My name is Sadie Rawlings; I am a second-year member of The Bird Feed, my school's online newspaper. During my sophomore year, I was the Online Editor in charge of the layout and design of the website, and my junior year, I am currently the Co-Associate Editor. As a journalist, I have found my voice and style and developed a passion for photography and writing. In addition to being a journalist, I own my own blog titled, Sadie's Ways, which I write posts about health and wellness. As a journalist, I strive to promote awareness and provide a voice for those who can't speak--especially for the students at my school.
Design
One of the crucial skills a journalist needs is the ability to attract readers and further an article’s message. As a student journalist, I have had the opportunity to design websites, articles, photos, and yearbook spreads. In order to create a cohesive piece, I have worked to create visual emphasis and consistency. I love to be creative in visual pieces and adding further depth to a story. I use Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, and SNO Design to incorporate design elements such as collages, filters, and graphics.
Photo-editing
When adding in photos, I edit them for brightness and color clarity. I enjoy enhancing photos to catch the attention of readers.
For the featured image of the story, "Saying 'Aloha' to the football season," I edited the photo to enhance the color to capture the readers' attention.
Online Design
My first year on staff, I was the online editor, and created a cohesive website that was easy to access and readable.
Thebirdfeed.org is our online newspaper website; I was in charge of the design and manipulation of the website. I made changes to the header, favicon, and layout of the website.
Style Guide
When formatting stories, my co-editor and I created a style guide, so other staffers know what format to place a story in while writing it.
Editing
As an editor, my main role is to ensure that every piece is formatted to AP style and The Bird Feed’s own style guide. I focus on the accuracy of the information, grammar, language style, and formatting. On our staff, the editors and I have created a set editing process starting with a staff writer who sends the story to a section editor, then Associate editors, then Senior editor, Editor-and-Chief, and finally is checked over by the adviser.
As an Associate Editor, I regularly conference with staff members in order to explain grammar rules and style. I ensure that the staff member is on-task with their writing and offer assistance. I seek to educate staff members on AP style and encourage them to ask questions when they have concerns.
Previous Processes
In previous years, our staff used an Google Sheet to organize stories. I was in charge of posting comments of edits and organizing stories through the editing process.
Editing Process
The method we use now is hanging index cards on white boards. Once the editor makes changes, the index cards are passed on to the next editor.
Co-Associate Editor Position
As the Co-Associate editor, I ensure that all pieces are formatted correctly, pictures and captions are cited properly, and check for overall flow.
Entrepreneur-ship
During my sophomore year, I created my own brand through my blog titled, Sadie’s Ways. I monetized it and regularly publish posts. For my blog, I have centered my posts on encouraging health and wellness and seek to reach an audience of like-minded people who value being healthy. I promote my blog on social media through Pinterest and Twitter accounts in order to reach an audience of other bloggers.
On The Bird Feed, I regularly publish tweets to my feed that promote stories that I have written as well as stories written by my fellow staff members. In promoting our stories, we can reach a larger audience.
Creating a Brand
For the audience of my blog, I wanted to reach others who were searching to better themselves. I focused my promotion on Instagram and Pinterest by creating my own pins.
Pinterest Analytics
The pinterest analytics depict that there are average viewers that view my posts; I focus on driving traffic onto my site through social media such as Pinterest.
Attracting and Audience
At first, my blog centered around my lifestyle, but as I grew into the website, I have focused on health & fitness.
Social Media
In order to promote our stories, I have created a twitter account to connect with local media and stay informed on news.
Law and Ethics
First and foremost, as a citizen of the United States, I am guaranteed freedom of speech and expression. By exercising this right, I provide a way for others to have a voice and to call upon others to enact change. I can be a mouthpiece for not only my opinions, but I can be a mouthpiece for others. Furthermore, as a journalist, I have an obligation to confirm that my sources are accurate, so I must investigate information to understand its context to reassure that the information is neither biased nor misinformed. For example, I strive to include first-person accounts for interviews and background information, and I also cite sources for photos and hyperlinks included in our stories.
Freedom of the Press
Each year, our staff participates in the First Amendment Essay contest where we write a detailed paper about the value of journalism in an world where free speech seems to be limited.
Citing Information
When incorporating information that is not mine, I hyperlink the information to the original source to confirm that I am not plagiarizing.
In this story, I wrote an opinion piece on the value of staycations, and for my information, I hyperlinked facts and statistics about staycation such as vacation stress and money spent on vacation.
Leadership and Team Building
Throughout my years on the journalism staff, I have worked as an editor. In my first year, I was selected to be the Online Editor who oversaw the critical design aspects of the website and monitoring articles and multimedia to ensure they were correctly formatted. This year, I work as the Co-Associate Editor who oversees each article to edit for grammar, style, and credibility. The other editors and I work with our advisor to ensure that rules and guidelines are implemented.
The most crucial part of being a leader on a journalism staff is leading through example. I encourage my staff members and continue to teach them lessons such as demonstrating how to use a camera and cite images. As I am lifting the entire staff, we can continue to grow in professionalism. I conference with staff members to understand what project he or she is working on in order to assist them; I have worked with staff members writing stories, taking photos, interviewing, designing, and formatting.
Presentations
At the beginning of the year, I taught my staff how to use a camera. I created a Google Slides and presented it in class.
Brainstorming
As a staff, we like to brainstorm new story ideas. After we are done, we consult our adviser and consolidate our ideas into possible articles.
Communication
To better the staff, I regularly meet with staff members to track progress and assist in helping out with planning, writing, and editing. We also send out staff information through a instant messaging program called GroupMe.
Celebrations
To build team-bonding, we celebrate staff successes, holidays, and achievements. When our editor-and-chief won Journalist of the Year, we had a huge celebration to honor her.
Multimedia Broadcasting
In order to further develop stories, I include multimedia aspects. I use the program Knight Labs for interactive timelines, story maps, and other elements. These interactive elements provide readers with additional information and provide engagement.
For videos that I have created, I use clear and concise audio as well as creating attractive visuals to complement the story and audio.
Video Tutorials
One of the stories I created was a video tutorial of a homemade prom dinner. My partner and I created several clips and edited them together in order to create clear and concise information.
Recruitment Videos
Each year, our staff creates videos to recruit new staff members. My group and I like to create recruitment videos that relate to a popular TV show. After filming, we compile the clips together and create an understandable message.
News Gathering
For my articles, I seek to include primary sources whether they be through interviews or being present at the event. I mastered my interview skills and understand how to develop a story through asking questions.
For background information on stories, I research several sources to understand and include context. I understand that sources can potentially hold bias, so I avoid sources that sway an opinion on one side to ensure that I am credible and my information is credible. For a piece I wrote on tips for incoming freshmen, I interviewed an expert, our assistant principal who oversees curriculum. With her interview, I was able to further develop the story and provide accurate information for the rising freshmen reading the piece.
Q & A
In an article I wrote about tips for rising freshman, I interviewed the assistant principal of curriculum and asked her what she believed were the most important tips were. In this case, I gathered information from a credible and relevant source.
Primary Sources & Interviews
When an Army Ranger came to school on Veterans Day, I wrote and article describing his time in service and interviewed classmates about their experience.
Credible Sources
The article, A Magical Morning, discussed JDRF, a diabetes foundation, of which I used statistics from their website as credible information.
In addition to statisitics, I interviewed a DECA member who suffered from Type 1 Diabetes and included his interview.
News Literacy
As a journalist, I must maintain credible sources. When writing pieces, I analyze for vested interest and bias to provide accurate and unbiased information. To maintain professionalism of The Bird Feed, I use reliable sources such as teachers, students, professionals, and when incorporating these sources, I integrate their information in context with the rest of the story. For example, when writing a point-counterpoint about the value of college, I interviewed several students and incorporated those interviews into the story. Providing credible and accurate sources enhances a story.
Analyzing Sources
When writing an opinion piece about the influence of the media in voting, I used quotes and ideas from well-known celebrities in order to counter the opposing argument and put the argument into context with other sources.
I also interviewed students in the school who were directly affected by voting and had the opportunity to vote.
Context Research
In an article I wrote about a school fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, I used research from the JDRF foundation, a credible source to discuss the background of the aricle.
Photojournalism
The ability to encase a story in a photo is what captivated me into pursuing a career on The Bird Feed and Sofo Yearbook. I fell in love with the ability to use a camera and edit the photos. From an early age, I have taken photos--starting with sports photography in middle school and developing my skills in other photography areas. I have taken photos of major school events, my personal blog, and our staff photos. A photo is a story in itself and should further the words of the article. My goal is to ensure that photos enhance the article and appeal to readers.
Along with the photo, I write an engaging caption which provides further details such as quote.
Staff Pictures
For the past two years, I have taken all of the staff photos.
Power of a Picture
For photography, I use a Canon Camera for high quality images. In the beginning of the year, I taught my staff how to use a camera and how to use the right camera settings.
For a school club called, Pet Pals, I photographed a Puppy Bowl on my Canon camera and edited the pictures on Photoshop,
Photo Stories
A technique I use for writing stories is by creating photo-stories that depict a part of the photo as well as a caption.
We have an in-school cafe which my co-editor and I created a photo story to raise awareness for the culinary students and the 585 cafe.
For the story, "A Magical Morning," I included a photostory to add depth to the story. The photo story included photos of little princesses and DECA members.
Web
In a data-driven age, I use the web to format stories, promote articles on social media, and publish articles. As the former Online Editor, I taught the staff how to embed links, hyperlink, format stories. Another editor and I created a style guide for the other staff members to reference when organizing and publishing stories. Entering into journalism, I knew little of basic code; however, as I grew into my position, I learned how to manipulate code and became comfortable with developing my online presence.
Another aspect of our online presence was promoting our articles on social media. We are encouraged to tweet regularly to keep our audience informed and to follow other accounts to stay informed of local and global events.
Social Media
I engage on the web with other journalists and local media in order to promote our staff and research for potential stories.
Online Editing
I have learned basic code and software programs like WordPress and SNO. As I crafted the website, I manipulated widgets to create a readable flow.
Multimedia Pieces
When organizing stories, I include other multimedia aspects and embed them into the story to appropriately convey information.
For my coverage on the Varstiy Boys basketball team, I used a story map to create an interactive piece that detailed where the team was scheduled to play.
Embedding Additional Information
In order to develop depth in a story, I use Knight Labs for multimedia pieces which adds additional information in an interactive way.
Knight Labs is a popular site that I use to embed multimedia pieces into our stories such as thinglinks, story maps, and timelines.
In the point-counterpoint, I argued that staycations are better than vacations. I included a multimedia piece that highlighted popular recreational activities around our county.
Writing
A central part of being a member of the journalism staff is the writing aspect. As a freshman, I participated in the Yearbook and was able to develop my skills as including feature stories and student profiles. Entering into my sophomore year, my school career path changed, and I pursued journalism instead. On The Bird Feed, I have developed my style, and ultimately found a way to have a voice. For features and new stories, I inform my writers--writing in third person to exclude my personal opinion. I love being able to use words to evoke emotions and further a story. Throughout my journalism career, I have strengthened my ability to incorporate research, hyperlinks, interviews, and photos to enhance my writing.
Imagery Leads
One of the things I have focused on as a writer are image-based leads. These leads catch readers' attention and provide additional factual information.
In my story, "Chalking it up to new dreams," I begin with an imagery lead that draws readers' attention and sets the scene.
Staff Flash Stories
Another writing technique we use is writing flash stories. As a staff, we compile interviews, research, and leads together to create a consistent piece.
The flash piece demonstrates our staff's ability to compile sources of information together that appeal to several perspectives.
Style
When creating a news piece, I exclude my personal opinion; however, when writing a blog I use first person and my opinion. I also incorporate my opinion when writing opinion pieces.
One of my earlier features stories, I began to develop my style with wit and imagery included all while excluding my opinion.
One of the opinion pieces I wrote included my opinion that mass media contributed to the sway of voting.
In my blog post, I use first person to describe the story of the birth of my blog and my goals for the future.