Updated: 11/19/2009 9:49:54 PM
One East Tennessee student newspaper is trying something new and getting national recognition for it.
The students who put together "The Anchor" newspaper at Farragut High School learn journalism as they always have; they just present it in a different way.
"Eliminating redundancies, you have to have sources to back you up, so that goes to their English writing, their science writing, whatever it is they're writing. It helps," Farragut High School teacher Carrie Brimi said. "Good writing is good writing."
The Anchor is no longer on paper, but you can read it online. The student staff supports the move away from print and to the web, for the most part.
"It feels different, not holding something in your hands," assistant editor and FHS junior Kwo-Zong Wang said. "But it's OK. I can deal with it."
The staff no longer deals with layout and ink and a once-a-month deadline.
"This year we have to work a lot harder, because we upload almost every day, so we have to keep writing articles all the time," said Wang.
Brimi said the students post three stories a day on average, Monday through Friday
"Previously we had do to evergreen articles that came out once a month. So this means now we can be timely and relevant," she said.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors hosts the online paper. The organization has already selected two Farragut student articles for its national feed, an impressive accomplishment, considering the paper has been online for just 25 school days.
The Anchor staff wants 10,000 hits by the end of the semester. They're about half way there.
"We put links on our Facebooks of our stories to get more people to read it, because you know everybody now has Facebooks, so you know they're going to read it," FHS senior and staff writer Dania Bounse said.
The student journalists like reading the newspaper online.
"You can bookmark it, and then you can send it to people instead of just having it as a paper," Bounse said.
It's a transition playing out in media around the world and now at Farragut High School.
Next semester, the site will also feature online video.
