Web & Social Media

While I have never had a formal role on my publication that officially requires me to take the lead on the website or on our social media accounts, this past year we had a smaller editorial board and no one to take on those roles. I learned to manage our website and publish online content, even trying to incorporate more elements that showed off data we collected for stories. For social media, I worked hard to create a variety of templates for our section editors and all staff to work with to share their stories to a larger audience.

On my publication, there is a tendency for staff to underestimate the importance of maintaining our website and social accounts because they forget that people who do not attend our school stay consistently updated through these means. As such, I made sure to remind staff of the role these mediums play and how we can work to improve them.

WEBSITE

Alternate Story Forms

As design editor and editor-in-chief, I pushed for more Alternate Story Forms, or graphics that would supplement stories to share information in more visually digestable ways.

Zephyrus - Infographics Presentation

This is a presentation I gave to the whole class to explain what infographics and alternate story forms can look like and to have staff think more about the ways they can enhance their storytelling.

Interactive Elements

For a long-form story about the development of AI in high school settings, I worked with other writers to create a series of embeds for the online story that would allow readers to interact with the statistics and facts we were drawing on.

The charts above were made on Flourish but these three, one for a story about political speech limits set on administrators and the other two for a story about the importance of city officials, were made on Canva.

Photo Elements

I often turn alternate story forms in print to be photos that could be embedded into online stories.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Feed Redesign

At the beginning and end of summer, I noted how our social media feed was inconsistent and there was no way to post stories dedicated for social media. I created templates for Instagram and X captions and posts to develop a brand identity for Zephyrus and make it easier for staff to create content.

A snapshot of our feed from the 2024–25 school year.

A snapshot of our feed from this school year, with the new template.

I made three kinds of templates for posts and one template for Instagram stories.

Generic Online Story: For general online stories, I made a one slide template with the photo and title. This is the alternate version used for enhanced visibility; the main version has no green highlight.

Social Media Story: For brief stories made to go straight to social media, I created a template that gives a variety of photos that can be tied together with captions and quotes.

Long-form Reference: For longer pieces including editorials and feature stories, I created this template that includes standard writing and quotes with no photos, that can be modified for other purposes.

Here is an example of how the template on the left can be modified for a more lighthearted post.

Instagram Story Template: The Instagram story template gives readers a quick look at a photo with the headline and section, alongside an optional quote/excerpt from the article. The photo byline goes in the bottom right, and the link to the story can be added between the quote and the photo.

Caption Templates

Instagram:

[First two/three grafs of article]

—

Story by [NAME].

Photo/Illustration/Photoillustration by [NAME] / [ART/PHOTOG INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT]

Read the full story at the link in our bio.

[LEDE & NUT GRAF CONDENSED]

—

Reported by [NAME].

[LINK TO ARTICLE ONLINE]

Video Production

I have recorded and edited a variety of social media videos while on Zephyrus. I primarily use CapCut and Adobe PremierePro.

This Instagram reel was filmed by a writer studying abroad in Japan but I edited it on Adobe PremierePro to match the style we created for Instagram this year.

This TikTok is from my freshman year and was before we had certain social media styles. I filmed and edited it in CapCut, posting it the same day of the event. This remains our second-most viral TikTok.

Live Reporting

During the hockey season, our staff will live-tweet the sections and state tournaments. I had the pleasure of reporting on the girls' hockey series. It's challenging to pay attention to both the game and the screen, especially when you are not familiar with the game or the players. But, I found that by the end of the experience, I had memorized the players' numbers and the plays I needed to know.

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