The world isn’t slowing down, and neither is Benson High School. As the years pass, new ideas are made, and new inventions come to light.
Many high school journalism departments around the country have expanded to online newspapers as well as physical printed versions.
Benson journalism did not want to be left behind, so they decided to up their game and add a new feature to the department. Students at Benson High School are focused on publishing an online version of Benson High News.
“The [Nebraska School Activities Association] now has categories for online journalism and for us to compete in a high level,” journalism advisor Justine Garman said. “We need to compete in all categories.”
According to Garman, the main goal is to get more readers attention and attracted to the newspaper by spreading out to more platforms .
Many paper versions of the newspaper have been seen in piles in classrooms or used to board up classroom windows.
“I hope that the online edition will grow our popularity so students know what is currently happening around them,” Garman said. “Eventually I’d like to see an app that students, staff, and parents can use.”
With constant access to the internet, students will be able to check up on current and upcoming events.
Expanding to two different platforms could open many options for students in the journalism department. Students in charge of the online and print papers get to decide what types of stories they want on each platform.
“[The online paper will] be more convenient,” AP English teacher Paula Vazzano said. “Although I do not have a cell phone, everyone else does and they are always reading their devices, that’s the way people read now.”
Students in charge of the online paper are starting from scratch.
They are designing the layout and figuring out how they want the paper to look as well as what they want to put out into the world.
“The online and paper edition should be different,” Garman said, “The online stories should be more frequent than the paper edition but they both should have high quality stories.”
When making a new branch for newspaper, some students from the print decided to go to the online edition. Junior Miracle Smith was happy to be one of the students for the new online edition.
“I like being on the online edition because its less stressful and a bit easier than the print edition,” Smith said. “Hopefully the word will get out about the online edition.”
The journalism department’s main goal is to provide students and staff with accurate, updated information about Benson High School and events in the Benson area. According to Smith, the online staff is focused on improving the content and quality of their stories.
“[The stories] will mostly be about our society around Benson,” Smith said.
As the word gets spread about the online edition, people will wonder how they will be able to find it.
“You can find our online edition at BensonHighNews.com,” Smith said.
Students and staff members are excited for the debut of the online paper.
“I think it’s an advance into the future,” Vazzano said.
With the expectation of more frequent uploads, people are hoping for more in-depth stories about Benson as a whole.
“Human interest stories and the Benson population are really interesting,” Vazzano said. “We have a lot of students here who are in foster care and that needs to be brought to people’s awareness.”
The online paper will also feature interactive polls for Benson students.
The first uploads for the new online edition will be uploaded sometime around the end of January to the start of February.