The Granite State News Collaborative is proud to announce it has partnered with the newly formed Student Journalism Coalition.
In the fall of 2018, Max Karpawich ‘19 of the Derryfield School did a research survey of high schools in NH that reported having some kind of student journalism program at their school — “student journalism” being any student-led publication whose purpose was to inform the student body. According to his study, “With over 100 private and public high schools in New Hampshire, less than five percent report having a successful student journalism program in terms of trends in readership.” Karpawhich and Souhegan High School student Seth Facey decided instead of allowing student journalism to die, they would take steps to revitalize it. To do that, Karpawich and Facey began putting together the Student Journalism Coalition with a mission to bring together present and future generations of students through journalism that is both credible and consistent.
In order to inspire and provide incentive for students to pursue journalism at their schools, Karpawich and Facey, are creating a collaborative publication between New Hampshire high schools with the purpose of getting the student perspective on news in NH. By getting the student perspective, they hope to encourage students to read and care about content composed by their own generation so that student journalists have a reason to write, they said.
“High school journalism in New Hampshire has been kept in the dark for too many years,” said Karpawich. “With the help and experience of the Granite State News Collaborative, we are launching our own collaborative for students so that high school journalism programs around New Hampshire can thrive once again by working together to produce a relevant and state-wide publication.”
Their first step is to create a student led board to direct the organization and content. With that in place, students from around the state will work on projects aligned with content that the GSNC is working on, but reported from the perspective of students, by students.
"I am very excited to pursue a major goal of ours to improve journalism in New Hampshire with the guidance and support of the Granite State News Collaborative,” said Facey. "I believe that this partnership will jump start our organization as we seek to better student journalism as well as provide the student perspective in New Hampshire on an important issue such as behavioral and Mental Health."
Karpawich and Facey are not stopping at New Hampshire. As they grow, they hope to connect with students across the country to build a nationwide student journalism collaborative.
Meanwhile, Karpawich is also working on a second phase of the project.
From his perspective, Karpawich said that while the student collaborative might give students incentive to pursue journalism at their high school, it does little to help them with the actual process behind that journalism. So, independent of the collaborative, they are developing software for student journalism which would help low-budget programs by giving them the infrastructure necessary for success.
Karpawich explained that by simply using the software, students would engage in best practices for journalism that have been proven to boost productivity in either student or corporate journalism work spaces. For example, an editor could ask for a photographer to add a photo to a reporter’s article, assign a deadline, and then their software would handle the legwork of sending out reminders, updates, and other communications to each of the three students involved depending on their role.
Melanie Plenda, project manager for The Granite State News Collaborative said of the partnership, “We are so impressed with the initiative, drive and passion of these students. Moreover, this is an incredible opportunity for reporters and editors in this state to get real insight into what a younger generation is feeling and experiencing. We are committed to not only elevating these voices that have been missing from coverage generally for too long, but we also are committed to offering mentoring and support to anyone who is curious or interested in journalism. We need that next generation of highly trained journalists.”
For more information on the GSNC or to connect with the Student Journalism Collaborative contact Melanie Plenda at melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org.