Journalism is an important component of a free society. Through journalism, you get to dig deep in a variety of topics, document it, and share it/engage with your audience. 

In our district, we are the only school that has a journalism class and a newspaper, The Trojan Tribune.

Both the class and the newspaper are run by advisor Mick Battaglini, along with its staff that changes almost completely on a yearly basis. The staff consists of students in different grade levels with distinct personalities and tastes which is the key to having such a variety of stories published on the site. 

It takes several things in order to be consistent with the class and the newspaper, and after reaching out to principals at different schools, the reasons why other schools here in Salinas don’t have either platform, is because they don’t have a teacher that meets the criteria and/or they don’t have enough student interest, according to North Salinas and Salinas High. Alvarez, on the other hand, is actually in the process of starting their school newspaper/club which will be called The Eagle Press.

It’s important to know the benefits that both the students working on the publication, and the students out of it reading these stories can receive to understand how beneficial a class like this can actually be. “I believe that every school should have a newspaper because of the skills it teaches students, the information it provides to the school community from the students’ perspective, and the fact that it allows us to see what students are interested in at the time,” Principal Christina Perez said. 

Now despite all the positive things about journalism, there is a harsh side to it when it comes to professional journalists all around the world. Many face online harassment, violence, attacks, and criticism. Some are accused of fake news and are even restricted access to several news platforms/outlets. Because of this, there are some journalists/newspapers out there that sugarcoat certain information and let things slide. But there are others that say it how it is and go above and beyond to make sure the public gets what they want – the truth.

“I think a free press is necessary in our country and a free student press is an important starting point,” Battaglini said. “Intellectualism and critical thinking are under attack and learning journalistic principles has applications in the classroom, as well as in the real world.” 

Being a part of this class/publication not only allows us to expand our knowledge and improve our writing skills, but it lets us have fun with what we’re writing about. 

Here at Alisal, we get to come up with our own story ideas, whether it’s a news, sports, entertainment, or review story, which we then talk about the facts and our opinions on that specific topic. Along with that, comes gathering outside information by scheduling interviews with various people and getting photos that can be used within the stories.

So on top of developing our thinking and writing skills, we also gain some social skills as writing these stories can get us out of our comfort zone. Interviewing staff and other students doesn’t just come easy on the first go, it takes multiple to get the hang of it and feel comfortable in what you’re doing and asking.

As a second year, I can say that working for this publication and taking part of this class has definitely helped in both of those aspects. It has made writing easier and flow more naturally, which the newspaper staff can attest to. 

“I’ve gotten compliments from teachers saying that I’m a good writer, so I definitely feel like this class has helped me a lot,” senior Esbeidi Borjas, who’s been in the class for two years, said. 

“[This class] allowed me to get the skills to be more extroverted and more willing to speak to a lot of people,” senior Danna Ramirez, who’s also been in the class for two years, said. “I used to be super shy and withdrawn before this class, but doing uncomfortable interviews brought me out of my shell.”

“I’ve benefited a lot from taking this class, I’ve improved my grammar, punctuation, and storytelling skills,” senior Carlos Rocha, another returner, said. “Most importantly, I’ve learned how important teamwork is.”

Now once completing a story, nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment you get once you see your story published on our newspaper site. Whether it took you weeks, or even months to get it done, and whether it was a hard one to finish or not, it feels good to see your story online with your name right below it, available for others to read and enjoy. 

Overall, having a school newspaper/journalism class has impacted lots of students here at Alisal and it will continue to do so as the years go on.