As York begins to open its doors again, bigger, and wider learning opportunities are available for students. As every student makes their way into the library, it is clear that there have been many modifications to the English department as well as the media department. As of this moment, the library has not yet been open to the public, but right across from the library is the latest Ytv room.
Media Director Brendan Chambers has always given students the opportunity to develop their own news stories and publish them on the Ytv media platform. Along with the upgraded media room, Chambers is collaborating with Matt Bourke and Payton Froats, who advise This Is York and Y’s Tales. The improved media room presents the opportunity to combine classes this upcoming year.
“Journalism and New Media is going to be a skill that can take students in a lot of directions in life,” Chambers said. “It’s just a chance to explore your creativity and your story telling all in one place.”
Chambers has waited for this opportunity to combine both classes in order to bring in more students that are interested in media. He wants to bring more light towards both aspects of media that include student publications and broadcasting. The improved space has been a long time coming for York Media as a whole.
“The idea has been talked about for years between previous This Is York advisers and myself, so there wasn’t just one person,” Chambers said. “We’re just following the lead of what the professionals do; there’s gonna be video and story written copy together.”
As the new media room continues to inspire new students into the media field, it has also brought a brighter impact on both Ytv and Journalism due to their collaboration. Chambers believes the communications department will grow from this collaboration with journalism.
“Ytv benefits journalism because we genuinely tell a lot of the same stories,” Chambers said. “Having a visual aspect is really important to storytelling because if you look at any news right now there’s also a visual component.”
Along with this partnership, students from Ytv have been developing new ways to advertise their content, in order to bring a higher level of recognition.
“The branding is going to evolve as the classroom evolves and I don’t know what it’s going to look like next based on the students in Ytv,” Chambers said.
Following the rebrand of Ytv, collaboration across all media departments is on the horizon. Samantha Shish, junior York- hi reporter, talks about her experience so far with the collaboration.
“I feel like it’s just more convenient that we work together and we can all bounce ideas off of each other,” Shish said. “That’s my favorite part of Journalism, the fact that we all get to collaborate is really cool.”
Along with the collaboration, Journalism and New Media’s main purpose is to introduce students to media, whether they are taking broadcasting or student publications.
“It’s cool having both parts of the media together,” Shish said. “I like the writing part and then being able to see what I’m talking about in my stories with a visual aspect.”
Ytv and new media have sparked newer interests within one another, as they continue to combine ideas and build a public platform that could share students’ voices. The upgraded space has inspired kids to have a sense of creativity and to promote York’s media team. Cameron Johnson, a student from Ytv, shares how the media room will shape more of a recognition into media. “I think York’s media team will be more recognized because of the new changes that are happening,” Johnson said. “It hasn’t been very popular and felt more exclusive in my opinion, but I think it may start gaining traction with the room and class changes.”
The improved space has set an open invitation to newcomers to join Journalism and New Media towards students who are interested in media. Additionally, this program has given students the opportunity to branch out and learn about all forms of media.
“Although I loved my broadcast communications class freshman year,” Johnson said. “I think it [Journalism and New Media] gives students a feel of both journalism and film. They will be able to see which one they feel more comfortable in based on that.”
In addition to student’s having the ability to create stories, faculty members who are involved in This Is York have a shared gratitude for the opportunity to gain recognition. For example, Bourke knows Journalism and new media will become more useful in the real world of media.
“I think this allows everyone to start to see our worlds are much more interconnected then we have in the past and, again, if you look up any news, source pretty much every article these days comes with a video and a audio that is connected to it,” Bourke said. “We have to start keeping up so that you all, the students, are able to have that same success when you leave us.”
Every teacher at York wants to see students grow alongside others who share similar interests.
“It’s really cool to see when two students from our programs are able to kind of meet and work together for the first time when you start to see that spark they both have for the same goal,” Bourke said. “As a teacher, it’s just really exciting to see that spark build between two people.”
With the improved media room under construction, students can now promote that “spark” to influence a bigger audience, by getting introduced to communications. Throughout the past couple of years, Ytv and This Is York never failed to impress their audience through their creativity. Ytv and Journalism students alike, are excited to see the new skills they can obtain in their upgraded space.
“Journalism students are asked to be covering a variety of topics, and are asked to work slightly longer hours then your normal english class or science class so I know the space respects the dignity you all deserve,” Bourke said.
