Media Leadership

WHAT a Leader Does and WHY it's Important

In my time as a leader in student media, I've taken on many responsibilities and worn more hats than I could ever count. But to me, that's what makes it fun. What I've discovered, though, is that the journalistic thrill comes with expectations, especially as a leader.

For each facet of student media I'm involved in, I hold my peers to high standards and myself to the highest. I've learned that if I want to see a great product from my team, then I must encourage them and provide the resources to do that.

Although it's complex to facilitate the work of a group of 30+ students, I've done it for over two years -- here's how:

Outline WHAT You Want to Adjust and HOW You Will Do It
- For example, entering this school year, I knew that I wanted to evolve the look of The Clypian news magazine. While by no means was it unappealing, it no longer fit my creative vision. I knew that as a leader I could do more to bring our journalism to life. I'd decided I want to take an "in-your-face" approach to our front cover, and I wanted to theme our issues around whatever our OP-ED piece that issue was. Not only would it present better, but it could now directly highlight the message we as a board were trying to convey to our community -- a two-for-one.
- In terms of The Sword & Shield (our yearbook), I spent this summer reflecting on my first year as the book's Editor-in-Chief. To be frank, I came up with a healthy list of things I knew I had to fix. A primary issue we had the year before was we struggled to incorporate the theme of our yearbook into the actual design and storytelling of the book -- a massive blunder. I knew that to execute my position as best as I could, I had to make a consistent effort to ACTUALLY build the theme into the book, not just slap it on the front cover. And in this year's book, we did just that. We built our interviews and questionnaires around time (our theme is Take Your Time), and built storyteller mods around spotlighting the specific moments in students lives. My editorial board and I were able to do this through patiently teaching our staff how to ask thought-provoking questions and how to dig deep to create an intimate glimpse into a student's achievements.
- A successful leader must take initiative in striving for change, then they must teach others how to do so. A leader's job is to create solutions and then create steps so that others may learn.

Educating Within Structure

- With four years of experience, I've worked closely and put in valiant efforts to learn the ins-and-out of AP style. Each week, when the editorial board and the staff get together, the editors and I prepare a lesson for the staff. The lessons we prepare go over small but consistent mistakes we see in articles.
- I teach corrections in a group setting in our studio as it is removed away from the remainder of our class and has a serene setting. I need my staff to be focused and feel calm so that way they best understand what I am teaching them.
- With consistent lessons, the reporters are always given positive, necessary critiques. Which, as a product of these same critiques, I know they will improve their journalistic skills.
- Teaching others how to perform at a level that you do is vital for the health of any production, let alone a news outlet. That is why positive reinforcement and guiding lessons are in integrated part of The Clypian's weekly schedule.

Remaining Confident While Scared

- In January 2025, I made the choice to publish an article that one of my staffers had written. While it was like any other day for our publication, it quickly turned into the opposite. What we published was an opinion piece on the comparison between the Make America Great Again ideology and cult activity. Yes, a polarizing opinion, but it's a student voice and as the chief of the publication, I had an obligation to platform it (and I agreed). The following night, an X (Twitter) page caught wind of the piece and posted it to their page, displeased with our thoughts.
- As the Editor-in-Chief, I came to the conclusion with my adviser that we would keep the article up. We believed that sticking to our opinions and values only added to our journalistic integrity and exemplified the validity of the student voice.
- While we opted to take the staffer's name off the byline (their personal request), I continued to encourage the staffers to practice journalism to whatever extent they found plausible. I saw this as a teaching moment, instilling confidence and backing the beliefs of our staff.
- Even though I was terrified being plastered all across social media, it was a great growth for our paper. It showed myself and our staff that our work is actually read and holds space in our communities lives. It proved that our words matter. To me, it was a moment reassuring me that I was meant to be a journalist.

MAGA or Cult? Article

Active Leadership

In my definition, practicing active leadership means acting as a consistent visual aide for your staffers, whether that's in terms of just being a vocal, active presence in the newsroom or being an instructor. Or, it means improving the "flow" or culture of the publication. Here's how I've done both:

It's... The Board!

Here is our lovely white board that is out in our main newsroom. On this board, I compile a list of all the important information for our upcoming publication and general news for our program so that all the staffers can see! While I struggle with the drawing aspect, I'll often have another member of the editorial board make it look aesthetic and theme it to the current season we are in. I find that it fills the space with nice color, which brings attention to what I need my staff to know, and it also makes the at times intimidating newsroom seem inviting.

The Next Generation

Each year, I participate in the Salem-Keizer's CTE showcase. CTE -- standing for Carreer and Technical Education -- is our school district's collection of career preparation courses and programs for students, one of them being Broadcast Journalism. Last year, I once again participated, meeting, greeting and essentially selling what The Clypian and our entire CTE program has to offer. Except this year, I was under watch! I had two Clypian members (an editor and a reporter) watching how I market the Clypian and explain our newsroom to the younger generation. After picking up on some of my tips and tricks, they took a swing at it, helping me show off our awesome program.

Newsroom Transformation

For Yearbook, we've struggled in recent years to retain kids and keep morale and efforts up -- in all honesty. But this year I decided I'd had enough. After meeting with my adviser, we decided that if we wanted staffers to care more then they should have more responsibility, but in a lighthearted "fun" way. What we landed on was a class playlist, where students can submit songs to the class-wide playlist, and we give kids a turn being the DJ for the class period. We've found that it gives kids more of a reason to be active and engaged in the class, and we've noticed that everyone has appreciated the good tunes. What's good for motivation is good for the ears, too!

Were it ALL Begins

Welcome to a Clypian storyboard session! Here is where the staffers, editors and classmates alike share what ideas they would like to and suggest that we cover! As the EIC, it is my job to lead the meeting, breaking the ice and making people feel comfortable sharing their story ideas. When we come into the meetings, it is my job to keep the meeting focused, or if staffers are struggling to produce ideas, I prompt them by saying "Any ideas on any LOCAL coverage or SOUTH events?" I emphasize our local community because I often find that staffers get caught up brainstorming these elaborate ideas, when they could instead shrink their view and look at what could be covered about the kids in our community.

More so, when students share their ideas, I build off of them, helping them form their angle and story purpose right in the moment. I find that this reassures the staffers, helping them find the purpose in their story and shooing them on to dig deeper in their ideas, creating a more rounded piece.

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