The Community Beat - The spark of high school journalism

I first got interested in journalism when I was randomly placed in a journalism course my senior year of high school.

The class taught us a mixture of video journalism as well as article writing.

I loved the video projects we put together. I think they were what got me hooked in the first place.

(Left) Stephanie Boersma, Julie Dwyer, and Shannon Bombardier during the outro of our video project.

We had so much fun together in that class creating journalism projects that included a fashion show, art, and drinking various tonics.

The articles themselves weren’t the greatest and as I’ve said before, I’ve since deleted them.

However, the videos still remain posted on the Webster Public Schools YouTube channel and I always find it fun to look back on that time through these videos.

I want to take the time now to discuss those videos and how they compare to my current experience.

The biggest video that comes to mind is titled, “Totem Pole TV - Small Businesses.”

My group and I went to two different businesses in Webster, Massachusetts to discuss with them what their businesses are and what impact they have on the community.

We then brought the video project back into focus on our high school by filming the “Empty Bowls Night” that the ceramics classes would help host every year. For the event, various small businesses would come and provide food for the event that was centered around a food drive.

(Left) The Rose Room Cafe owners Bill Sabine, Jess Sabine, and Dot Sabine laughing together during their interview.

Attendees had the opportunity to donate nonperishable food items and purchase the art classes’ ceramic bowls.

All of the art classes' work was on display, including photography and various ceramic works.

The video story became focused on the importance of local businesses, how they support one another, and how they can bring the community together.

This project felt like the capstone to my high school journalism career. At this point we had done several projects and had gained the experience to reach out to our favorite businesses - Booklover's Gourmet and The Rose Room Cafe.

Julie Dwyer reading a book for B-roll footage at Booklover's Gourmet.

The video as a whole is something I’m still proud of despite its sometimes cringey-ness, shaky camera work, and random B-roll footage.

The work we did with the two businesses anchoring the story and then broadening it to the community event is similar to a lot of the articles I’ve written since then.

The one-on-one, spur-of-the-moment interviews are the same as the ones I continue to conduct to this day.

As Cesareo Contreras said in my interview with him, everything you do as a student journalist you will do in your career. It’s simply the practice of channeling and perfecting those skills.

As I said, the video footage could have been a bit better, but our main problem was the lack of equipment that would allow us to center in on the person we were interviewing as many of the shots were taken in loud, crowded spaces.

We could have improved this despite the lack of equipment by including subtitles. It may have also been beneficial to have a title for each person when they first appear on screen, so everyone can know who is speaking.

I have to say my favorite part of the video is the ending where we share footage of everyone’s artwork and candid moments we captured throughout the filming process.

However, I must say the music was a bit dramatic and cheesy for a video on high school, but I can’t help but smile at how well it came out.

This video was able to not only tell a story about local businesses and the community, but capture a moment in time when people were having fun and enjoying themselves.

This video project completely capture the reason I love journalism - the community.