School newspaper
Near the end of my first year, I had the idea to make a school newspaper. A student in the year above me had started one, but I offered to take over the responsibility in my first year. I published one issue in my first year, and another in my second year. This project falls under the categories of Creativity and Service. The Creativity came from writing the articles and working on the design/layout, and the Service is because people donated after reading the issues and the money went to a school fund to buy a defibrillator.
For the first issue, I got people to write articles about anything they wanted. I wrote an article about fundraising for a school defibrillator, to which the proceeds of the issue would go towards. The first issue can be seen below.
For the first issue, I got people to write articles about anything they wanted. I wrote an article about fundraising for a school defibrillator, to which the proceeds of the issue would go towards. The first issue can be seen below.
Here is the second issue:
For my own article, I spent around 1 hour and 30 minutes, which includes both writing and researching the information about defibrillators.
However, I also did all the editorial work (reading others articles) and designing the layout and colours of the magazine. This took around 5 hours; it would have taken me less time but I was new to Microsoft Publisher (the program on which I made the magazine).
However, I also did all the editorial work (reading others articles) and designing the layout and colours of the magazine. This took around 5 hours; it would have taken me less time but I was new to Microsoft Publisher (the program on which I made the magazine).
With the second issue, I decided to make it more organised and themed. I met with the other writers and we agreed for the theme to be "opinions". My article was about journalists' rights and it took me around 3 hours to research and write. Compiling and making the magazine the second time took 4 hours, over several days.
An issue I faced was when someone wrote an article I personally disagreed with. I briefly considered not publishing it, then I realised that it would be ethically wrong to do so, and published the article nonetheless. Many newspaper editors have probably experienced this dilemma at some point, so it was a good lesson for me. I didn't realise that having strong opinions would be an issue, and I'm glad I realised that impartiality was an area I needed to improve in.
Another issue was that I originally wanted to print out the magazine, but I wanted to print out 50 copies, which would have needed a lot of paper, which would have been costly and terrible for the environment. At first I wasn't sure what to do, but then I thought of the idea to find an online publishing platform, which would be cheaper, better for the environment, and easier to access for all.
Working on the magazine was really difficult at times, and occasionally I considered calling it all off because of how challenging it was. A lot of people I was working with either handed in their article very late, or never handed it in at all. This often made things quite difficult for me, and the earlier issue had less articles than I anticipated because of this. However, persevering through was really rewarding for me and seeing the first issue's final version gave me a lot of pride. Additionally, I really learned a lot about working with other people professionally, by asking for articles.
I'm glad I continued with the magazine because I would like to work in Journalism in the future, so this gave me a lot of valuable experience working for a magazine.
Another issue was that I originally wanted to print out the magazine, but I wanted to print out 50 copies, which would have needed a lot of paper, which would have been costly and terrible for the environment. At first I wasn't sure what to do, but then I thought of the idea to find an online publishing platform, which would be cheaper, better for the environment, and easier to access for all.
Working on the magazine was really difficult at times, and occasionally I considered calling it all off because of how challenging it was. A lot of people I was working with either handed in their article very late, or never handed it in at all. This often made things quite difficult for me, and the earlier issue had less articles than I anticipated because of this. However, persevering through was really rewarding for me and seeing the first issue's final version gave me a lot of pride. Additionally, I really learned a lot about working with other people professionally, by asking for articles.
I'm glad I continued with the magazine because I would like to work in Journalism in the future, so this gave me a lot of valuable experience working for a magazine.