What journalism opportunities are there for high schoolers?
High school journalism usually starts with the school newspaper, yearbook, radio or broadcast program. It grows through summer journalism workshops, youth media organizations and writing contests.
Some local papers, public radio stations and youth media nonprofits publish teen reporting. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards include journalism and critical essay categories. Podcasts and newsletters let you report and publish even if your school has no paper. Student journalists also learn to cover their own community: school board votes, local businesses opening and closing, the people behind a neighborhood event.
How do you choose a journalism program?
Look for programs where you report and publish real stories with an editor’s feedback. Ask whether the work gets published, and who owns it afterward. Some youth media programs pay teen reporters, so compare them with tuition-based workshops. Good programs teach ethics: fact-checking, sourcing and treating the people you interview fairly.
How can you start reporting this month?
- Join the school paper, yearbook or broadcast team, or start a newsletter if there isn't one.
- Cover one school board or city meeting and write a 400-word story.
- Interview someone in your community whose story hasn't been told, and fact-check every detail.
- Pitch a story to a local outlet that publishes teen work.
- Read one news story a day and note who the sources are.
Where Nextreks fits
Published clips and audio or video stories can go in your Nextreks portfolio, private until you share them. Reporting is durable skills in action: communication, curiosity and the persistence to make one more call to confirm a fact.
Programs in Explore are run by other organizations. Nextreks lists them but does not run or guarantee them.