This story is syndicated from The Muse, the newspaper of Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach FL. The original version of the story ran here.
Have you ever thought about how after the bell rings each morning, classes across campus watch the latest DSOA Today show? Ever wondered about those times during lunch when staffers from The Muse race around the cafeteria handing out issues containing months of effort? Have you ever reflected on the carnations or candy canes Seeds passed out to your class? Have you ever given a second thought to the Marquee staffer who pulled you aside for a quick quote in the yearbook?
We have.
The driving force behind all of this is our population of student journalists. These student journalists, whether they be from The Muse, The Marquee, Seeds, or DSOA Today, dedicate their time and energy to telling stories that matter, whether people recognize their work or not.
There are over 150 student journalists on publications at our school alone, and they work tirelessly on various student-run media publications to provide for the rest of the school. At our school specifically, we have a great obligation to share the arts we see. There are significantly more stories to report on, performances to tape, and artists to interview compared to a traditional high school.
We are both staffers on The Muse, and we know firsthand how much work goes into writing an article, taking a good photo, or producing a social media post to promote aspects of the school like performances or athletics. We know that producing any kind of content takes multiple rounds of editing to guarantee nothing but perfection. While you spend hours practicing a song or dance routine, learning new shading techniques or memorizing lines, we hope you realize that we do too. We also stay up late into the night (and even into the morning) to make sure that every fact is correct and no comma is out of place. We sell advertisements and subscriptions and ask for donations because as a student-run publication, it comes down to us.
So while you mean no harm in talking over the morning news or looking at our QR code like it’s a foreign language, we see a disconnect. We endure cafeteria cleanups, picking up our freshly printed issues out of the trash can, only wishing to see a change. We always want to do better for you, so it’s time that you do better for us.
We have to wonder what would happen if there were no student journalists. Would everyone still know the schedule for special events or the scores from sports games, or if we all would have a book that will help us remember our high school years for decades to come? The simple truth is that if all our photographers put down their cameras, and all our writers stopped pulling you aside for a quick interview, if all student journalists decided the little comments we’ve heard for years — that journalism isn’t really an art — were true, then who would be left to draw attention to your work?
You understand the work that goes into a dance recital or a theater performance, and it’s important to understand that student journalists put the same amount of effort into what we produce. Recognize that we have worked hard to create art that not only reflects, but amplifies, the student body. Read, listen, and watch our work, and you might be surprised.
