Leadership
As editor-in-chief and as one of the four-year seniors in the program, I feel it is essential to provide a strong and consistent leadership presence on staff. Whether this means ensuring that all staff members are on task, working with writers and editors to troubleshoot problems or leading staff discussions, the roles that leadership has played in my journalism experience are numerous, many of which I will go into more detail concerning here.
The COVID-19 learning gap
During my last two years on staff, the greatest issue that we have had to overcome collectively was the learning loss created by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in the case of fellow staff members who didn't get the same training and experience leading up to their time on staff. Thus, I and other senior members of the executive board had to increase our communication and workload to accommodate lesser-experienced writers and editors, utilizing a wide range of different systems and techniques to navigate through a busy issue cycle.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Organization
Anyone who has been a part of a journalism publication will surely attest to the fact that organization is half the battle in many cases. I believe having a clear, consistent structure for how deadlines and events will occur over the course of the issue cycle is a must so that every member of staff can be equally informed and held accountable for their actions. Utilizing technology, as well as delegating various levels of management to different editors, is the heart of what keeps our staff running smoothly.
Staff Spreadsheet
Our primary method of organization for upcoming deadlines is a Google Sheet document that changes each issue. Not only does this document allow staff members to see their upcoming deadlines at any time, it also holds people accountable for missing deadlines, as those marked late are visible for all to see. We also have a physical version written on the whiteboard in our classroom to further enforce its usage.
Google Calendar
Similar to our staff spreadsheet, we also employ a Google Calendar in order to make sure that all upcoming deadlines are transparent and accessible. This, like many other practices adopted by our staff, became even more of a staple to the Prospector's culture due to the pandemic, with its use now largely outliving the conditions that prompted its necessity. At the beginning of each issue cycle, the executive board meets together with our adviser to plan out upcoming deadlines to make sure that any and all conflicts and scheduling issues can be dealt with well in advance.
Editing
While ensuring that staff members are aware of their deadlines and editing responsibilities is important, making sure that editing, commenting, and revising is actually being done can be a different story. In my experience, the best way to achieve this, as with many things, is to ensure that I always set a strong example and commit to "practicing what I preach."
While as an underclassman I admittedly was far too shy and unsure of myself when commenting and suggesting changes to others' work, I can now confidently collaborate with others on staff and be sure that they know I have their best interests at heart.
One recent example of this is a story that I edited from Issue #7 of last year about the trend of Orbeez guns being used to harm others in a viral TikTok trend in the Prospect community (seen in the excerpted comments to the right). While the story contained some definite problems, most glaringly an overuse of long and wordy quotes, I find that making drastic changes and edits to a story is best when the writer feels as though you are editing with them, rather than arbitrarily pointing out typos and cutting whole paragraphs of their work. This is best achieved through open communication, explanation, and, in many cases, a bit of levity.
Communication
Whether it be a general message, an update, or a slightly passive-aggressive reminder, communication outside of class is key to ensuring that everyone on staff remains productive, especially due to the fact that our school recently switched to an A/B block schedule, meaning that we sometimes only get the chance to meet twice per week. This makes communication of all forms a necessity, whether it be to the whole group or simply individual editors.
GroupMe
This is where our entire staff can be communicated with in one large group chat. It's primarily used for larger announcements and, at times, informal votes using the app's poll feature.
Messages
The majority of staff communication, however, takes place over messages. These texts are usually to individual writers or editors and can include anything from quick questions and updates about projects to entire virtual art brainstorms. I believe that making a strong effort to communicate with others regularly is not only beneficial in the short term; it also promotes a more open and collaborative environment as a whole.
Revisiting past work
This is a feature that I wrote during Issue #6 of my sophomore year concerning the rise in cheating during virtual learning. Looking back, I've always viewed this story as a disappointment; for a topic as wide-reaching and interesting as cheating, I feel that I covered very little ground in my reporting while simultaneously biting off more than I could chew.
There are admittedly some promising aspects to this story, such as the strong quotes throughout, and there are many angles and topics touched on that have potential, but none of them outweigh the problems laden within my writing and reporting. Here, I'll point out many of the unfortunate missteps I made with this story as a fledgling writer in an effort to pinpoint how I have grown (and how I still can grow) as a writer.
Lede
My lede has an interesting premise behind it but lackluster execution, making it a great example of this story's missed potential. Contrasting the difference in how my student source views cheating in sports vs. education is conceptually intriguing, even tying into the main focus of the mindsets behind cheating; however, the lede stretches for five entire paragraphs before it even mentions school. This was a large mistake in hindsight, as even I found my description of cheating in badminton to be overlong and, frankly, boring. I included far more detail than was necessary --- probably because I was just proud of myself for gathering that information in the first place --- completely obscuring the actual point I was trying to make.
If I wrote this story today, I would be sure to keep only the relevant bits of my current lede, namely the emotions felt by the anonymous student during their heated match. This change maintains the all-important emotional core of the anecdote and more effectively and concisely sets up the contrast between their mindsets, ensuring that any reader will be hooked into reading while also having an early understanding of its main angles.
These paragraphs can be removed to cut out extraneous information and make the lede more concise
Sourcing
The sources used in this story also leave much to be desired; while my one student source is a good indicator of some students' mindsets surrounding cheating, they cannot possibly represent them all. For instance, this student said that one reason they cheat is because of increased pressure and expectations for grades; what, then, about students who don't feel the same pressure? As is, this story's perspectives are skewed towards honors and upperclassmen students, many of whom would be feeling this aforementioned pressure, and too much information is stated through the eyes of teachers and adults who, while knowledgable, cannot possibly know every facet of the student experience.
If I had the chance to do this story again, I would ensure that I find at least one more student source, one whose motivations for cheating are entirely different than my other source's. Maybe they have less time to actually complete schoolwork because they work to support their family; maybe they have to take care of their younger siblings during the day. Whatever their reasoning may be, another student source to balance perspectives, provide more context, and further humanize the issue is a necessity to fill one of the biggest gaps in the story's reporting.
This should have been communicated through a student's experiences, or at the very least a teacher's perspective, rather than the more detached psychologist source
This quote heavily reinforces the overarching problem with this story that too much focus is given to students who feel pressure to get good grades, leaving other types of students unrepresented.
Angles and Stacking
This story's organization frustrates me greatly in hindsight. While many angles are introduced or teased, including the influence of procrastination, psychological reasons behind cheating, academic pressure on students, and, bizarrely, a brief subangle about one teacher's experience with academic pressure when they were in school, nothing is developed enough to become the main focus of the story. Furthermore, much of the writing and reporting in the second half of the story is too general and is not specific to the impact that COVID-19 has had on the subject. This leads to the story feeling crowded and more like a large conglomeration of random community opinions and information about cheating rather than a cohesive, in-depth feature about the topic while also excluding a necessary and seemingly obvious informational angle about the ways in which students actually cheat.
Given the chance to do it again, I would increase focus on the actual cheating itself, making sure that readers fully understand both how and to what degree cheating occurs before then delving into the topic of how the pandemic has changed the landscape of academic dishonesty, and how teachers have responded. This cuts out much of the extraneous information and focuses the story only on the aspects that were most timely and relevant at the time of writing. While it's understandable for a feature to have broader, more timeless angles, I feel that the original story's lack of information about such an interesting and timely topic ultimately left it feeling weak and purposeless.
Had I included more information like this that details specific effects that COVID-19 had left on cheating, the story would have felt far more relevant and purposeful
Leadership Testimonials
Kevin cares as much about [peers'] stories as he does his own, and he simply wants them to keep growing as writers and journalists. He is a selfless leader who always has time for those working under him, as he will always put aside his own work to help his peers in need."
- Jason Block, KnightMedia adviser
On staff, Kevin is always the first person staffers go to if they need help. Whether it be editing, writing or page design, Kevin has established himself as a helpful hand who is willing to put the good of the publication above all else."
- Ella Mitchell, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Prospector
Kevin has ... learned how to facilitate and guide younger writers and editors and help them gain the skills to become strong contributors to the Prospector staff."
- Greg Minter, Principal
[Kevin] is the moral compass of our program, always guiding his peers through difficult ethical decisions on their stories and pages. I can’t even count the number of late-night and weekend messages I have sent Kevin the past two years to get his perspective on a potentially problematic issue, and like clockwork, he responds immediately with level-headed and well thought out ideas on what our program could and should do."
- Jason Block, KnightMedia adviser
When our girls' cross country team won state, our staff decided to create a pull-out section. Without hesitation, Kevin rose to the challenge, taking on an additional story and working to delegate interviews and assignments to make sure we could pull off the four-page feat in two weeks. It is instances like this one that truly show Kevin's leadership abilities ... to unite people towards a common goal with ease."
- Ella Mitchell, Co-Editor-in-Chief