Past Papers Provoke New Ideas

Part of the “Roving Reporter” segment by former staff member Margarita Brown from the March 2009 edition of Horizons.

Photo by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

Mark Twain is often credited as having said that although history doesn't repeat itself, it does rhyme.

By the time the Publications class gets to the final edition of the newspaper, Pub I students are familiar with the process and Pub II students have begun to differentiate themselves as leaders or writers with a particular niche.

One pleasant part of being at this point in the semester is that the class's concentration can shift to some of the nuances of the journalistic trade. We don't have explain the basic structure of a story or how to share a document.

It's also nice because the students know the rules well enough that they can be challenged to stretch them or break them constructively. Journalism is at heart a creative enterprise, and that means being open to experimentation.

It was in that spirit that Professor Karyn Smith asked the students to bring in newspapers from all over the area to rifle through for ideas that could be incorporated into future editions of Horizons.

I just happen to own copies of every issue of Horizons from 2007 through 2011. In almost every issue, there is an example of someone's attempt to liven the paper.

One former student faithfully wrote questions for “man on the street” interviews during every issue. We called the segment “Roving Reporter.” The project was simple: just profile pictures and a quote from each respondent. But it was a great visual, and used the paper as a sounding board for students' opinions.

My predecessor as editor-in-chief used to write an op/ed column called “He Said/She Said” that featured a male and a female with dueling opinions about gender relations. The topics were often racy. Sex sells.

Other students created photo collages, or drew comics, or wrote an interview piece in a question/answer format instead of integrating the quotes into a straightforward news article.

A few days prior to the class, I took out my old collection of newspapers and went through them one-by-one, marking stories and pages I thought demonstrated some of the best examples of staff creativity.

I never got to see exactly what the students picked out of them. That day also happened to be the deadline for getting the April issue to the printer. After dropping my papers off to the class, I was holed up in the graphic design department, fixing some layout issues (an experience I'll relate in my next post).

I know the students definitely liked some of the ideas of their predecessors, though. In the following class, several volunteered to put together segments based on what they had seen. The “Roving Reporter” may return. Another student offered to create an events calendar. There may even be a summer “bucket list” - a new addition to the paper.

History does sometimes rhyme. In our class, the students found the flint edge with which to spark their creative thinking by pairing those past cadences with their present talents.