The online newspaper The Purple Spirit at Bowling Green Junior High School works as a team with many different jobs. It’s not just picking a topic and writing about it. Many decisions have to be made first. For example, is the topic newsworthy, what interview questions should be asked, and who to interview? These questions are all questions that reporters ask themselves before beginning to write an article.

The news team doesn’t use Google Classroom for turning in the articles. Instead, they use a website called Flow which is an online newsroom. Flow makes it easier to see where the reporters are in an article and when the deadlines need to be met. Everyone can share and upload up to 10 gigabytes of photos to use in articles. This makes the news team’s life much easier.

The news team doesn’t just write articles, they have to schedule interviews, and take photos and videos throughout the school building.  Reporters use their cameras to catch activities as they are happening. For example, someone making a slam dunk in basketball, a science project, the hustle & bustle of lunch, and much more. Then the editor edits and the web designers post it to the website.

Mrs. Pollard is the advisor of the online newspaper. She was formerly an English teacher, but now she teaches the many news teams, journalism A which is focused on writing, journalism B which is more focused on videos, and introduction to journalism. For the 8th grade class or the news team, she takes a backseat and allows the head editors to run the newsroom. “She’s nice, she wants us to be good journalists,” said Justin Logan, an 8th-grade sports reporter for the newspaper.  

The news team goes to a lot of places to get the story. This can include the school dance, sports game, any classroom, and even the lunch room. As long as a reporter has a story, they can attend the event. If there’s a school event there’s bound to be a student reporting, taking pictures, interviewing people, and keeping track of what’s going on.