- This week is National News Literacy Week where we at 23ABC are taking a closer look at how neighborhoods across Kern County find and learn about news and journalism.
- At Shafter High School, there's a broadcast journalism class taught by Jerald Pierucci where students learn how to gather and create news content, and about the journalism industry as a whole.
- 23ABC spoke with Pierucci and three students about their experience with the class, and why they feel the class is important.
- The class produces a daily morning show, 'HQTV' which airs during school hours with the latest updates on campus. The show can be found on the class's YouTube channel.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's National News Literacy Week and we're taking a closer look at how your neighborhood gains a better understanding of news and journalism as a whole. At Shafter High School students are taking a giant leap with hands-on training.
"I was not excited about it, but it's actually really fun and I really enjoyed doing it. I just heard from other people that it wasn't really taken very seriously which is not true at all. Mr. Pierucci takes it very seriously and I feel like everyone here does too," said Laurel Franz.
Shafter High School is one of the few schools within the Kern High School District with a dedicated broadcast journalism class and studio, where students gain an understanding of how news content is created and broadcast to an audience.
Students in the class get to learn the ins and outs of what it’s like to work as a reporter, producer, and editor to name a few positions, in a newsroom-style environment.
On Wednesday morning, 23ABC got a chance to see the process students go through to get their show off the ground each morning.
“I’ve looked into it and I’ve wanted to become a sports anchor in the future,” said Alexis Lopez.
For some, the program is just a class, for others it's opening doors to potential careers in the future.
“I've been looking to see where can I go to school for it or what can I do to like, take a step toward it for my future,” said Ariana Cortez.
That’s Ariana Cortez, a third-year student in the program, Cortez started out reporting and now helps direct and produce the daily show as well as live streams for sporting events. Before starting the class, she like many others didn’t look forward to it, now?
“I thought like reporting and all that stuff was really boring. And now that I'm in it, I realized how fun it is. And that it's actually really enjoyable,” said Cortez.
Jerald Pierucci teaches the class and said the program has helped students gain some insight into the journalism industry as a whole and puts Shafter on the map as a place to learn.
“I think it's a really cool real-life thing. And I think that's what CTE is about and Shafter has one of the largest CTE programs in the Kern High School District. Next to, when you go out to the — our CTEC buildings, so, you know, being a rural community. Mr. Shipley is really big on you know, we shouldn't have to ship our kids out for a lot of stuff. We can do stuff in-house and keep them here.”
Shafter High's HQTV runs on weekdays and can be found on the school's YouTube channel.
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