NYC Adolescents Engage in a New Pastime: The High School Newspaper
In the past decade, the landscape of student journalism in the United States has undergone significant changes. According to recent data, the proportion of US public high schools with a print or online student newspaper dropped from 64 percent in 2011 to 45 percent in 2021. This decline has been most pronounced in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and rural areas, where high schools with student papers fell to just 27 percent.
However, in the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, the student newspaper The Pacer has been given a new lease of life. The New York City Journalism Project, an organization dedicated to promoting school journalism, has taken the reins in this revival. They plan to launch additional initiatives, including workshops and mentorship programs for students, to further foster this resurgence.
Ally Dolores, a seventeen-year-old senior at Pace High School, serves as the editor in chief of the relaunched The Pacer. She shares editor duties with Katelynn Seetaram, another seventeen-year-old student at Pace High School. Together, they have covered a variety of topics this year, from the success of the girls' and boys' basketball teams to a review of Taylor Swift's latest album, and even a news story about flooding damage in the school gym.
The newspaper is more than just a platform for news and reviews. Rohlfing, the teacher who reanimated The Pacer, believes it is a way for his students to regain the communication and social skills they lost during a year of pandemic-era remote learning.
Elsewhere in the city, Fredlove Deshommes, an eighteen-year-old student, launched a podcast at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice due to the school not having a student paper. This initiative serves as a testament to the growing need for student journalism in schools.
The success of The Pacer has blazed a trail for a new initiative called Journalism for All. This partnership between the Youth Journalism Coalition, audio journalism site The Bell, and the City University of New York's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism aims to use $3 million in funds this fall to train teachers in thirty high schools around the city to lead journalism classes and start student newspapers.
Nonprofit newsrooms and colleges in California, Texas, and Illinois are also launching programs to accelerate the comeback of student journalism. Lunx Girgado, an English literacy teacher at ATLAS High School in Queens, has signed up to receive training through Journalism for All. Their students are refugees from the political upheaval in Venezuela, and Girgado hopes that this initiative will provide them with a valuable outlet for expression and learning.
Despite the decline in student journalism, the passion for writing and reporting remains strong among students. None of the students interviewed envision becoming professional journalists, but most hope to continue writing in college or combine journalism with their future studies in science, tech, or medicine. Kate Iza, a seventeen-year-old at Pace High School, aims for a professional career in science or technology but wants to keep doing journalism "as a hobby."
The article has been updated to note the contribution of Press Pass NYC in helping The Pacer relaunch. This organization, which helps New York City public schools start newspapers, is a testament to the enduring power of journalism and the dedication of those who seek to nurture it in the next generation.
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