Teenagers are no strangers to adaptability. As students in the digital age, today’s high schoolers are navigating a world of ever-increasing technology and rapidly-changing social ideals. Perhaps most accustomed to that are student journalists, who toe the line between tradition and progress as they work to stay relevant.
As young news writers, broadcast fiends and yearbook aficionados seek out fresh ways to cover their campuses, so evolves the world around them. With new legislation, the rise of artificial intelligence and skepticism toward journalists, they’re not just doing the asking — they’re forced to come up with some of the answers themselves, to keep their finger on the pulse while shaping their publications to reflect the society around them.
In a time when more people hold a screen than a newspaper, student journalists from three Southern Indiana schools shared what they’re thinking about, what they’re questioning and what they’re fearful of as they report from the very edges of their communities.
REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE
At Jeffersonville High School, student media faces many of the same challenges across the board, whether in newspaper, yearbook or the school’s radio and television station. Chief among them is capturing the attention of a young audience that increasingly goes to social media and online news sources for information.
Staffers at The Hyphen, the school’s student newspaper, publish online stories nearly every day, and the paper has published two print editions over the past school year. At WJHI, the student radio and television station, fresh broadcasts are created every day, sometimes multiple to cover events like a sports game or prom.
Despite the high volume of content being produced, senior Dylan Geary said not all content made by WJHI is viewed by many students.
“I’m sure the newspaper can agree,” he said. “I know some people do end up reading the paper, but the people really look for their own stories or stories about them. When it comes to us and our newscasts, our videos and our stories aren’t always viewed that often unless it’s a parent or someone trying to keep up with a few things here and there.”
Many of the stories featured in the Hyphen cover complex, widespread topics affecting either the entire school or state, freshman Parker Bivvert said; the paper recently covered the influence of the Ten Commandments in Indiana schools, and dove into the state’s new diploma standards and cell phone ban taking effect in schools this fall.
Junior David Perez said WJHI takes a sharper focus on individual groups of students or organizations, such as the school’s multicultural fair and Latin dance. His colleague, senior Dylan Geary, said finding stories is only half the battle compared to the weight of having an entire student body to represent.
“We try to be as objective as possible,” he said, “but it’s hard. When you’re covering politics and a state legislature, it’s hard not to have a bias because people are either going to hate it or love it. But you’ve got to do the best you can, no matter which way you lean.”
Ryan Miller, co-editor of The Bagpiper at Floyd Central High School, said dealing with perceived bias means working even harder to report objectively. The newspaper publishes staff editorials along with individual opinion pieces, which Miller said are marked as such in the headline to avoid confusion with traditional news.
“We actually had to deal with that, because we did have some people accuse us of having some of those biases in stories,” he said. “But we strive for the facts. It’s in our mission statement. We’ve had left, right, libertarian columns; we’re a public forum, so if anyone wants to write about anything, they can.”
For junior Areli Hernandez, who will be the Hyphen’s next editor-in-chief, struggles with readership or how the paper is perceived pale in comparison to the learning and community student journalism offers.
“We’re all a big family here,” she said. “I know a lot of people probably don’t see our work, but we do know what we do, and we work hard for it.”
READERSHIP GOES DIGITAL
Expanding a publication’s audience, students said, goes beyond simply the topics they cover. Serving a generation that primarily consumes information through social media means to beat the screens, journalists must work to incorporate more graphics, photos and eye-catching content, said senior Charlie Bott, who serves as web editor for New Albany High School’s student paper The Blotter.
The paper has taken a greater focus on visuals in recent issues, employing art students and using web design to break stories up into digestible infographics and fill pages with color.
“Almost all of our students are on social media in some form, so trying to meet them where they’re at to bring them to this is really important,” Bott said. “Our big goal for this recent print issue is to make it less words and more visual, because sometimes when you see really long paragraphs, that can be intimidating. Instead, seeing Spider-Man on the page or a picture of your favorite teacher can help a student want to sit down and read it a little more.”
At Jeffersonville High, junior Stella Siewert worries about how artificial intelligence affects pieces of art like the school’s yearbook, of which she’s editor-in-chief. Putting together the yearbook might not be as difficult if she used AI to create the borders and place pictures, but it runs the risk of stripping the book of its authenticity.
“All the little stuff that people work hard to try to get properly, that even the imperfections make aesthetic, AI can just say, ‘Copy. Paste. Looks perfect. Send it up.’ Anything could just be AI, and people take it and very few critique it.”
Bivvert, a news writer, said he’d “rather die” before using AI to write a story. While he sees it as a threat to certain areas of the industry, he said, he also knows AI can’t replace real emotion communicated by a real person.
“No matter the distrust of journalism, the majority of people are still going to want an actual human’s written story rather than an AI summary of something,” he said.
On the other hand, Atlas Coble, Miller’s co-editor at Floyd Central, thinks journalists should embrace AI as an important tool in journalism’s future. Coble said while staffers are not allowed to use AI to write stories, they can use it as a tool to refine stories and suggest ideas for page design.
“Whenever we have people really trying to crack down on no AI, I think it hinders the process,” Coble said. “While it’s very risky because some kids are going to try to take it farther than others, it’s just how people use it. What I’ve seen with my friends and in the newspaper room is that people are using it as a helping tool, not a creation tool.”
HOOSIER SCHOOLS SEE ONSLAUGHT OF CHANGE
This fall, Indiana schools will reckon with the implementation of several pieces of legislation set to restructure the way students experience classes and graduation.
Starting July 1, Senate Enrolled Act 78 will expand the state’s restrictions on cell phones in schools by requiring them to entirely prohibit students’ use of personal communication devices throughout the school day. Nicknamed the “bell-to-bell” law, the legislation mandates school districts create policies to keep phones out of the hands of students starting from the first bell of the day to the last — even during lunch hour, with a few exceptions for emergencies and medical or educational accommodations.
Lawmakers have said the restriction’s goal is to eliminate distractions in classrooms and mitigate behavioral problems stemming from the overuse of screens and social media. But student journalists like Coble, one of the legislation’s blind spots is how it will affect in-school activities, like journalism and yearbook, that often require the use of technology beyond school laptops.
“It’s a major tool whenever we interview people,” she said. “A lot of times we’re taking photos in a classroom, and it’s definitely going to make reporting a lot more difficult because you can’t have your phone to write down notes or anything, so you need to lug around a big camera and your Chromebook. Half the Chromebooks, their microphones won’t work.”
At Jeffersonville High, Journalism Adviser Jim Lang said he isn’t sure if students and parents are prepared for the potential changes coming as a result of the ban. In the Hyphen newsroom, Lang said, he will teach his student journalists how to professionally use their phones to gather and document while ensuring the use of devices in the classroom is appropriate.
“We cannot successfully train journalists if we simply ban the devices they’ll use in the real world as journalists and leaders,” he stated in an email to the News and Tribune. “That’s the problem with the legislation — it centers on controlling students rather than teaching them. The bottom line is that student journalists will need to continue to use their cell phones as part of their jobs; the challenge will be to teach them the difference between seeing that device as a professional tool rather than as a distraction from their work.”
Lang also noted journalism and media classes as the best way to counter AI short cuts, as these courses put students in unique and public-facing positions.
“Student journalists who get out of the classroom and away from their phone and Chromebook screens — who work to research, interview and cover people and events in real time — often produce more authentic, ‘real’ content because the work of a journalist is real.”
But despite the valuable training media classes offer, yet another move by Indiana lawmakers has overhauled high school diploma requirements, pushing college credits and making fine arts classes optional rather than a core requirement. Starting with the class of 2029, the change has already affected this year’s rising sophomores — and New Albany High School Journalism Adviser Christina Faulkner said it will only make recruitment to her classes harder.
“It used to be that a kid could take newspaper and choir and then still get their other credits, and now it’s much more specialized,” she said. “All of these requirements just don’t allow for taking classes that maybe you just enjoy and can express creativity.”
Where the Blotter printed nine issues per school year pre-COVID, it now only releases four times a year, and Faulkner’s staff of 25 has whittled down over the years to a handful of students committed to making it work.
Still, she said, those student journalists who do stay have a deep dedication to the craft and a sense they’re bringing clarity to a confusing world.
“I think teenagers get sort of a bad rap,” she said, “like they don’t care about anything except their phones or they don’t really know what’s going on in the world, but I would venture to guess sometimes they know more than the adults. They do have a lot to say, and I’m happy to be able to provide a place for them to express themselves and what they care about.”