CODY, Wyo. — Students who are a part of the Cody High School Bonfire online publication are learning the basic fundamentals of journalism in the digital age, while still maintaining integrity and objectivity.
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The journalism and creative writing course combines all aspects of storytelling, including podcasts, social media, photography, prose writing and traditional news articles.
Students who are a part of the course publish one product a month, whether it be an article, opinion piece, or podcast episode.
Their teacher, Alec Giacoletto, wants the students to be creative and adventurous in their writing.
"The students get a chance to express their own creativity and interests," he said.
Giacoletto earned a degree in college for business administration. After starting to freelance for an online publication on the side, Giacoletto fell in love with writing and went back to school to teach English.
He believes that all students have the potential to be passionate about writing and reading when given the choice.
"If you're interested in what you're writing, it's a lot different than being made to write about something," Giacoletto said Tuesday.
His class is full of students with diverse interests and life goals and includes all grade levels.
"I think (the class has) been super immersive. It's given us a lot of creative freedom," said Sunday Schuh, the Bonfire's assistant editor.
"I think the idea that all of these people, they have an idea, then they want to publish it. We just get it done. We publish it to the school and everyone can read it. I think that's just amazing and fun," said student Zhaonhan (Alan) Zhang.
In the classroom, students are using technology to write every day. The Bonfire's former teacher, Mike Riley, says it looks much different today than it did a few decades ago.
"We didn't have online newspapers. It was just the physical print copies... It was print journalism mostly," Riley said.
Before taking over the class, Riley was a language arts teacher. He volunteered in 1993 to take over the yearbook and newspaper program.
He ended up falling in love with journalism. His class ended up winning the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Journalism Education Association.
Riley retired in 2018 and is now a Wyoming author. In December, Riley published his memoir, "The Bat House".
In the 25 years that Riley taught the course, he had a front-row seat to historic changes in journalism. Those changes ultimately led to an evolution in the way journalism is taught.
"It's completely different. You know, when Facebook came out publicly, I told my students, 'This is the end of all the things that I've taught you,'" Riley told MTN Tuesday.
With social media and cell phones, information is readily available and anyone can easily become a digital storyteller.
"Social media got big right when I was a freshman in high school, 16 years ago. So, over half my life, I guess this is how it's been," Giacoletto said.
Riley's and Giacoletto's different perspectives on journalism and social media have shaped the way the classroom operates.
"When I taught journalism here, I had students watch about four different networks on one story," Riley said.
Riley believes for a viewer to fully understand the story in an objective way, following different news organizations is vital.
Overall, he worries for the future of journalism, and he critiques commentary in news stories.
"I have concerns about lying in journalism. I have concerns about that extreme bias," he said.
It's only the reasons Riley always encouraged his students to follow the ethics of journalism and stay objective in their reporting.
Giacoletto believes journalism hasn't gotten worse or better since the digital age; it's just dramatically changed.
"Today's world is a little different, where people have short attention spans. But, at the same time if you really get their attention, you could maybe have their attention longer than we ever had before," Giacoletto said.
Giacoletto says the lines of what's considered journalism are blurred. Now, podcasts, social media posts, and a YouTube channel are considered forms of storytelling.
"Traditionally what we've known as a journalist has changed," he said.
Giacoletto embraces the change and finds his students do as well. He says that even if his students don't become full-time journalists, in the course they will still learn how to communicate, write, conceptualize and analyze.
His biggest concern as a teacher is artificial intelligence.
"That is the biggest uncertainty," Giacoletto said.
Regardless of the two teachers' approach to the Bonfire course, both have inspired a generation of writers, sparking a passion for storytelling in an honest and objective way.
"I think journalism to me is really just telling other people's stories, and hunting for the truth... I think we journalists, we have to just always do our best to find that truth and convey it to the reader in the easiest way possible," Schuh said.
"I just think journalism is awesome, especially since we're all doing creative writing. It's open to anyone, and I really do urge people to start writing," Zhang said.
