Over the last 10 years, we, as a society, have seen our mass media take a massive evolutionary step, thanks to the Internet.
Consider what you do when you want to read the news. You are far more likely to go on the World Wide Web (where the top cable TV news channels have their own web sites, as do many newspapers and magazines). The simple reason is that those web sites convey stories far more quickly than printed media ever could; as a consequence, subscriptions to newspapers and magazines have declined significantly.
Some newspapers don't even run every day anymore. On December 1, 2008, the Daily Tribune, a newspaper covering southeastern Oakland County, stopped publishing papers on Mondays and Tuesdays. On June 1, 2009, the Bay City Times, Flint Journal and Saginaw News all dropped Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday editions. The Ann Arbor News ceased printing papers in July 2009. (See this list of newspapers from across the United States that either cut circulation days or completely shut down during 2008 and early 2009.)
Also, U.S. News and World Report, once the country's #3 weekly newsmagazine, cut its publication frequency twice in 2008--first to biweekly in June, then monthly in November.
The decline of printed media made me wonder how Harrison High's printed publications have continued to function.
One publication that will continue intact is the Retrospect. The reason is that, like any yearbook, it serves as a keepsake. No web site can serve in that way, and you can't autograph a web site in your handwriting. The only change that has taken place over the last 20 years is that it now goes to press at the end of March and is distributed by the end of the school year, according to current yearbook advisor Lisa Hansen. Although the new timetable means no coverage of anything that may happen in April or May, as well as Swing-Out and graduation night, I like the change, because it ensures that the yearbook will be completed; waiting until after graduation night (to get the yearbook finished) introduces the risk of the project being abandoned while it is still incomplete. (That risk reared its ugly head with the 1989 Retrospect and very nearly occurred with the 1986 edition as well.) Also, students can autograph each other's yearbooks before they part ways, while they are all in school; waiting until Homecoming to release the yearbook greatly reduces opportunities to do so.
HHS still produces a newspaper called the Catalyst (yes, it was a newsmagazine during our final two years at HHS, but it went back to being a newspaper later in the '90s). The publication frequency was generally every 4-5 weeks while we attended. By contrast, according to Hansen (who is also the Catalyst's advisor), only a few issues were produced during the 2009-10 school year because the newspaper program was placed on hiatus for about a year and she only had six students to work with once it came off hiatus. In the past, Hansen has discussed the possibility of switching to an online edition with the advisor of Farmington High's newspaper, but told me, "This was not discussed this year... I do not see it happening in the next two years."
The school's literary magazine is no longer called the Aquilla. It is now called The Looking Glass. I wondered how any literary magazine could survive in a world where people can post and share their stories so freely on the Internet at no cost to them. From a writer's point of view, one could just put an essay or poem online without anyone picking it apart or ridiculing it beforehand. Writers can select the size of the audience they want to share their work with online--either with just their friends using a social networking site like Facebook, or potentially the whole world using a blog. And from a reader's standpoint, the Internet is rife with all manner of creativity--comic strips, art and music as well as creative writing--that people can access for free; whereas 20 years ago, you would have had to pay a few bucks just to read the Aquilla.
The decline of printed media made me wonder how Harrison High's printed publications have continued to function.
One publication that will continue intact is the Retrospect. The reason is that, like any yearbook, it serves as a keepsake. No web site can serve in that way, and you can't autograph a web site in your handwriting. The only change that has taken place over the last 20 years is that it now goes to press at the end of March and is distributed by the end of the school year, according to current yearbook advisor Lisa Hansen. Although the new timetable means no coverage of anything that may happen in April or May, as well as Swing-Out and graduation night, I like the change, because it ensures that the yearbook will be completed; waiting until after graduation night (to get the yearbook finished) introduces the risk of the project being abandoned while it is still incomplete. (That risk reared its ugly head with the 1989 Retrospect and very nearly occurred with the 1986 edition as well.) Also, students can autograph each other's yearbooks before they part ways, while they are all in school; waiting until Homecoming to release the yearbook greatly reduces opportunities to do so.HHS still produces a newspaper called the Catalyst (yes, it was a newsmagazine during our final two years at HHS, but it went back to being a newspaper later in the '90s). The publication frequency was generally every 4-5 weeks while we attended. By contrast, according to Hansen (who is also the Catalyst's advisor), only a few issues were produced during the 2009-10 school year because the newspaper program was placed on hiatus for about a year and she only had six students to work with once it came off hiatus. In the past, Hansen has discussed the possibility of switching to an online edition with the advisor of Farmington High's newspaper, but told me, "This was not discussed this year... I do not see it happening in the next two years."
The school's literary magazine is no longer called the Aquilla. It is now called The Looking Glass. I wondered how any literary magazine could survive in a world where people can post and share their stories so freely on the Internet at no cost to them. From a writer's point of view, one could just put an essay or poem online without anyone picking it apart or ridiculing it beforehand. Writers can select the size of the audience they want to share their work with online--either with just their friends using a social networking site like Facebook, or potentially the whole world using a blog. And from a reader's standpoint, the Internet is rife with all manner of creativity--comic strips, art and music as well as creative writing--that people can access for free; whereas 20 years ago, you would have had to pay a few bucks just to read the Aquilla.
According to The Looking Glass' present advisor, Kimmi Dukes, it has changed its name a few times (before adopting its present name in 2002, it was called Equinox, and Paradox before that). It is still published annually. Dukes says that getting students to submit their work remains difficult. "We try to get the English teachers to encourage their writers to submit their best work and offer extra credit; unfortunately, we receive very little support, even though (English) is one of the biggest departments at HHS. We even tried online submissions."
Obviously, Green & Gold Digest didn't become Harrison's fourth publication. But suppose it did. What would have happened to G&G over the last ten years? I honestly believe it would have become an online publication. Why? As with any online publication in general, advantages include being able to post a story quickly and (if necessary) correct it quickly, instead of making readers wait until the publisher has enough stories with which to complete a printed issue. But there's a bigger reason: Now that people can get all kinds of news, information and entertainment on the Web for free, I would be insane to charge other people money to read this stuff. Looking back, I'm glad I never charged a penny.
Today, the Internet offers us the means to easily and effectively share ideas and stories. 20 years ago, the only ways to do so were relatively expensive and time-consuming (especially if you wanted to start up a new publication from scratch). Now, we have blogs to post about what's been going on in the world and our perspectives about those goings-on, and social networking sites to help share them. Harrison's three publications have survived, but I believe that two (the Catalyst and the Looking Glass) will have to survive in an online form.
Obviously, Green & Gold Digest didn't become Harrison's fourth publication. But suppose it did. What would have happened to G&G over the last ten years? I honestly believe it would have become an online publication. Why? As with any online publication in general, advantages include being able to post a story quickly and (if necessary) correct it quickly, instead of making readers wait until the publisher has enough stories with which to complete a printed issue. But there's a bigger reason: Now that people can get all kinds of news, information and entertainment on the Web for free, I would be insane to charge other people money to read this stuff. Looking back, I'm glad I never charged a penny.
Today, the Internet offers us the means to easily and effectively share ideas and stories. 20 years ago, the only ways to do so were relatively expensive and time-consuming (especially if you wanted to start up a new publication from scratch). Now, we have blogs to post about what's been going on in the world and our perspectives about those goings-on, and social networking sites to help share them. Harrison's three publications have survived, but I believe that two (the Catalyst and the Looking Glass) will have to survive in an online form.
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