Web and Social Media
It is 2024 and there is no working around social media and the world of technology we hold in our hands. When you learn to use it to your advantage, the world behind our screens has the possibility to create beautiful things and connect people from across the globe. In the past three years, I have run Instagram accounts for the Wahawk Insider, Wahawk yearbook and Wahawk cheer as well as managing TikTok accounts for Wahawk yearbook and Wahawk cheer. In addition to this, I assisted in creating an Instagram account for the Wahawk softball team in the summer of 2023.
Wahawk Wednesday
Of everything that I have done, I believe that Wahawk Wednesday has been the most impactful. The idea was tossed around during the middle of my sophomore year, before I was running our social media accounts. Pulling inspiration from Humans of New York, we decided that we would try to highlight one student each week. From athletes to entrepreneurs to musicians, we try to mix up who is featured and stray away from the faces we constantly see promoted. Wahawk Wednesdays aim to show off every different talent and passion inside the walls of West High.
As time has gone on, Wahawk Wednesdays have changed a lot. From the name to the design, they are different each year but still capture the same school. A big thing I have learned while working with this project is that each student around me has a story that goes deeper than I know. That basketball player is the leader of a youth group club, that wrestler is a hairstylist, that kid in class fixes cars, there are a million stories all around us, waiting to be told.
Wahawk Wednesdays are a team effort for the yearbook staff, to keep track of which staff member was assigned to complete the interview, as well as which student they were featuring, we used Google Sheets. In the example below (spring '23 list) it is easy to see that not everyone was meeting their deadlines. As the Social Media Editor, I always had backups on hand for emergencies like these.
2021: Malik Smith was a senior in 2021, and was commonly known for doing magic tricks around the school. He won 'Most Talented' for Senior Superlatives that year.
2022: Lydia Parkhurst is the captain of the very first girls wrestling team at West High. Maybe I am biased because she is my cousin, but Parkhurst is one of the most talented female wrestlers at West High and is currently working on going to the state wrestling tournament for the fourth year in a row.
2023: Talan Nelson is a student section leader at West High. While he is known for these maroon and white overalls, he has also been seen with a camera a lot more recently. With his father working for the Courier, Nelson has been given a lot of opportunities to grow his work in photography and videography.
Event Coverage
My camera goes everywhere with me. Yearbook attempts to cover every event at West High because you never know what is going to happen. Missing a basketball game could mean missing Halli Poocks 2000th shot, missing a football game could mean missing the first win of the season. If it isn't my camera, it's another staffer with one, if not multiple. 'The more cameras the merrier' is something our Advisor always says.
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Covering events promotes the yearbook in one way or another. When people ask what I take pictures for, I tell them the pictures are going to be in the yearbook, which makes them want to buy one. When people see our social media posts, it pulls their attention to the program, and while we have it, we push them to buy the book.
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When it comes to event coverage, one of my BIGGEST rules is to post in a timely manner. If the pictures are taken today, you can post them tomorrow. However, sometimes that isn't the case. For example, my switch from Social Media Editor to Editor-In-Chief made room for a junior Jayna Gomez to come up as the Social Media Editor. Within her first few weeks, Gomez was hit with dozens of events to cover while barely being signed into the account. This setback caused a time delay for posting on the Instagram account, but with help of her fellow editors, Gomez was able to bounce back quickly.
February 21, 2023 marked the fourth consecutive year where the Wahawk Girls Basketball team made the state tournament. It was nearly a given that walking into that game, we would hold the ticket by the end. But when the game became one of the biggest toss ups of the season, I knew we had a story to tell.
Event: Feb 21, Posted: Feb 22
For the 2023-24 school year, West High hosted its first basketball game where seniors played against their favorite teachers and staff members.
Event: Nov 2, Posted: Nov 6
Battle of the Bridge, River Battle, Cross Town Fight, whatever you want to call it. East v West is a given story. From football and volleyball to basketball and wrestling to baseball and softball, the cross town rivalry never fails to bring a good story.
Event: June 8, Posted: June 9
Social Media Strategy
Using social media to our advantage is a major aspect of both the yearbook and Wahawk Insider programs. However, to use them effectively is a hard task, and is something that we must be sure to teach one another.
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In hopes of improving engagement on our social media, we set goals to post in a more timely manner, be consistent with what we post, encourage students to interact with posts and post what students want to see.
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Since the program started, Wahawk Insider went from posting on social media as a fun part of the class, to using social media to our advantage. The change in our posts has increased our views count on the website and has also created a brand for the Wahawk Insider.
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After just a few months on the publications, many of our reporters started to become noticed for their work with the Wahawk Insider. From not only students at our own school, but community members and younger students would spot us and ask "Hey, you're on the Wahawk Insider, right?" To be recognized early on was a motivational push for the program to continue to work and grow.
Promoting Yearbook
While it is so much fun to post about the students and everything they are doing, our social media is about promoting the yearbook and the program itself. Before I was on staff, our book was selling fewer than 200 copies each year. In a school with up to 1800 students, this is heartbreaking. Beginning my sophomore year, we tried to push the book as much as we could.
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From trial and error, we learned a lot about what worked, and what didn't. Posters in classrooms made very little change, but emails and text messages made an impact! We learned that our school is definitely the type to do everything last minute, so reminding students of upcoming deadlines and opportunities was a big help in increasing yearbook sales as well as receiving senior quotes and senior superlative nominations. Seniors have enough going on and we have figured out that they are more likely to like our TikTok or Instagram than read the 30 emails we send a week.
After we sent out forms for senior superlatives, we shared the results on our social media as well as sending and email to each winner.
With our price increases for the yearbook, we wanted to be transparent with students in the beginning of the year. To do this, we shared when the prices would increase so students could be aware.
After our workshop in Chicago, we wanted to share our trip with other students! Not only did we get to showcase our time together, but this helped promote the class to other students.
Promoting My Photography
When I started to gain more appreciation for my photography, I decided to create an Instagram account to promote my pictures. I created parkysphotography in October of my senior year.
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The inspiration for the name of my account came from my dad and grandpa. Both of these influential men in my life created their own businesses surrounding our last name. My grandfather created Parky's Woodshop and Parky's Home Improvement. My dad owns Lil Parky's Construction which has been around my entire life and even sponsored my T-Ball teams when I was young. When I started pursuing photography, it was only fitting that I continued the tradition.​​
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As I grow in my photography skills and gain new experiences, I hope to be able to create a business of my own, honoring my family line and continuing the entrepreneur family trait.
Interactive Media
With the SNO software, we are able to create infographics and infoboxes that can be inserted directly into our stories. This ability is very convenient for us as it takes out the extra work of creating and downloading graphics. In addition to this, infographics can also be interactive and scroll through numerous pages.
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These tools, especially infographics, allow for viewers to see something different on their screen and interact with the articles they are reading. I’ve noticed that in pieces where I incorporate infographics, they typically have higher views than other articles of mine.
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A lot of my articles also include photo galleries. Sometimes I have more photos that I want to share, and not enough room in an article to put them. In cases like these, I can add multiple photos at the bottom for viewers to scroll through.
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Other interactive media pieces I have worked with are social media platforms. In my 'Comfort Behind The Camera' article, I linked the Wahawk Nation TikTok, which displays one video and allows for the rest of the account to be accessed as well. I also included Bella Deleon's Instagram account for her art, which shows a grid of her posts as well as the ability for the entire account to be viewed.
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Teenagers' attention spans are slowly decreasing, to keep the attention that we want we must appeal to them visually or audibly. Interactive media is a way that we can encourage students to click on different things and keep reading.
SNO Distinguished Site
SNO sites have badges that news teams can complete in order to be considered a SNO distinguished site. Each badge includes different aspects of journalism as well as what SNO sites have to offer.
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From social media and multimedia, to timely coverage and quality pieces, the sixSNO badges are a big goal and focus for the Wahawk Insider staff.
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Our first year as a program, we did not focus on becoming a SNO distinguished site until the second half of the year. Reaching that goal and receiving the plaque was a huge deal for the team.
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So far this year, we have completed five out of the six badges. We are currently working towards the multimedia badge, which has proven to be the biggest struggle for us as a program. To work on this, we try to have small video projects where groups of students work together.
