they are published. As Co-EIC I've also taught some new staffers how to do this.
Getting student feedback
Instagram has been a useful tool for our staff for getting student opinions. For example, our advice column page had students submit their questions for us through Instagram.
Beat Assignments
During online school, beat assignments got lost in the shuffle of trying to export a paper over Zoom. My Co-EIC and I decided to bring it back for this year. I laid out requirements and made beat coverage an assignment, which can include posting about your beat on socials. Beats were just released recently, but the plan is for them to generate more socials posts and more engagement. They should also boost web coverage overall, with every staffer on print and web having a required beat assignment.