MFHS broadcast journalists air first filmed newscast

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

When the new Marble Falls High School (MFHS) broadcast journalism and graphics teacher joined the district payroll in August, he didn’t know how much he would be in luck with one particular group of creative, hard-working seniors.

It didn’t hurt that the group was already friends before arriving in his classroom, which made it easier for them to form a creative vision for their first newscast, dubbed “The Mane.”

Episode 1 was shown to every homeroom class in the high school before Thanksgiving break.

The group took “a casual approach” toward The Mane, said audio/visual teacher Matt Turner. The A/V broadcast program falls under the Career and Technical Education (CTE) umbrella.

It took about a month to complete the mish-mash of segments about high school events and culture. At more than eight minutes long, it features video from the theater department’s production of Paganini, Homecoming festivities, a “fake news” segment, and a variety of sports reporting.

“We wanted to emulate a standard news program, but with our own spin,” said senior Jack Oberle, who was anchorman in the newscast. “We knew what the program was going to be, but we didn’t know what the program was going to be exactly.”

Students were unified in ensuring their finished product was not “stale.”

“We didn’t want it to be starchy, hard-pressed news,” Oberle said. “We wanted something cultural, funny and up-to-date.”

Turner was proud of this class of “project-based learners.” When offered the chance to endure a “boot camp tutorial,” his students declined, electing to jump right in the fire.

“So they learned as they went,” he said.

Filming took the biggest chunk of time. “Because this was our first episode, we had to decide how it was going to look,” Oberle said.

For the full story, see Tuesday's Highlander. 

To see episode 1 of The Mane on YouTube, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqC5_UtbByY