The ‘Student Spotlight’ project done by The Daily Dispatch in Henderson, North Carolina is one that any newspaper can get behind. Doing something this engaging and positive for the schools in their small town is huge for the community, as well as the students that are put under the spotlight.
I would imagine being nominated for this project would be pretty exciting for the kids in the Vance County School District, especially when they know it will be covered in the newspaper and posted online in videos for the whole world to possibly see. As an elementary school or even high school student, getting that kind of attention and recognition is like being a celebrity for a short period of time.
Not only does this provide excitement for the students that are nominated, but for the community as well. A large part of the community is most likely engaged in this process, seeing as the article says others were volunteering to laminate the awards and film the videos of the students who were nominated. The parents are also very involved, as they’re able to not only congratulate their child on the award but they get a certain level of bragging rights for their child being so hard working and resilient.
The fact that the videos got views that were double the amount of people living in the county is a huge success for the newspaper. They’re used to seeing maybe a couple thousand views on certain articles or posts, and maybe more when something more exciting happens. Expecting less than 10 submissions and receiving 100 is a huge leap in expectations for the people at the newspaper as well.
Overall, the newspaper was extremely wise in allowing Nancy Wykle to begin the project in the first place. Without this project and the donations that supported it, the students who were nominated may have never received recognition for how hard they work every day, and the community wouldn’t have known of how much they truly deserved to be in the spotlight.
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Link to Article: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/a-spotlight-on-students-helped-one-small-north-carolina-paper-shine/
Molly's Media 