Weekly news broadcast puts Highland Park Middle School students in spotlight
Highland Park Middle School students are making headlines both behind and in front of the camera thanks to their weekly schoolwide broadcasts on Raider Media News.
The show mixes news reports with catchy music from an in-house band and social media-esque segments dreamed up by creative students. It’s produced by eighth graders with guidance from broadcast journalism advisor James Jenkins.
“They’re not always serious, but they’re professional,” he said. “It makes it fun.”
Preparing for each week’s episode begins with a pitch meeting, when Jenkins encourages students in his broadcast journalism course to think about a range of stories that might never get told, or that could be interesting to their peers.
Then students write questions, film and edit, collaborate to create their segments, and compose their script. The entire process takes place with a hard deadline — a recording of the broadcast is shown to fifth through seventh graders on Thursdays and viewed live by eighth graders every Friday.
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“You learn that you have to put it out at some point, and you can’t keep working on it forever,” said eighth-grader Knox Heinlen, whose roles include serving as a sports anchor. “The deadlines really capture that. They force that kind of learning.”
The students’ final product educates, entertains, and includes plenty of jokes and laughs. Students performed in costume during their Halloween broadcast, when an inflatable pumpkin joined the anchors behind the news desk and segments were accompanied by spooky graphics and cackling laughs.
The Oct. 31 weather from the “Raider Radar” ended with a Halloween-themed joke from meteorologists Linsey Cai and Blake Howard. (“What’s a skeleton’s least favorite type of weather? Bone chilling wind.”)
And witch-hat clad student reporters took to the halls of their school to ask the question “Kit or Crypt?” There was no wrong answer. Those who responded “kit” received a small Kit Kat bar, and those who answered “crypt” each got a pumpkin-shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter treat.
Other segments have taken a more serious tone. During National Bullying Prevention Month, young reporters interviewed seventh-grade counselor Rae Harvill about how to recognize the signs of bullying and create a positive school culture. “Kindness costs zero dollars,” she reminded students.
Another feature focused on the annual sixth-grade water walk project, when students carry two one-gallon jugs of water around the perimeter of their school. The walk helps students understand the need to ensure global access to clean water and the difficulties faced by those who travel long distances to obtain it.
Raider Media News helps create unity at the campus, which includes both fifth and sixth graders at McCulloch Intermediate School, and seventh and eighth graders at Highland Park Middle School.
“I think it’s really crucial and important for our school as a community,” said eighth-grader Ellie Ho. “It’s something that brings us together and connects us … Everyone loves it.”
The broadcast gives students control over the narrative about their school, Jenkins said, as well as teaches problem solving and communication skills.
“When I look back on my childhood, I never felt like I could communicate to a teacher how I felt,” he explained. “I hope that they do have that chance to do that … I hope to find ways for them to succeed, or ways that they can show their worth.”
