Technology is an ever-changing thing. As a journalist, I can't expect to write for a newspaper forever, and my adviser knew that. This year was the first year of The Catalyst. That means, all of my classmates and I had to come together to create a brand new website, a new layout for a newspaper, and start up a broadcast. Each week, stories, pictures, surveys, and broadcasts are uploaded to this website for all to see. We not only post stories on here, but also print them out in our print papers. So, basically, stories are hammered out like wildfire each week. We have people working on the website, some on the paper, some creating broadcasts, and a few doing podcasts.
​
With our newspapers, we don't know how timely they are going to get here because there is not a plant next door. This website helps us be the journalists we want to be: creating content that relates to that week, explaining things like legislative bills, fundraisers, and sports coverage to the public each week. It makes it relevant at the time, and easy to look back on if they needed reassurance.
This year I have learned all about Multimedia and how to work iMovie, our online site, and Photoshop. Before the start of each week, our class gathers together and discusses new events happening in the school, community, state, or even the world. We put them up on the board and later talk about which format would be best for the story: An article, a broadcast, a photo gallery, or a podcast. On our website, we have a section for all of these types of journalism.
​
The one thing about this site is that it is all student run. We are in charge of uploading our stories, posting our photo galleries with captions, and getting all of the links right for any videos. Our adviser is there to teach us how to do those things and grade us on our content and accuracy. Creating this website for my portfolio wasn't as difficult as it would've been if I had not taken Advanced Journalism and gotten into websites and different online languages.