MPX10 students tackle investigative journalism to learn media literacy
This year Mid-Pacific Exploratory (MPX) grade 10 students are working as guest writers for Na Pueo, the school newspaper. The students selected topics of interest ranging from water quality in the Ala Wai canal to the potential for developing wave energy facilities on Oahu. After completing the project, sophomore Kris Kadzielawa said “I now understand the media’s techniques of persuasion and how to write and analyze news articles. Since this project [ended] every time I see a commercial I can’t even listen to it because I am just dissecting it in my mind.”
The project started with a visit from Dr. Ann Auman, the head of the Communications Department at the University of Hawaii. She taught a crash course in the do’s and don’ts of journalism to get the students prepped for the task.
The students then toured the facilities at Hawaii Public Radio and the Star Advertiser to ask questions about the profession and learn how the non-profit status of different media sources can affect which stories get published.
MPX students reached out to community members who could serve as experts in their relevant topics of interest. The students drafted interview questions and honed their interviewing skills in the community before sitting down to write their articles.
Mr. Perez, an investigative journalist with the Star Advertiser, visited the class to work with each student one-on-one and give them feedback on their drafts. Students then polished their drafts through several more rounds of revision. Sophomore Kainoa Behler commented that he enjoyed meeting Mr. Perez because “it gave me a good sense of how to write an article and how you have to show different sides of your story.”
Their stories, and all their different sides, will appear monthly in Na Pueo throughout the 2013/2014 school year.
