The Accolade website. It was a whole new platform from which the whole world could access our news. A bit daunting at first, yet our staff took up the task. However, having to come this far took more than a mere agreement on simply “creating a website.” On top of having to publish 12 issues in 10 months, we just didn’t have the experience—from a physical paper to a digital screen, the transition was more than drastic.
Our editors never fully agreed on the benefits of going online. But after attending several classes and learning from students and advisers of other high school online publications, we saw that producing a website is one of the best ways to represent The Accolade to a wider audience. Our desire is to have the reader immersed, entertained and informed in every piece we post, whether it’s an article, video or even a cartoon.
We want to keep readers such as yourself in a constant loop, and in this rapidly modernizing world, what better way to do that than by going online? It merely serves as an extension of communication that print newspaper provides us. It’s us, but just more.
But going online does not just mean more articles. At the end of the spring semester, our adviser recruited two student videographers to join our staff to help bolster our entry into providing online content with a multimedia slant—something that print cannot offer to our readers. We also envision promoting these video packages through the ASB’s jumbotron to draw in more views. This will allow us to form a more intimate interaction with interviewees and allow us to explore more creative and entertaining pieces.
We aim to post content relevant to what’s happening during our school week, as well as reach out to a larger audience. With an online platform to publish such articles, we will pay close attention to minute details to upload the best content we have to share. We plan to uphold California Education Code 48907, which outlines the rights of student journalists.
Content will be uploaded according to global news in addition to school events. For the interest of readers, we will have appealing features to illuminate the experiences of campus life.
However, we want our readers to participate. As we’ve learned, the only way to create our brand is to make sure it’s yours, too. Viewers will be able to provide feedback about the content we publish, both praise and criticism. Follow us on our newly created Twitter account and existing Instagram and Facebook pages as these social media sites serve to highlight the most important information at any time. If there’s an accuracy issue, let us know—we will do our best to correct it as soon as possible.
From now on, it’s time to jump into a new era. The Accolade website is here, and we plan to stay. We hope you come back for more because we’ve got issues… in print and online.