Student media navigate a year of changes

The holidays are rapidly approaching, but the holiday season is also a season of many important tests for students, including EOCs. Both of these can and do have an effect on how student media conduct their reporting. 

While EOCs were administered before Winter Break, final exams will be given to students afterwards. This is a significant change from previous years and student media have a responsibility to cover that difference.

Whenever something is down differently, it should be covered,” “Roar” magazine Editor in Chief Sophia Bailly said. “Events such as finals taking place after Winter Break, should be covered. With COVID-19, a majority of our reporting has been conducted virtually, for the convenience and comfort of students.”

 “Roar” Magazine isn’t the only media that has taken the change in testing schedule as a chance for stories.

“With this new schedule of testing with exams being in January and then switching classes for the spring term, yearbook is planning on covering this change to West Shore,”  “Arcadia” Editor in Chief Haley Alvarez-Lauto said. “With not much going on at school other than sports activities, this new schedule is a great way to be able to cover some more students who all have a common ground with one another.” 

Christmas also offers opportunities for student media to report on the events of the holiday season.

“With Christmas, we tend to get more photos sent in since with the holiday spirit more people are taking photos of themselves doing interesting activities,” Alvarez-Lauto said. “We plan on doing a Winter Break spread which will be dedicated to students activities during Winter Break which may include the holiday season. We don’t dedicate a strictly holiday spread as I want to be able to include any activities taken place over Winter Break. The contents of those types of spreads is mostly determined by what type of coverage we were able to get from students as we crowdsource photos. If we don’t crowdsource our photos from the student body, the yearbook would end up just being a bunch of pictures of the yearbook staff, which no one wants. Our job definitely changes as the end of the semester [ happens in January] and the second deadline is in the middle of Winter Break. So I, as I editor in chief, will be spending most of my Winter Break on finishing up the spreads for this deadline. This is our second largest deadline and it does suck but it’s in the middle of Winter Break, but the same time I do appreciate having the time off to be able to allocate my time towards working on the yearbook. … Having this prolonged break is sort of challenging when it comes to the staff, because getting back into the yearbook can be challenging after a break of relaxation. In addition, some students will be leaving yearbook and new students will be coming into the yearbook in the spring term which may change the dynamic of how the staff works.” 

By Kian Nezamoddini