Start the presses! Masthead to be in print again
February 16, 2011
NEWBURYPORT — When the year-end issue of Newburyport High School's student newspaper was printed in the spring of 2008, nobody anticipated it would be the Masthead's final edition.
The award-winning newspaper had been going strong for 30 years or more under the Masthead banner, and for decades before that as the esteemed school paper The Log.
But in an era where technology is driving the dissemination of news and other information sources, the school paper once run by the journalism class was lost when that class was replaced with a multi-media course school leaders believed would better prepare students for a technology-driven world.
But the newspaper has never been forgotten.
In fact, just this week, in the second-floor classroom of English teacher Stephen Malenfant, a group of students began laying the groundwork for a return of the newspaper. Led by Class President Alex Bradley, who will serve as the editor-in-chief of the resurrected publication, the group of nine is hoping to produce its first edition by the end of the February vacation.
Malenfant, who served as adviser to the Masthead staff from the time he arrived to NHS in 1987 until it folded in 2008, was thrilled to see the home-grown efforts of a passionate seed group breathe new life into the paper. He credited 17-year-old Bradley for single-handedly bringing the players together to make it all happen.
"It's not me," Malenfant said. "(Alex) came to me, and we had a discussion, and I said you should talk to Principal Mike Parent."
As proof that the universe was conspiring to support Bradley's plan, Malenfant said Parent walked past the classroom just after he uttered the words. Bradley approached him, and the conversation went well, according to Bradley.
"Mr. Parent's been very supportive," Bradley said. "He's very interested in what students think and what they want to do."
In reorganizing the school paper, Bradley sees an opportunity to bring a greater sense of community and cohesion to the high school classes by connecting them to the events and current issues that bind students together. Where the newspaper once served a function of getting students interested in sporting events, plays, after-school activities and clubs and class-specific events, that function was passed on to a broadcasting class-produced "Action News" in 2009, said Bradley, and then dropped completely when the broadcasting class was discontinued this year.
Bradley has seen a correlation between the lack of a unified source for news and what he deems a waning level of school spirit. And as the sponsor and organizer of a newly launched Spirit Council at the high school, he sees his work on behalf of that committee, and as the official editor of the Masthead, as related efforts working toward the same goal of restoring school pride in the traditions at NHS.
"People don't show up to Color Day anymore," said Bradley of the school's historically spirited pep rally leading up to the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between arch rivals Amesbury and Newburyport. "It's so sad. Some kids just don't show up. I want people to want to be here. I think the newspaper is one of many components that need to start happening."
Bradley said the Masthead will release its first issue on March 9 in a newsletter format published and printed right there at the school. The assigned stories will cover a range of topics, including an upcoming spring concert, the prom, spirit week, varsity teams enjoying post-season success, the play "Romeo and Juliet," a poll on whether students like the new high school schedule and a story on political upheaval in the Middle East.
"You have a lot of good stuff coming up," Malenfant advised the group of young writers this week, sharing some inside advice on some of the pitfalls of reporting the news, including the inevitable run-in with folks who don't want to go "on the record."
"You have to make sure you're concise," Malenfant said. "You're not doing the 'I thinks' unless it's in a quote."
And if someone wants to go "off the record?" "That happens all the time because no one wants to stand up oftentimes," Malenfant said. "I don't think (off the record) works in a school newspaper."
Many past Masthead participants have moved on from NHS to see their own names in the spotlight, such as Brian Alcorn, who served as an adviser to former-President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 2001.
Past advisers have included former Superintendent Francis Bresnahan, who oversaw The Log while working as a teacher at NHS. And under his tutelage, retired NHS history teacher and author Richard Doyle was a member of the paper's staff. Doyle still remembers the kind of cutting-edge stories he and his colleagues would tackle.
"We had a big issue once on the flu closing the school for a whole week in the late '50s, as I recall," Doyle said. "That was a big deal, and we put out a special issue of The Log about it."
Now the task of tackling those issues will fall to a new group of students, including 16-year-old Jackie Peszynski, who is looking forward to seeing some current events covered to get students thinking about the world around them.
"I think it's important that people think about things, and a newspaper gets people thinking," Peszynski said.
Danielle Robidoux, 16, offered to write about the multi-media class, 241 High Street, for the first edition; and she said following the organizational meeting, she's looking forward to writing something that people can hold in their hand and tuck away for future generations to ponder. That's what sets newspapers apart, in her mind, from other media. "When something is in print, it lasts, and you can always look back at it," Robidoux said.
No comments:
Post a Comment