Editing, Leadership & Team Building
My role as an editor
After my first year in journalism, I became Ka Leo’s Social Media Editor. I wasn't exactly sure what my role as editor entailed at the time because we didn’t have editors on the staff during my first year. It became a learning experience for me and even my fellow editors, as we navigated the responsibilities of being an editor. Now as a second-year editor, my role has been a bit different than my fellow editors. As Social Media Editor, I am not a lead for a section of our publication. However, as an editor, my role is to help our staff reporters write and publish their articles. I often offer help when we are in class, encouraging our staff reporters can approach me and our other editors with questions, if needed. When I do offer help through our Google Docs articles, I apply the compliment sandwich method, which is to give a compliment, provide a critique and end with a compliment. I have found this method to be beneficial because it reassures the staff reporter that they are doing a good job and allows for improvement.
I applied the compliment sandwich method here when giving feedback on an outline.
Ka Leo’s editing team strives to be good role models and leaders for our new staff, who should feel comfortable approaching us. We started the school year with a presentation introducing ourselves, our role and our goals for the school year. We hoped that by introducing ourselves and helping them to get to know us a bit more, they would feel more at ease if ever they needed help. I believe this was beneficial because there was a reporter on our staff who didn’t hesitate to approach me for help throughout the writing process of her article. She had not been in class for a week or two, so she was unsure what to do and where to start on her article. We started with her outline, working on her nut graph, and then making our way to her inverted pyramid. Once we had finished that, I let her work on her article but let her know to not hesitate to ask me if she needed help. She was able to finish writing her article but didn’t know what kind of media she wanted to include, so once again, she asked for help. I gave her possible choices of what she could include but tried to let her choose what photos she wanted. I also helped this staff reporter with the publication process, leading her through WordPress and helping her to post.
Our editing team created a presentation to introduce ourselves to this year's staff of 15 other students. This slide was my introduction to the staff, detailing my role and goals.
In the past, I have noticed that icebreaker games have allowed our staff to get to know each other a bit more and become more comfortable. I have contributed to organizing a few fun staff bonding activities. Some activities the staff reporters participated in were a game to see who could build the tallest newspaper tower, an interview game, and word and clue games. These staff bonding activities have allowed for a better sense of community and teamwork in the newsroom, not just between our new staff reporters but also between the editors and our returning staff reporters.
These pictures are from our newspaper tower challenge.