Lake City High School is lucky to have a journalism program. Timberwolf Times is our student-ran newspaper that produces school-related content every month. Not every school has a newspaper or website where students write articles and publish video content, but journalism is vital to high schools all over the country. Journalism benefits students in so many ways, but here are the five most important skills you gain from being in Journalism:

#1: Communication Skills-

95 percent of articles require some sort of interview to be had. The more you interview people, the more comfortable you get with talking to strangers. Not only does journalism improve your interpersonal communication, but it also helps you communicate your thoughts over writing. When it comes to writing articles, it’s imperative to be able to emit emotion without using facial expressions or hand signals.

#2: Writing Skills-

If you’re a journalist, it’s inevitable that you’ll write many pieces. Practice makes perfect! Every Timberwolf Times member writes an article once a week. Lots of work goes into writing articles. By writing so many articles each semester, you practice writing. Writing all the time means you gain benefits in conventions, grammar skills, and overall writing competency. Journalism can help you later in life as well. Almost every career requires a high skill level in writing and reading. Journalism helps your writing skills because you write so frequently.

#3: Teamwork-

Journalism is a team-based activity. There are multiple levels of authority in our writing house. The highest level is Editor-in-chief, our very own Kaitlyn McCluskey. Then there’s the Assistant Editor in Chief, Stella DiGiovanni. Stella says, “being Assistant Editor in Chief is nice because it’s essentially a job in the middle. People are both above and below you.” Stella’s job is to run the website, review article topics, and edit the articles. Then there’s the staff writer who writes for whatever section needs content. Journalism is great because it helps you adapt to the different people you’ll be surrounded with while working.

#4: Individuality-

The topic of your article is based on your choice. You can write about virtually anything. This freedom helps individuals grow into their personal style and feel. While some writers prefer to write about politics, others prefer to write about entertainment. By writing about what you want, it allows students to better communicate their opinions on certain topics.

#5: Punctuality-

When running a website, it’s important to treat it like a business- punctuality is of paramount importance. If the deadline is not met, you are cut. You can’t be lax in your lateness policies because unevenly distributed content will look very unappealing to the audience. Kendall Knight-DuBois, the Web and Photo Editor, says, “the deadlines are easy to meet if you do your work.” She couldn’t be more right. If you balance out your workload, manage your time properly, and don’t procrastinate, you’ll be able to easily accomplish everything you wanted.

Journalism is important to have schools. The skills that journalism encompasses are life skills vital to success. Whether you’re a construction worker or a bank accountant, it’s important to I have these five skills, and journalism will help you build them up. Check out our awesome staff at https://timberwolftimes.com/staff/!