Max Arnold’s Portfolio
Leadership
Before my senior year, I was given leadership positions on the broadcast and newspaper staffs at Noblesville. Upon attaining these positions I knew I had to try and fill the shoes of the great journalists who came before me and taught me all I knew about journalism. I owe it to the great leaders who made me the journalist I am today to try and keep the cycle going. This summer, I attended the High School Journalism Institute's week-long camp on IU's Bloomington campus. At this camp, I attended a conference specifically for editors-in-chief to refine their leadership skills. Thanks to everything I learned at this camp, the editors who came before me, and the open minded nature of this year's staff members, we were able to hit the ground running on both staffs. For the first time in school history, newspaper and broadcast brought home Hoosier Stars as well as winning many individual awards. Below, I have attached examples of the day to day leadership I try to bring to our staff.
Plan Sheets
On both staffs when someone is starting a new story, they fill out a plan sheet, essentially mapping out their story (who they will talk to, the angle they will take, anything the editor or advisor needs to know before the story starts...etc.) After they have filled out their plan sheet, they will conference with an editor, where we work together to find ways to improve or reshape the story before it has even begun. Below are examples of a few plan sheets we have worked on this semester.
Daily Show Rundown
Another daily commitment for broadcast editors is the Daily Show rundown. Each morning, editors come into school early to fill out the rundown. We gather information on what stories need to go in the show that morning and add them to the rundown, then assign stories to the writers in the room. By coming in early to get this done before class, we are able to secure an extra ten to fifteen minutes of work time, which on many days is crucial to being able to put out our best product. Below I have attached a photo of the rundown for February 10th.
Improvements
This year, one of our staff’s biggest goals was to finish the rundown and our writing quickly to begin work on the filming of the show as quickly as possible. The reason for this is that by ensuring we have plenty of time to work, we avoid cases where we run out of time and are forced to keep embarrassing mistakes in the show as we do not have time to reshoot before the end of class. Below, I have attached a show from September 2023 where, due to an error made in prompter which wasn't caught due to time constraints, we looked foolish and unprofessional, in addition there were many audio mistakes made throughout the show which remained in the final cut. Due to this focus, our 2024-2025 staff has largely been able to avoid such mistakes.