There is a reason why a reader connects to a certain article. It’s because the journalist used their knowledge of news literacy, an extremely important tool when doing journalism. Aspects of news literacy are what ultimately connect to the reader, whether that be through how close the story is, how long ago it was or how much the story should mean to them. On this page, you will see examples on how I use news literacy to my advantage.
Using CHIRP
Knowing the importance of news literacy was taught to me pretty early on. During my Intro to Multimedia Publication class in my freshman year, I learned the acronym “CHIRP”. This is an acronym I’ve always used to determine if a story or an angle is worthy because it can be difficult to decide which kind of story to choose. When our staff has a class brainstorm, sometimes I find it difficult to come up with stories that could be something that an average person would want to read. So, using CHIRP is something that is always useful in these situations. I always keep CHIRP in mind during brainstorms and when I come up with angles for my story.
- Conflict. Finding the conflict in the story is crucial. Addressing the issue in a subject is something a journalist ought to do.
- Human Interest. Why would someone read your story? Having emotion and something that the average reader can relate to is something that makes a story from good to great.
- Immediacy. Having a quick turnaround on my story is always something I strive for. Having immediacy improves viewer counts and people are more likely to read it because the event hypothetically just happened and the reader would want to know more about it.
- Relevance. In order for a story to be successful, I always have to know how relevant my story is in relation to the world. If there is a popular trend/event happening, it’s a good idea to write a story on that popular trend/event.
- Proximity. Knowing if my story is local or national helps me decipher who my audience is. This is important because I would want to know who I should be connecting this story to using other parts of CHIRP.
Using dependable sources
All articles need sources. Whether that be from quotes, statistics, or even sources from another website, I know that my sources need to be credible and dependable. I think giving wrong information is absolutely the worst way I could do journalism. This is why I am careful about choosing my sources.
When looking for quotes, I want to make sure the person I interview is a prominent part of the story. This makes the quotes I get from them dependable because this person probably knows a lot about the issue/story and is more likely to give credible information. I find that this is the best way to get quotes; I always use the R (relevance) in CHIRP to find my sources. In the past, I’ve also used statistics from dependable websites. Other than that, I have used general information that also comes from other websites. I find that searching for other web information could get a bit precarious because I don’t know the company personally. It really could be hard to decipher if the source is dependable or not. So, to make sure the source is dependable, I make sure there aren’t an influx of ads, I scroll through the website if there is anything suspicious, and I fact-check key details and see if other articles say the same thing. This ultimately goes a long way when finding sources because this helps me show credible information for the community.
For one of my Amplifier stories’ I did an opinion piece on turf or grass in sports. I researched a lot for this piece because I didn’t have information on the science behind these playing surfaces. Sure, I interviewed an athlete on what it is like playing on different surfaces, but they didn’t know the real science behind it. I wanted to make sure I had the right amount of information for the community. This article was done early in my senior year.
Turf or grass?
The problem with the lack of grass fields
Athletes play on either turf or natural grass. Sports such as lacrosse, football, or soccer may deal with both surfaces.
Studies have shown football players are more likely to sustain foot and leg injuries on turf in the National Football League (NFL) compared to natural grass. The American Journal of Sports Medicine concluded there would have been 319 less foot and leg injuries in the 2012-2016 NFL seasons if all games were played on grass.
Despite the likelihood of injury, turf has its benefits. In cold weather, it is easier to maintain turf rather than natural grass. The Minnesota Vikings, for example, are a team that plays in a cold weather state, and therefore utilizes synthetic turf. U.S Bank Stadium, the Vikings’ playing field, is also a domed stadium. U.S. Bank Stadium is one of 15 NFL stadiums which use synthetic turf.
Overall, implementing turf is cheaper. According to ESPN, it takes $2-3 million to have a natural grass field, not to mention the $400,000 it takes to replace the field. Artificial turf can cost up to $1.5 million, according to the Sports Venue Calculator. It’s also recommended the turf should be replaced every ten years to ensure player safety.
Turf is not widespread in just the NFL. The West Linn High School main field utilizes turf for sports games and practices. This field contains rubber pellets, which is a staple of the typical artificial turf. These rubber pellets, also known as rubber granulate, help reduce the impact of injury through shock-absorption.
Certain grass fields that I’ve played on, like Delta Park for example, some are just really badly kept and it makes you really susceptible to injuries. But I find when that grass is really well kept, I think it’s better than well kept turf, at least for playing because of things like injuries, [and] the temperature as well.
Jude Palmer
The school has three sports that play on the main field turf: lacrosse, football, and soccer. Jude Palmer, senior, has played high school and club soccer in the past.
“Certain grass fields that I’ve played on, like Delta Park for example, some are just really badly kept and it makes you really susceptible to injuries,” Palmer said. “But I find when that grass is really well kept, I think it’s better than well kept turf, at least for playing because of things like injuries, [and] the temperature as well.”
According to LawnStarter, grass fields with poor upkeep could include fields with improper drainage, which can create puddles or create ditches. Fields with too much aeration can become too hard. Excessive amounts of weeds can also create a bumpy landscape for the field due to poor upkeep.
However, if the field steers away from these problems, grass fields are often the way to go. With sports like football and lacrosse, there are often high collision rates between players.
These collisions tend to have high amounts of velocity. With a well-kept grass field, collisions will be more likely to be absorbed, as there is no sub base that contains crumbles of stone or leveling layers that contain asphalt as there are in turf.
“I find [with] turf, it’s a lot easier and a lot more common to get tweaks on my ankles, my achilles, or anywhere on my legs pretty much,” Palmer said.
As of right now, the school’s main field will stay as turf. However, the district should consider grass fields as a priority. Turf creates more stress on the feet, ankles, and legs of the athlete.
“If we could be able to find a space to have a grass utility field for soccer and other sports, I think that would be beneficial because having more than one field would be nice,” Palmer said. “I [also] think having access to more than one surface on our campus would be beneficial. Not even just for sports, but [also] for recreation.”
Administration should find a way to have players practice on grass fields in order to limit the stress on the ligaments. Having less and less exposure to turf will ultimately lead to less injuries.
Bridging two types of media
In this story, I connected two forms of media together. In the third of the 2022-2023 Amplifiers, I did a story about Daphne Titterington, an orchestra player for the school. In the spread, I added a QR code to the story to connect to two more performing arts performers, which are the ones before.
Doing things like this helps gather a wide range of audience. Some people at our school only read the Amplifier and some only look at wlhsNOW. By putting an Amplifier continuation on wlhsNOW, it spread awareness onto the Amplifier because now the reader is aware of the newsmagazine. Ultimately, making the audience larger has helped me strategize how to formalize my content. I think this is huge for news literacy because I want both publications to be more relevant. Our publication even encourages continuations because it helps us spread more awareness, as I was saying. I was excited to bridge two types of media, because this was my first ever Amplifier continuation.
Amplifier continuation: Performing in harmony
Reese Hunsaker and Luci Clemo, senior and junior, respectively, share accomplishments, goals, and obstacles.
There are a plethora of ways to express music, including choir and band. Based on their achievements, no one plays music better than Reese Hunsaker and Luci Clemo.
Reese Hunsaker
Hunsaker plays bassoon for symphonic band. Starting in the sixth grade, Hunsaker initially played the trombone, but later broke it. He needed a new trombone.
“I thought that my braces broke my trombone instead of me breaking my trombone,” Hunsaker said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, crap, I need to switch instruments.’ The band director was [Laura] Arthur [and she] was like, ‘Hey, I have an instrument for you. Why don’t you try this? It’s really cool.’ And in fact, [the bassoon] was really cool.”
After finding his main instrument, Hunsaker branched out to other musical endeavors. This included playing the piano for the jazz band and playing a different instrument at every basketball game. Additionally, Hunsaker conducted the band for women’s basketball senior night.
“I love it,” Hunsaker said. “I consider myself a good leader and I love improving upon my skills, because leadership roles are valuable in every aspect. So I love being able to help the program.”
Blossoming into a leadership role for the symphonic band, one of Hunsaker’s jobs is to help keep the band in line. Being a four-year band member, Hunsaker can be considered to have more experience than other band members.
“I use my leadership position to try and ensure standard quality,” Hunsaker said. “I want to help everybody play the best that they can. And if I think that some comments could be made to help them or if I [should] say something, or if I can help do something for them, [I’ll do it].”
Being in a leadership role can come with its achievements. Like the orchestra, the band participated in the solo and ensemble competition. Hunsaker competed in a woodwind quintet.
“I’ve competed in solo and ensemble since I was an eighth grader,” Hunsaker said. “You get some instant feedback, which is really helpful and it’s helped me grow a lot.”
Luci Clemo
Clemo, a member of the symphonic choir, has sung her entire life, but didn’t start formally participating until third grade.
“I started choir formally just because I like to sing in general,” Clemo said. “I think for me, I was just very interested in it, and once I got into choir, I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t really want to stop.”
Clemo has been a part of the choir program for only this year, but previously participated in Wilsonville’s choir program for two years.
“The people here are a lot more supportive and welcoming,” Clemo said. “And I think it was also hard because I did a lot of online choir at Wilsonville due to [COVID-19]. But I think here the people are very welcoming, and it’s very focused base, where we very much focus on choir and work on to exceed and just do our best as a whole community.”
The choir program consists of two audition-only groups among other groups— chamber and symphonic. After auditioning for the symphonic choir, Clemo was accepted. In choir, there are four different parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Clemo sings the soprano part.
Additionally, as a soprano, Clemo competed in the Oregon State Qualifying festival on March 1. This was the first competition for symphonic choir this year.
I just want to really show myself, [and] what I can do as well as just try to create a positive community within choir.
Luci Clemo
“It was really nice to just be out and singing [as a whole group] and doing sight reading, and then we had the solo competition on Friday,” Clemo said. “Overall, really successful for West Linn.”
Furthermore, Clemo has another year to improve and accomplish more goals. With the choir season just starting, Clemo has goals for herself.
“I just want to really show myself, [and] what I can do as well as just try to create a positive community within choir,” Clemo said. “Choir can really be an outlet where you let your feelings [go] through the music, and it can just really be a way of showing art. I think through my [last] year and a half, my goal is just to improve myself and [to] improve and leadership.”
Being timely
As the basketball playoffs rolled about, I went to the second round game to report and photograph during the middle of my junior year. After the playoff win, I gave four extensive interviews and did a couple hours of photo editing to get the just right photos for my Adobe Lightroom album. I hustled through the editing process and worked on it extensively. I also added a slideshow on my photojournalism page.
I learned the importance of timeliness during this piece. Basketball season moves rather quickly because there are a lot of games. It’s easy for a regular-season basketball season to be swept under the radar, just because there are so many games of equal importance. I didn’t want my story to be swept under the rug like how a regular basketball game would be. I wanted to make sure the community saw my information as soon as possible. Again, this is super important because there is another basketball game soon after. There really wasn’t much time between the second-round and quarterfinal games. By hustling through the editing process, I got the story up the next day so that the community got the information quickly.
Men’s team moves past Jesuit Crusaders for quarterfinal spot
Winning 89-64 over Jesuit, the men’s team is Chiles Center bound
It’s official. The men’s team, previously ranked number one in the nation, punched their ticket for the state quarterfinals after defeating the number 16-seeded Jesuit Crusaders in front of full stands.
Jackson Shelstad, senior, finished with 41 points, contributing to the 81 points scored through the first three quarters. All of his 41 points came within three quarters. His scoring output consisted of mainly three-pointers, as he made seven three-pointers on eight three-point attempts. Head Coach Robert Key witnessed Shelstad’s scoring from the sideline.
“It looked good,” Key said. “It was fun to watch. At one point our [assistant] coach told us that he [scored] 10 buckets in a row at one time and that was amazing to see.”
The recently awarded Three Rivers League (TRL) player of the year, Shelstad has not appeared in a basketball state championship nor has any player on the team. With a majority of players being seniors, this playoff run signifies a final opportunity.
“We got a lot of seniors who are experienced,” Shelstad said. “We’ve all been through that experience and witnessed the state tournament and the feeling of losing. So you know, we’re just gonna give it all we got. [We got] a lot of competitors.”
Though Shelstad scored the most points, he wasn’t the only scorer. Adrian Mosley, senior, got 19 points in what was his second West Linn playoff game ever, which helped solidify his first appearance in the quarterfinals.
“I just feel [like] we paid a lot of attention to detail and practice this week,” Mosley said. “We just got to make sure we take care of business and do what we’re supposed to do going in.”
Among other scorers was Nick DiGiulio, junior, who serves as the men’s team’s sixth man. He scored 11 points off the bench, which includes three triples. With the help of DiGiulio’s shooting, the men’s team shot 46% from the three-point line on 30 attempts.
It looked good. It was fun to watch. At one point our [assistant] coach told us that he [scored] 10 buckets in a row at one time and that was amazing to see.
Head coach Robert Key
“My looks are pretty easy,” DiGiulio said. “We play good basketball so I got an easy job. I just sort of spot up and shoot and they create good looks for me.”
Following this second round win, the men’s team will face the number 9-seeded Central Catholic Rams at the Chiles Center for a spot in the semi-finals on March 9. Though last year produced a result that fell short of a state title, this year’s team has a new head coach.
“It’s [been] super amazing with [these] amazing kids and I look forward to the task,” Key said. “It’s not done yet, three more to go and one game at a time.”
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