At school, they’re labeled our biggest distraction. At home, they’re undoubtedly our worst addiction. Cell phones can be used for the better or worse, but it’s a fact that they serve as a crucial tool in the world of journalism, photography, and marketing.
While this heavy enforcement of the phone policy feels somewhat new, there has almost always been an unspoken rule about phone usage in the classroom. The temptation to check your messages or take a quick scroll can be strong while learning or studying, so instructors prefer them out of sight. In some situations, they can work against the means of production. However, for students of the West Wind and Yearbook, quite the opposite is true.
“I mean, we used to use them for everything,” said junior Annelis Barron, a junior in Yearbook. “It was really nice to use them when we needed to take a picture fast, like in the hallway or when we needed a personal picture. We don’t have cameras for everyone, so it was just more convenient to use something that almost everyone had.”
The high-quality photos seen in the student magazines, the yearbook, and on school social media pages are captured by the students of these classes, some of which were taken on their phones. Access to cameras in these classes is very limited, and the ability to use phones for a quick shot makes a big difference. They also capture some memories that can’t be caught by a camera.
“Sometimes we need to take quiet photos,” said sophomore Kimberly Bart, also in Yearbook. “Me and Irene took photos for Drama Club yesterday, and we can’t use the camera there because of the ‘click’ sound. It’s too distracting for the kids who are acting.”
While cameras can provide excellent quality, they aren’t for every event. The noises of a camera can be drowned out at a basketball game, but when it comes to performative arts, they can be a disturbance. They are also limited; it’s rare for a high school journalism class to have more than a few cameras. This handicaps the ability of students to get the photos they need when they need them. While to non-journalists this may seem like a small problem, this lack of cell phone use goes beyond just photography.
“[The policy] has definitely made it very difficult to do my job because the apps we use to post are all on my phone,” said Creative Content Lead Kayley Arevalo from the West Wind. “Some of them, like TikTok, we can’t just download on the tablets and that’s where we get our most engagement.”
Marketing is arguably the most important task for the students in the West Wind and Yearbook class. In a world where everything is digital, posters and flyers won’t do the trick anymore. In order to sell yearbooks, gain recognition and reel in readers, social media must be utilized. Posts must be timely, attractive, high quality and persuasive. Without the convenience and productivity that comes from their cell phones, student journalists aren’t left with many other tools.
“I take my job very seriously,” said Arevalo. “I get my assignments posted on time, but it makes it very difficult for me to do that when I have so much of [my assignments] to do outside of school.”
Unlike any other classes in high school, journalism classes depend on modern technology and live information about current events to succeed. There aren’t encyclopedias to dust off or math books to crack open. Students produce their best work when given their strongest tools; an assignment’s quality will reflect the use of mediocre technology.
“We are putting in ten times the effort to get to where we usually are,” said senior Maddie Powers from the Yearbook class. “It puts a hold on things when we have to work around a rule that works directly against what we do.”
