Cody Stedman Multimedia - Marketing & Audience Engagement

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INTRODUCTION

"Extra, Extra! Read all about it!"

The iconic and stereotypical phrase to describe journalists wanting those to hear their stories. Looking at that phrase now, it was one of the first popular ways to market the content us journalists create. For me, it is something that I turned out to be pretty good at naturally. I decided to design logos for student-run organizations, especially for the broadcast programs that I was a part of. And because of that, student engagement for SHS Today and Hornet Nation increased, making them fit the target audience more effectively through the three areas below.

DESIGN

A large aspect was that I designed the logos for the programs that I was a part of in order to "catch the wave" of the minimalistic logo design occurring across the nation for different companies.

I felt that this was vital knowing that change needed to occur in order to improve on what has been made and I wanted to improve on my own design skills.

SHS Today

Founded in the early 2000s, this general news show has been Saline High School's main weekly informative newscast by students, for students. During the 2023-2024 school year, I created all graphics for the show, including the logo above.

Hornet Nation

Founded in 2014 by Mr. Nathan Bush, this sports news show has been a alternate news source for the #1 athletic high school in the state of Michigan, Saline High School. At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, I redesigned the logo and show graphics with additional help from Brady Nachtrieb, a fellow graphic designer who graduated from SHS with the Class of 2024.

Talk of The Town

Saline High School's official podcast. Founded in 2021, I recreated and "simplified" the original design which was created by Sarah Burgess.

The Buzz

The Buzz Newspaper Club, founded in late 2023 by Mikayla Lewis, Anastasia Dubovoy, and Kathryn Feller, output a four to eight page newspaper per trimester for students of Saline High School to read.

The Salinian

The Salinian Yearbook, founded in 1947, has been running as a class for students of Saline High School for the past few decades. With Mr. Jamie Vollrath as teacher adviser, I submitted this logo as the new logo for SHS's Yearbook program beginning in the 2023-2024 school year.

BROADCAST

POSTERS

Marketing our shows for the student audience was a big part for student engagement.

For our student-made shows, we create posters to hang up around the school to promote our shows premiering that week.

For SHS Today and Hornet Nation, we focus on what packages we will show that week, and who is anchoring.

Whenever a sports season finishes, Hornet Nation takes part in a Sports Season Recap. Before the show comes out, we post the special poster showing icons of each sport being covered.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Before the end of each show, we always plug our social media and online accounts to keep engagement for our audience. I was in charge of creating these graphics during my junior year of high school.

This gives the students the chance to subscribe to the Saline Video YouTube channel for more content, and follow the Saline Video Instagram account for important announcements and behind-the-scenes content.

ANALYTICS

With the graphics update I was designing, I wanted to find the best way have the audience engaged in what they were watching.

One of those ways was to simplify the thumbnails and add more animated designs to each show.

With two examples, it shows that these shows increased in views. And with the students watching these shows during Hornet Time, a 30 minute long homeroom-like period every week. Many of these views are much larger than noted, 1 view would equal to 30 views because teachers would show these videos off to students during their Hornet Time.

BEFORE

AFTER

YEARBOOK

Before finishing the yearbook and submitting it for full print and publication, the 2025 yearbook had a record number of senior grad ads bought, coming to a total number of $29,030.

With that much for grad ads, the yearbook adviser, the EIC of management, and myself had to decide whether or not we would need to buy more spreads in order to include all the ads purchased by parents.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If there isn't any engaging parts in any journalistic content, it wouldn't have any interest to any target audience. At the high school level, it is much, much more harder. But by knowing what the student body likes the most and what companies across the country are doing. It paints the picture for journalists to know exactly what to change in order to know what to cover. But maybe in some aspects, the stories that are untold or quickly forming would be hard, but engaging for others to hear.

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