MANSFIELD, Ohio – The next generation of potential journalists visited the Richland Source office in downtown Mansfield on Wednesday. Not only did they learn about the industry, they also provided Richland Source insights from their perspectives.
Lexington High School juniors Maggie Kaple, Sammi Basinger and Patrick Gilbert spent the morning listening and participating in industry discussions with members of the Richland Source staff. Given the opportunity to pursue job shadowing experiences, they chose to spend their day at Richland Source.
Their images are scattered through the text below. To read the captions the students wrote with their photos, click on the image.
While the three juniors still have some time to decide on a career path, all three stated they were very interested in pursuing journalism. Gilbert stated he has always loved writing and learning new information and then relaying that information to others. Both Kaple and Basinger are members of the yearbook staff at Lexington High School, and have shown interest in attending Ohio University’s journalism school.
“I know a lot of people at OU who just love it,” said Kaple. Basinger agreed, having visited the Athens campus.
Punk rock was the theme of the morning, courtesy of Publisher Jay Allred and his experiences as a teenager. Allred referenced his PechaKucha presentation from September 2013, “Punk Rock, Skateboards, Community & Richland Source,” when Richland Source was introduced to the community as a new idea in media.
“We consciously and mindfully blew up the models journalists typically work under,” said Allred.
With the “punk rock” ideology geared towards individualism and direct action, many of the same philosophies apply to journalism. Allred encouraged the three students to be self-motivated, even suggesting the idea of starting their own newspaper at Lexington. Kaple noted the school had a paper until it was discontinued last year.
Self-motivation also applied to the notion of changing the narrative in Richland County, a goal at the core of Richland Source. Kaple, Basinger and Gilbert all agreed they hear from adults in their lives about how great their communities used to be – from parents to teachers, it’s an idea burned in their brains.
“It makes you want to graduate and get out of here,” said Basinger.
Allred explained Richland Source was founded on the idea of crafting a larger picture of Richland County, one that highlights the positive aspects of the county’s communities.
“We want to implant some kernel of awesomeness that makes you want to come back, and makes you think this is a great place to be,” he said. “We need to let go of what we once were, and see what we can become.”
The students heard advice for how to succeed in journalism as the industry is constantly evolving. Both Allred and Managing Editor Rhonda Bletner stressed photography, video and web coding skills in addition to writing skills for a future where journalists are expected to do it all.
“You have to be a five-tool person,” said Allred. “Our job is to tell stories in the way people consume them, and your job is to learn skills to be marketable and valuable so companies like ours will hire you.”
“Photography is important for feature writers; pictures are what draw people to a story,” added Bletner.
Kaple, Basinger and Gilbert had the opportunity to hone their photography skills during an impromptu assignment on Wednesday, exploring downtown Mansfield to find unique opportunities for photography that would highlight all downtown has to offer.
The Lexington students also shared their ideas for how Richland Source could better reach its readers – for example, Basinger stated it was important that Richland Source have a presence on Instagram, and that she never used her Facebook anymore. Gilbert explained why he likes Instagram.
“At the day’s end you can see moments in people’s lives,” he said.
Kaple and Basinger agreed. They both use Twitter but said they retweet things they like more often than they compose tweets.
These ideas were relayed to Platform and Technology Manager David Yoder as he explained how Richland Source interacts with readers on social media.
Despite the challenges that come with the industry, Allred reminded the Lexington students why journalists do what they do.
“People get jacked about this job because they do something different every day,” he said. “People say once ink gets in your blood, it never goes away.”
And at least one student left at the end of the day inspired to continue pursuing journalism:
