Upkeep of a professional student journalist website is a challenge, but one that we excitedly welcome. Though a staff of nine people provides reduced coverage opportunities, we actively work to schedule consistent publications to ensure we are a reliable news source for our student body. To supplement our digital presence, we also utilize our social media platforms to engage with our community.
Web &
Social Media:
Web Design:
Our website was founded and produced in the years prior to my joining of The Cougar Chronicle staff. It has historically been a place of local event coverage and as a source for information on the goings-on of the student body. Throughout my time in the program, staff collaborators and I have worked to utilize the opportunities our website grants to continue engaging with and informing our school peers of the world around us. In doing so, we have planned and executed many stories in a timely manner with proper storytelling elements, ranging from powerful photography to thorough interviews to experimenting with the various layout or formatting design options.
Though I am not responsible for the current layout or design of our website, as Editor-in-Chief I am responsible for ensuring its aestheticism and appeal to our readers. To accomplish this, I encourage staff members to explore photography and capture eye-catching feature photos to supplement their articles and grab readers' attention. Additionally, the layout of the stories themselves are extremely important, and something we have begun to explore this year in our web publication. From the different formats and embedded multimedia selections that the SNO platform grants, we have endless options in creating interactive and engaging content on our website. For example, coverage of our school drama production's opening night provided opportunity for photography practice as well as the implementation of a photo gallery in the story's layout, as shown below.
Social Media:
Community and audience engagement and connection stems from not only our published content, but from the usage of our social media platforms as well. Our social media accounts were not active very often prior to my sophomore year, when I took on the role of Media Manager. During this time, I worked alongside the rest of the leadership staff with the support of my adviser to consistently publish on our Instagram, covering events that occurred around the school, current happenings in our journalism program, announcements about upcoming fundraisers, and more. The times of most increases in followings and post engagement were of either walkout coverage or times in which we posted consistently.
Social Media Series
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Humans of CK
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Taking direct inspiration from Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York, staffers were assigned to approach a random student during passing period or lunch and ask them to share a brief story, which would be accompanied by the photo on our Instagram. This series garnered some traction on our social media accounts, improving our digital analytics and social engagement, and excited students for the next post to come.
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This was one of the first Humans of CK posts. It intrigued readers for unique insight into a student's passion for English.
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Person Behind the Pin
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Similar to our Humans of CK series, staffers were each assigned to approach and talk with a student. However, this was more specific: instead of interviewing a student at random, they were to seek out a unique token a student had that could exemplify a part of their identity or passion. Though the name includes Pin, we have featured a teacher with different state license plates, a student with a unique tote bag, and even a student with a personally-designed tattoo, featured below.
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Advertising, Promotion, and Coverage
Our Instagram has proven to be essential in the promotion of our publication, as well as a highly connective place to inform our community of school events.
