Journalism students practice hands-on reporting skills

HARTINGTON — For the second year in a row, the Hartington-Newcastle journalism class is working with the Cedar County News to showcase students' work.

This is the first of many articles from the class. Other articles can be found inside this week's Cedar County News.

The class was started last year by HNS English teacher Teresa O’Brien. This year’s class is over double the size of last year’s, with seven students active in the program.

The students will not only work with print media, but will also learn about broadcast journalism.

The students recently took a field trip down to the Cedar County News for a brief tour and to visit with publishers Rob Dump and Peggy Year about their profession.

The students then took a 15-minute video back to class to view at a later date. The video, produced by the Nebraska Press Association and the Cedar County News, explains the role of community journalism in today's world.

Because two of the three students from last years' journalism class graduated last spring, only one person has returned from that class: Anden Wieseler. Joining Wieseler are seniors Parker Hopping, Leah Reichle, and Daisy Sage, junior Rebekah Pinkelman, and sophomores Abby Anderson and Kaeden Gale.

The incoming journalists are excited to be a part of the program.

“I saw a few articles in the paper from the other class, and I thought that it would be fun,” Anderson said.

Reichle had similar reasons to join the class. “I had heard [Wieseler] talking about it, and I thought it would be fun. I love to write, and I’ve been published before,” she said.

Not all of the students were originally planning to take journalism, however. Sage and Hopping were originally slated to take other classes, but as classes filled up, they found themselves in the journalism program.

The pair of students are excited to take the class, regardless. They look forward to writing articles and furthering their communication skills

The class will not only be writing articles for the community to read, but is going to implement a new broadcast segment called The Wildcat Roar.

While the full details of the segment are still in the planning stages, students in journalism will not only be prepping their own broadcasts, but every other Thursday the students will take turns recording the Hartington Hot Hometown segment on KKYA 93.1 (Hot Country 93.1) in Yankton, S.D.

The students are ready to use these opportunities to expand their oral communication skills, O'Brien said.

HNS Supt. A.J. Johnson is excited to see the class expand.

“I think it's an outstanding addition to the journalism curriculum. So many people rely on broadcast news. I believe this will help our school news reach new people.”

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