High School TV Journalists Shine Thanks To Scripps

What are tomorrow’s professional TV journalists doing right now?

For some, being TV journalists at their high schools.

And although some of them may make it into TV broadcasting as journalists after high school and college, we can see some of their work right now thanks to Scripps’ partnership with the News Literacy Project.

All this week, National News Literacy Week, Scripps’ TV stations across the nation are working directly with high schools in their communities to produce original pieces of student journalism, teaching them about the standards and principles journalists use to identify, research and produce a story. The stories are airing on Scripps’ TV stations and its multiplatform news brand, Newsy.

NOTE: What if your station wanted to air news stories written, produced and edited by high school students on subjects of interest to your viewers on a regular basis? Make sure you read my idea of how local TV news operations can, and should, put these videos within their newscasts, and on their digital products.

Here are a few of the stories produced in Scripps’ markets so far.

KMGH Denver ABC
Mental Health Stigma

Behind the Scenes: Students at Thomas Jefferson High School explain how they identified, reported and produced their news story using journalism principles and ethics

WTVF Nashville (CBS)
High School Sports Inequity
Students at Hillsboro High School investigated the disparity between girls softball fields and boys baseball fields. Student journalists dive into the costs, and discover what could soon be a more level playing field.

Click here to see the students reaction to their project.

WTVR Richmond, Va. (CBS)
Looking for Answers in Mental Heath Issues
Journalism students at Hanover High School in Virginia try to find the truth about mental health issues by talking with a fellow teenager and a professor researching the problem.

KGTV San Diego (ABC)
Teens and Social Media Use
Students at Carlsbad High School reported on how teens are using social media, the effects of social media dependence and steps parents can take to reduce the damage.

WKBW Buffalo (ABC)
Eyewitness News teamed up with students at Sweet Home High School to produce a news story focused on opportunities available to their peers through Erie 1 BOCES.

KMTV Omaha, Neb. (CBS)
Students at Westside High School explored the issues high school students care about in the 2020 election.

WTKR Norfolk, Va. (CBS)
Eljiah Macklin from Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Va., reports on the role the discussion of politics should play in the classroom.

NOTE: In many high schools, there is a TV studio, studio cameras, switchers, digital field cameras, sophisticated nonlinear edit systems, graphic animations software programs, etc. that rival and sometimes exceed that of many TV stations.

And every day, high school students are putting together newscasts that are broadcast within the schools and sometimes on local community cable channels.

In many of these newscasts are edited packages that cover every area of daily school life. And many of them are inventive, provocative and creative. Many are well-written and crafted, covering issues like teen pregnancy, bullying, drinking and driving, drugs, relationships with parents, health, love and sex, and many other issues that are relevant to young adult life.

Of course, many are scholastic in nature — interpretations of short stories, music and song, original stories and fantasy.

Rich and varied content, from a perspective not seen in local TV news, is being created every day.
I contend that their voice might have a regular place in your local morning TV news.

Parents would want to see it. Teens, of course, would watch it. School board members would want their districts included. School principals would be proud to have their school represented.

And the average viewer would marvel at what the oft-maligned teenager is capable of doing. The content is there — all you have to do is tap into it, put it on the air and promote it. And think of who would want to sponsor such a segment — computers companies, record companies, clothing stores, movie studios, etc.
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