A widespread belief has been circling around that the journalism profession is dying. However, according to The Washington Post, “journalism isn’t dying, it’s just changing in ominous ways.” People don’t read newspapers everyday, in 1990 there were 1.28 million media types and in 2016 there were 1.23 million types, which is just a 4 percent decrease.
Like everything, journalism is constantly changing and evolving with the times. Moving away from writing on a newspaper, news is being written on magazines, online papers, and social media outlets.

Today, there are many ways to receive news besides watching television or the radio. These outlets could include social media such as, Twitter, Facebook, and even Snapchat. According to Common Sense Media, children and teens trust news coming from their family members than any other source. However, teenagers prefer getting their news from social media rather than traditional media.

According to PaperPage the first newspaper printed in America was in 1690 by a man named Richard Pierce. Since the 1600s, the newspapers aren’t only at your doorstep, they’re now in schools written by your peers.

The Spearhead’s first paper was published March 10, 2015 with around twenty students enrolled in the program which was combined with the yearbook staff. As of 2018, the Spearhead’s staff is sixteen and has separated from the yearbook program.
Normally, teenagers read works written by adults and qualified professionals. However, when it comes to a school newspaper, only students are writing the content being printed. Does reading articles written by students make it less trustworthy for fellow teens? Would students rather read a paper written by teachers?

Senior Eric Young said he would rather read an article written by a student rather than a teacher because, “Those are my peers, those are people that I can relate to they have similar attitudes and similar opinions on things that I might have an opinion on.”

Another senior Kiersten Hardy said something similar as well, “I would probably say a student just because you can get a viewpoint from someone whos around your own age and similar surroundings how we go through the same experiences and hearing that is refreshing.”

Teachers at Battle love the school newspaper due to being a part of their own newspaper staff in high school. Molly Pozel said, “it’s the best thing in the world. Every classroom should have multiple copies and they should be reading it all the time and doing crosswords in the back.”
The Spearhead strives to create factual news stories and entertainment for students and faculty at Battle High School. If you’re interested in reading more peer created content, you can find online articles at spartanspearhead.com