Stories are not just told through the written word. Throughout my time as Editor-in-Chief, I’ve worked to expand our coverage. The biggest thing I’ve emphasized in multimedia work is the use of graphics. Not every story we write lends itself to a photograph and in the past we’ve struggled to find one anyway. This year, the staff and I have worked to develop our use and knowledge of infographics. Using sites like Canva, we’ve been able to create strong infographics to accompany stories on topics such as a new Policy Implementation Procedure that our school system put into place about transgender and non-binary students or the flowchart quiz on different types of learners. We’ve used ThingLink, we’ve been able to make interactive graphics that showed things like what students were doing for their Senior Experience projects or the Career Center’s culinary arts classes. I’ve noticed our reporters getting excited about their opportunities to make graphics and it has really enhanced our ability to tell a story.

Our multimedia coverage is not only produced by the newspaper staff, though. At my school, the broadcast journalism class is separate from the newspaper and produces a daily news broadcast called the Daily Dispatch. All their shows are posted to Vimeo, but this year I’ve been working with my adviser to upload the videos to the Crossed Sabres website. We often cover similar issues and have coordinated coverage in the past, but regardless of how often we work together on stories, I know that adding their videos to our website will enhance the school’s ability to learn about the news in our community.

I have been fortunate enough to expand my multimedia work to outside of the newspaper as well. In November, a volunteer at Arlington Independent Media, a local media organization, reached out to my adviser looking for an editor from the Crossed Sabres who would be interested in participating in an event they were hosting. The volunteer worked on In Conversation, a talk show led entirely by the panelists without a host. They were working on producing an episode on “The Future of Journalism” and wanted a high school journalist to join the panelists. The editors and I decided that I should do it, so I became a conversationalist for the event along with a Howard University professor, a journalist at The Washington Post and a journalist at E&E News. We recorded the panel live with an audience. The Editors-in-Chief of the newspaper at another high school in my county even came to sit in the audience and spoke with me before the event. the experience was incredible. Not only was I able to talk with experienced journalists about the field and its future, but I was seen as an equal alongside them. (For anyone interested, the panel can be found below.)