Web & Social Media
Since most of our engagement is through digital platforms, it's especially important to keep our website and social media updated and easy to use. I am heavily involved in keeping our website updated with timely coverage and consistent posting schedules, and am currently taking a more active role in maintaining our social media, as well.
Instagram is our most used form of social media. We have 1,400+ followers, almost as many people as attend our school. While I am new to Southerner social media, I have experience running my own cooking account and managing my band's social media.
I am currently working with our social media team to increase frequency and quality of posting.
BERNICE KING
For this story, we included photos Bernice King, Dr. King's youngest daughter, and tagged her Instagram. We also tagged the location to give followers context.
On the 40th annual Martin Luther King day, Comment Section Editor Fairlie Mercer and I spent eight hours in the field reporting. We attended the MLK service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, a march through downtown and a service event at a senior center.
In addition to interviewing people for an in-depth news story, we documented the day live using Instagram stories. These are some of the highlights from the day.
VIDEO FOOTAGE
We took a video of the annual MLK march to show our followers the atmosphere. This provides a side of journalism coverage that we don't often have in our print reporting.
DIRECT CONNECTION
To tie everything back to our school, we visited a senior center where students and teachers were volunteering for an MLK Day service project. We made sure to tag our location and the Instagram of the service club that led the project.
RECAP GALLERY
Finally, we ended the day with a gallery of some of our favorite photos from our day of reporting. We made sure to chose photos that told the full story of our day and showed diverse subjects.
I am working to improve the quality of our Instagram posts to make our content more engaging and interesting for our student audience. By posting quotes, additional photos or infographics in addition to the featured image, I can create Instagram posts that provide more details and make students want to read our full stories.
PULL QUOTE POST
When I posted the Southerner's story about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Instagram, I included a quote from the story in addition to the standard photo and teaser. With this quote, our audience can see a student's perspective on a timely issue, which makes them more interested in reading the rest of the story.
Southerner website redesign
I am currently redesigning the Southerner's website using SNO design drafts. I have edited page layout and site organization to improve user experience and streamline our content.
CURRENT HOMEPAGE
Our current homepage looks dated and has a very low-resolution logo. It also uses an image aspect ratio for the front slideshow images that often crops the images in an awkward way. The header with social media icons and the search bar isn't separated from the rest of the page, which makes the spacing look busy.
HOMEPAGE REDESIGN
For this redesign, I used a high-resolution svg file for the header logo. I used the Atlanta skyline to create a buffer between our header and front slideshow. I also made a more bold and updated-looking search icon and streamlined the menus to make the site easier to navigate. I added titles to the front slideshow stories to give context to the images, then adjusted the size of the front slideshow to create a bigger impact and better frame the images.
SECTION PAGE REDESIGN
I changed the section pages to include short previews with the beginning of each article, so readers can get a better idea of the story before they click on it. I also rearranged the stories into a list format, rather than a grid, to make it easier to take in each story. It's easier for the eye to see each story in the same place as you scroll down than to have to scan across the page and process stories from left to right.