In the 2016-17 school year, expect to see a lot from Timber Creek Student Media.
First, let’s talk about that term: Timber Creek Student Media
Starting in the 2016-17 school year, students in Advanced Journalism classes (Yearbook, Newspaper, Broadcast Journalism, Radio Broadcasting) will unite to form a larger group of TCHS student creators, storytellers, and media scholars to share news, information, and student work across the Timber Creek campus.
Though each group will continue to be responsible for their own projects (Yearbook, Talon, TCTV, Timber Creek Live), the group will be able to work collectively to improve all those products and expand into new cross-produced projects.
“Groups like Yearbook and Talon have been working well together for years,” Talon advisor Greg Janda said. “Similarly, Broadcasting and TCTV have been helping each other in the last year, as well. It only makes sense to have a group to collect these projects.”
Timber Creek Student Media will be an open group that will allow any TCHS student to join. The goal of the group will be to organize assignments, schedule events, and improve learning by encouraging students to learn skills in multiple types of media.
The group aims to foster creativity in and out of the classroom as well.
“We want the group to help encourage creative students to share their works with a larger audience,” Janda said. “We had a successful restart of our Arts and Literature Magazine last year, which is one of the projects the new group can tackle.”
More details on the first meeting of the new group will be announced in August.
Second, let’s talk about Sports.
Talon and Broadcast Journalism students have increased the coverage of TCHS sports significantly in the last two years, but in 2016-17, we’re going further.
A new group of sports reporters will be publishing articles on Talon, broadcasting over 24 live streams of sports content, creating two video sports specials, and creating the fall and spring digital programs for sporting events.
Through a new partnership with the Timber Creek Athletic Booster club, student media will be a bigger part of the athletic world, covering EVERY varsity sport at TCHS.
Our new Radio Broadcasting class will also provide training for students to learn more about play-by-play and color commentary for live events and how to host a sports-focused podcast on local and national sports.
“We have some really talented media students that are passionate about sports,” Janda said. “They’ll have plenty of opportunities to pursue those passions with our various programs.”
Next, let’s talk about Opinions.
In September, Timber Creek Talon will open its Opinion section online, allowing students to create editorials, columns, reviews and other opinion-based writing. This section will be managed by Newspaper staff members and be a critical part in our continued focus on giving TCHS students a voice.
“Learning how to write well-reasoned, thoughtful opinion pieces like editorials or reviews is an important part of learning how to be a successful media creator,” Janda said. “With the Opinion section, we want to encourage students to craft pieces that aren’t knee-jerk reactions or 140 character missives.”
All pieces published in the Opinion section will be clearly designated and will often be published alongside a second piece with an opposing viewpoint.
“We’ll continue to be balanced in our coverage, offering students that have different opinions to share their thoughts and offer more perspectives,” Janda said.
Among the big stories of the fall, the 2016 Presidental Election is sure to be a lightning rod for opinions and debate. The Opinion section will play host to special programming focused on the election, including a special broadcast on Election Day.
Finally, let’s talk about You.
Timber Creek Student Media is powered by students and we’ll always be focused on helping students get the news and information they need.
Both the Talon and TCTV will see a new look starting in August, designed to help you get more information that you want to see faster and easier than ever before.
With TCTV, we aim to have an accurate, appropriate, and just plain awesome 6 minutes each day to help you know what’s happening in the school. We’ll have more info, details, and a look at the design right before school starts.
On Talon, we’ll continue our #AskTalon sessions, offer a Timber Creek Today post with news and info specific to each school day, and redesign some of our clunky portions to make things even more useful to you.
However, we’re always listening to your feedback, story ideas, and more. If you want to tell us something, e-mail tips@timbercreektalon.com, @ us on Twitter, or send a message with telepathy. We’re listening.
