They did not tell lies...

Any online newspapers in schools at home (at least in the Bismarck-Mandan area) aren't kept up to date - a passing fad in the eyes of students and advisers.  The "latest and greatest" ideas for us were simply changing to newsmagazine format from tabloid style.

Now I'm strongly considering finding some way to put our newspaper online - but I'll still be way behind with even that.

My point is that yes, everything we heard about the absolute necessity to tell the story, but to be able to do so across platforms is very true. (Not that I thought our speakers were lying, but I never realized how much change has been happening, and how innovative news companies are having to be to try to keep up.) This goes for both current news companies and scholastic news programs.

I've heard from people in the professional world now, but I've interviewed a couple students that are in the News21 program. They say the same thing - you have to be able to tell the story across the platforms and be able to participate in the creation of the story wherever it ends up.
I think this applies beyond just the sphere of journalism as well - we as consumers of news, voting citizens, and most importantly, teachers need to be able work with these things as well.

I'm a believer. I just hope I can spread this revelation when I get home... and learn video, web, and HTML too!

Hannah Sagaser
Mandan High School
Mandan, N.D.