Between the 2nd and 4th of May the Making the News class was assigned the job of reporting on various STEM Festival events. The class had been taught many journalistic skills that would assist us in covering the event, but this was our first chance to put them into action. We were provided with the opportunity to replicate the role of a qualified journalist, collecting information and media on a STEM topic and then using it to form an entertaining story. In particular, as a class, we became aware of the time pressures which occur alongside publishing multiple articles each day. Many of us were scrambling to compound our ideas and put together high-quality pieces, a valuable lesson to take away from our tasks.
At the closure of each day at 3:30 PM, our class assembled within the ‘newsroom’ with members of the communications staff to discuss and pitch our stories from the day. After pooling our images together we also created ‘sells’ for Newington’s Facebook and Instagram social media pages. Upon completion, we had ‘the pitch’, where each writer spoke to the news editors as to why their story was the best and should be published in the daily newsletters. This was tough but allowed us to focus on the core of journalistic writing: know your audience.
Even though covering the Festival was quite strenuous at times, it did have its perks. A few of us were ecstatic to be allocated the role of covering the N2 Gelato taste testing. The N2 Gelato franchise held a lesson on the science behind creating their innovative flavours and those present savoured the final product. There were many memories that were created over the course of the festival, but without a doubt, the N2 Gelato taste testing conquers them all!
Sebastian Vardavas (10/MO) and Max Langford (10/LE)
