Detroit student journalists and their advisers last week kicked off the second year of their partnership with Crain Communications and the Michigan State University School of Journalism.
More than 30 students and teachers gathered Sept. 26 at the MSU Detroit Center for Training Day – the annual kickoff to the new publication year for Crain MSU Detroit High School Journalism. The program helps public and private high school journalism classes and clubs in Detroit produce a newspaper and news website.
“The purpose of Training Day is to outline expectations for the upcoming year and talk about what the program can do to help participants become better newspaper advisers and student journalists,” said Joy Visconti, director of the program and a faculty member in the School of Journalism.
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The program produces the Detroit Dialogue newspaper four times during the academic year: October, December, February and May. Each school has at least a page – and sometimes 3-4 pages — in the publication. Several schools also plan to make frequent updates, including student-produced videos and podcasts, to the program’s website, detroitdialogue.com.
“We want students to use all forms to media to tell the story of Detroit and Detroit schools through the people who know it best,” Visconti said.
During Training Day, Visconti gave a lesson on journalism basics, and Jeremy Steele, executive director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, provided students and teachers with tips on taking better photographs. Steele also helped the students produce a Facebook Live standup from the event.
“What I’m most excited about is getting more King students involved in our publication,” King High School senior Carrimia Owens said during the Facebook Live interview with Cass Tech High School senior Kaelyn Collins. “Last year we had a small crew. Now we just want to expand it because we have better resources and better equipment.”
Those better resources are thanks in part to the support of Detroit-based Crain, which joined with MSU a year ago to launch the program. The program provided updated computer and camera equipment to schools.
“I’m excited to transition the Renaissance program from a traditional newspaper-magazine to a more multimedia platform,” Kyle Goodall, who is in his first year advising at Renaissance High School, told Collins during the Facebook Live interview.