Paly High Journalism Program

500 students are involved in The Palo Alto High School Journalism Program (about 25% of the student population).  The program publishes 5 different publications–The Paly Voice is the school’s online newspaper.  In addition, they publish two magazine Verde and Viking, a print newspaper Campanile and run a student produced television program called InFocus.   As of the end of August, 2009 students had published more than 2,000 stories and had received more than 6,000 reader comments.  In one month the The Paly Voice’s website over 50,000 unique visitors from 80 different countries and a total of more than 11 million hits in since they began publication in 2002.

The class is student-lead by editors of the various publications.  The furniture is arranged in a U-shape.  In of the classes we observed editors began with a number of story ideas they wanted to develop.  The editors gave a brief description and asked for volunteers.  Students would raise their hands to volunteer for stories that sounded interesting and in many cases other students volunteered to assist.  These assignments were recorded on a wall chart where editors kept track of stories in various stages of development (photo). 

Students apply to become editors and are trained by senior editors.  After the initial assignments were described and selected, the students moved into the lab to begin working on their assignments.  Editors walked around the class monitoring, supervising and helping students with any issues that arise.  In one case, we observed an editor ask a student about an assignment she hoped to publish soon.  The student had not done it yet, but the editor got the student to agree (with a handshake) to have it by the next day.  

In a class run by Ellen Austin, students who are responsible for publishing The Viking discussed a recent article about an incident by a woman on the University of New Mexico’s soccer team who “she engaged in shoving, punching, tripping and yanking an opponent down by the ponytail” in a game against Brigham Young. The students read an account of the incident from the New York Times story and discussed the role of sportsmanlike behavior.  The students then watched a video of the incident on YouTube and compared the account in the paper with their impression based on the video and discussed whether the reporter offered an accurate representation of the event.  They also discussed the issue in relation to a recent event of a football player who injured a student during a sporting event at Paly High. 

In Paul Kandell’s class students were engaged in producing several stories.  One was a follow-up story to a spirit week tradition that exists between Gunn and Paly High known as ‘egg wars.‘  This year the event got a bit out of hand and resulted in property damage at Gunn and the injury of several Paly students.  Several students were suspended after a school investigation.  The editors wanted someone to write a follow-up to the story as the incident has escalated following a call from some parents at Gunn for criminal charges to be brought against the students who had vandalized the school.  At one point, Paul, the teacher noted that the Palo Alto Online was providing better coverage and as a results was getting more hits. He urged the students to get an update on the situation published soon.

The sense of enthusiasm was palpable as students discussed their effort to organize a comprehensive story on the California budget crisis and its effect on the University of California system.  The editors had put together a shared Google document with the names and email addresses of over a hundred former Paly Voice editors and reporters who were already engaged in submitting reports, photographs and video of the sit-ins and protests occurring at campuses throughout the UC system.  In essence they had put together a team of correspondents more comprehensive than any professional news organization in the country providing what could be a model for citizen journalism and a way to engage students in relevant intellectual work and experience as engaged citizens.  This is an innovative and impressive use of “network capital” to gather raw footage and reports from all over the state. 

While the students do not make heavy use of social media many of the tools we’ve talked about and used in class, publishing on the web provides students with guided experience in the public sphere.  Here for example, is a statement on the ’submit comment’ section of their site:

Your feedback will appear on The Paly Voice at the editors’ discretion. We do not have to publish your comments, and we are not obligated to delete them. To see the feedback policy, click here. Don’t do something you’ll regret – anyone can see your comments, especially Google. Forever is quite a long time.

They are thinking and writing about public issues that bring them into contact with school and public officials and adults from all walks of life.  As a result they are building social capital that could lead to any number of opportunities in the future.  These experiences offer opportunities to develop a professional identity.  Danah boyd has written about the unique challenges of growing up online.  Students who work on the paper are also developing a professional identity online.  Here’s Abby one of the editors we observed leading the advanced journalism class.  And here’s Patricia another editor.  Many, if not all students in the class have public profiles on the Paly High’s website. 

Presentation Slides (pdf)

Outline of the program and our visits

Stats about the program:

• 150 students in Advanced Journalism
• 140 students in Beginning Journalism
• 55 students in News Journalism
• 25 students in Voice
• 35 students in Verde
• 35 students in Viking
• 35 students in Broadcast
• 20 students in Year Book
• 120 students in Photography

Student Led

• small team project
• editors assigning tasks

• Observed the following classes:
  • Advanced Journalism (Esther Wojcicki)
    • Brief discussion of upcoming Friday speaker, Michael Specter, author of Denialism
    • Student editors suggest grades for each student.  Esther has final say.
    • Group reading: Unhealthy America (NY Times Opinion Article)
      • http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/opinion/05kristof.html
      • Learn effective writing style for opinion column
    • Discuss Health care in America
  • Advanced Journalism (Paul Kandell)
    • Editors discuss agenda for the day
    • Students work in computer lab; student editors roam the floor and monitor student progress
  • Viking (Sports) Journalism (Ellen Austin)
    • Soccer player nagging hair (New Mexico High school game)
    • Technology to look anything up
    • Interview students: Social media, twitter

Here are some pretty impressive readership stats.

Hey! Welcome.

It was good touching base yesterday.  Before next class, we should develop a clear project idea.  Yesterday we talked about the possibility of making a film of students working on digital journalism at Palo Alto H.S.–possibly filming part of a class and interviewing a few students.  We might need approval and release forms from parents for this however. 

Although it might not be as interesting, we could get around this problem by only interviewing adults or seniors who are 18?  In the forum Howard mentioned Esther Wojcicki who has been very involved with digital journalism and also teaches at Palo Alto HS.   Here’s something Esther wrote on running a journalism program as a learning community.  

Here is the website for The Paly Voice, the school’s online journalism publication.   On the ‘about’ page, Paul Kandell is listed as the adviser.  We might contact him.

What does everyone think?  This is a collaborative effort and our project will be stronger with everyone’s input.

Maybe some of the major newspapers should be looking at what these kids are doing