“When they apply to write news, theyaren’t aware of what they will really haveto do,” says Charlie. “They’ll have to doinvestigative reporting, interviewing—andthat’s a new expertise—show flexibility,use people skills, think while they takenotes and ask good questions. People wechoose for the staff need room to grow,too. Noah wrote a style guide that includedall our standards. We tried to assign peoplebased on their skills and in the endhad to edit strongly: restructure,rephrase—mostly in communication withthe writers, but I wish even more so.”Motivating staff“The staff is huge,” Liz says. “They’re notpart of the editing process, and we brainstormtogether but we often give themtheir assignments by email. They don’tsee the effects of late responses or sloppywriting. So we held a writers’ conferenceand we walked the staff through thewhole process of putting out the Measure,to help them understand and to feelresponsibility.”“We used the seminar/conference to try tobuild a cohesive unit, to create attachmentand loyalty,” Dan explained. “We madediagrams and showed them how manysteps go into a single issue: it’s a threelayerprocess, and lots of people read eachpiece. Sixty active people are on theMeasure staff. People in Class II are ourcritical players, though, and they’re busy!”Finding real news“We had a bit of an identity crisis in themiddle of the year,” Siobhan allowed. “Wethought we were turning into a lifestylemagazine with the articles on stress andseasonal depressive disorder, and exams.Slow news weeks are a problem.”Understanding the audience“The Measure publishes for students andadults, for alumni and even the generalpublic. How much should we gear thepaper to the student body? We’ve given alot of thought to how to do our work seriously,and yet be more interesting andeven exciting,” Dan says.“We did a Paper survey in mid-November,”Noah says. “We heard from a lot of peoplethat they appreciated the higher quality ofthe news. But we have to stake out a middleground. We have to satisfy the communitywithout pandering to them.”What’s happening to journalism?“The media today is less about the communityglue and more about the entertainmentdollar,” Noah asserts. “We saw thatwith the presidential election process, andnow we’ve seen it (this past spring) withour own School. Every field has discouragingaspects, but many journalists seem tohave forgotten who they serve. Journalistsare a pillar on which society rests.”“One problem with TV news,” Molly says,“is that it’s reductionist at best. The needto be driven by the visual automaticallyconstrains the story. It forces the soundbite. The emphasis is on what sells ratherthan what’s news. Priorities are reshuffledin a bad way.” “We saw this around theelection,” Charlie adds. “When politiciansspeak there should be an automatic instinctto fact check, but that seems to be obsolete.You need to keep your ratings up.”“Fact checking should occur, and reportingfacts should be an unbiased effort,” Noahsays. “People seem to be applying to thefacts the same reactions they are entitledto have to editorials: Everyone now thinksthey’re entitled to their own set of facts.We journalists need to shift the bias backtoward the truth; it’s the journalist’s job toground the community in the facts. Factsare not a flip of the coin. Opinions are aflip of the coin.”“I’m not being paid for what I do as ajournalist in School; on the other hand, Idon’t have to worry about losing my job,or my paper going down,” Dan says. “ Ican see why people blog, but in a blog, theemphasis is more on who the person is,and less on what the news is. It would behard to go into a journalistic career now;it’s more about entertainment. Look athow the Globe reshaped itself to be moreabout entertainment.”“No one reads,” Lizzy says. “Newspapersare old-fashioned. People are verylethargic in how they go about gettingtheir information.”26 <strong>Milton</strong> Magazine
Charlie Riggs, Abby Padien-Havens, Molly Cohen and Noah Lawrence, <strong>Milton</strong> Paper co-editors in 2004–<strong>2005</strong>.“Look at Clear Channel,” Siobhan says.“The owners have stakes in so many businesses.There are no independent entitiesany more. They ‘name’ something, andthat name is repeated in multiple media; itbecomes real. The Internet is the greatequalizer. So the trends are paradoxical: asingle owner controls a huge number ofmedia outlets, and the Internet representsan infinite number of alternative options.”“There seems to have to be a narrative, astory line for everything,” Dan says. “Forexample in our crisis, the Globe’s lineseemed to be ‘rich kids gone awry.’ Whyelse would they publish the tuition everytime they wrote a story?”Life lessons“There are 80 writers on the Paper staffand an editorial team of 16,” says Noah.“We put out 10–14 pages every week. Youlearn to delegate. We’re ultimately independent,so you experience depending onyourself. Being accountable felt good; Ilearned about identity, and guts—the gutsto state something and the guts to apologizewhen I made a mistake.”“Some people tutor eighth-grade math, Ihelp arrange ideas for the community conversation.I think of it as community servicefor <strong>Milton</strong> <strong>Academy</strong>. From generationto generation this role is passed down; thepeople before me were just seniors, butthey were giants to me.”“Last year and during the summer Ithought about the extent to which thePaper could be what it needed to be,” saysCharlie. “I studied papers: read news, followedstories, understood the norms andexpectations and styles of what a good editorialis. We set more rigorous standards,ultimately had to pick our battles: Weimproved a lot, and had to yield on somethings.”“Writing about the sexual incident atSchool last spring was like walkingthrough a meticulously rigged ethicalminefield,” Charlie continues. “We knewwe would be scrutinized, and quoted, andtaken out of context. We had to be veryprecise in choosing words and ideas. Itwas taxing.”“We worked on four or five drafts of theeditorial after the sexual incident,” saysMolly. “Charlie began; Noah followed;then Abby and Charlie and I went at itagain to deal with issues of gender andpower and sexuality. Finally, we all wentback over it again with Noah. Working onit together built confidence. We saw thesensationalism of the press around us,and asked ourselves, ‘Do we ever do thatwith our stories?’”“We had an issue of the Measure all readyto go, that week of the sexual crisis,” Dansays. “We were tempted to take a newangle and get an issue out quickly. But wemet about a few unresolved details andissues. We knew that what we wrote wouldbe picked up by the outside press andprobably quoted in the Globe. We decidedto wait, to rethink the audience and theapproach, and that’s how we came up withthe special edition, the comprehensivetreatment.”“Journalism is best learned on the job, inreal time, with real issues, in a real community.Writing news is a craft,” saysNoah.“This is such a tangible thing to have donewhile in high school,” Abby says. “Five orsix people, working three or four nights aweek for a whole year; deciding what storiesto run and when to run them, trainingother writers about news, trainingthem to be careful not to editorialize, gettingreactions from people, having aneffect on the community. I definitely wantto continue doing this.”Cathleen EverettA Journalistic TraditionThe November 16, 1894, issue of TheOrange and the Blue was printed byL.H. Lane of Boston; it sold for 10cents a copy. The paper’s advertisersincluded local plumbers and pharmacists.The inaugural edition’s editorialstated: “This is the first number ofthe first printed paper ever publishedat <strong>Milton</strong> <strong>Academy</strong>.” And so it was.27 <strong>Milton</strong> Magazine
- Page 3 and 4: 283440Journalism at Milton24 Studen
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Class of 1990, front row (left to r
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Class of 1995, front row (left to r
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Margaret Creighton WilliamsMargaret
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The Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Projectsp
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Milton AcademyBoard of Trustees, 20