Disclaimer: This article was written by a student who is a part of the Mass Communications Pathway
If you walk into Room 118 during fourth period on an average school day at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School, you’ll see a busy and chaotic classroom filled with students. Some are writing scripts, others are standing in front of a green screen talking to a camera and a few more are on their way out the door for an interview.
This is a typical day in IBW’s public broadcasting class, where multiple episodes of the “Guardian News Network” (GNN) are written, filmed and edited every week. It’s one of the main information sources for many students. Episodes are typically broadcast during second and sixth periods.
The public broadcasting class was started in 2023 under the name Multimedia Storytelling, which was originally supposed to be a merger between a film class and student news. They split into two separate classes in 2024, and public broadcasting thrived, producing a total of 40 episodes.
Typically, five GNN episodes are shot at once. Each episode requires a huge amount of time and effort to make it as polished as possible. To accomplish this difficult task, the class is split into multiple teams that each work on a separate episode. Each group is assigned a different topic and a director each time, who leads the crew through pre-production, script writing and filming.
The class is led by IBW senior and lead producer JJ Reynolds, as well as Mass Communications teacher Haven Kaplan-Miner. Junior Penelope Bringuier is one of the class’s producers, one of the highest leadership positions. Other students take on roles such as directors, editors, camera operators and anchors.
“If you only want to write, you’re never just going to be writing, you’re going to do everything,” says Bringuier.
Episode topics are determined through class brainstorm sessions. The brainstorms are led by Reynolds and various other students, like Bringuier. After compiling a list of events, the class collectively narrows it down to a few key topics to focus on for the next few episodes.
Sometimes, ideas for episodes come from outside the brainstorming sessions. At the beginning of the school year, GNN receives many episode ideas from IBW’s main office, which provides them with mandatory topics to ensure students know important back-to-school information.
“We want to create something that’s important, but also fun to watch for many students at the school,” says director and senior Beckett Lundgren. “We take into consideration how we can have a balance of both student opinions, but also have a place to broadcast what the school [wants] to say.”
The class is very open and welcoming to new students in any grade level who want to learn more about public broadcasting. Much of the learning process is taught through observation and coaching by more experienced students on different aspects of the class.
“You start off with simple things like how to work a camera… and then as you continue working throughout the year or the semester, [the producers] see how much effort you’re putting in,” says Lundgren.
Although GNN is sometimes shown in classrooms, the episodes don’t always reach everyone who would benefit from more information.
“The best thing we can keep doing is talking [about GNN],” says IBW’s athletic and communications director Leanne Van Horn. “That, to me, is the biggest thing… We’ve got to figure out the best ways to get this information out to students.”
As the communications director, Van Horn works to put the episodes in the Guardian Gazette, a school-wide newsletter, so more students can see them.
“I think GNN is very impactful to the school… it’s a great platform to share students’ opinions and their beliefs,” says Lundgren. “It’s a super unique class… and it’s just a great opportunity. I love it.”
