Cub reporters visit PCN

With nearly 100 electives to choose each school year, four Malta High School students chose Mrs. Ashley Pankratz' journalism class and last Thursday afternoon the quartet visited the Phillips County News office to see how a weekly newspaper operates.

MHS seniors Evie McCorkle and Joanie Sjostrom along with freshmen Annabelle Giblette and Leslie Young came to the PCN office with questions in hand and asked about why they chose to take the class and then asked questions of the newspaper's staff.

"I like English and this is sort of the same thing," Giblette said of the journalism class.

Sjostrom asked the staff about writing on deadline and how to prioritize things that need to be done when the time is dwindling.

"You plan ahead and don't run out of time," PCN Publisher Mark Hebert said. "Or, you sit down and knock it out to the best of your ability and act like you know what you are doing."

The students inquired about the types of training the PCN staff have – which varies from journalism degrees to teaching degrees and many interests in between.

The beginning of the 2017 school year marks the fourth year in which MHS students have been offered Mrs. Pankratz' journalism class and during the year the students will learn how to read news, write both hard news and feature stories, take news photos, as well as designing a newspaper as they publish the Mustang Gazette - the school newspaper - four times per year. While at the PCN on Thursday, the students practiced writing opening ledes to stories (pronounced "lead," "lede" is newspaper jargon used to describe the opening paragraph of a story and distinguish copy from instructions for typesetters.) Sjostrom, McCorkle, Giblette, and Young were tasked with interviewing each other before answering the question of what the person they were interviewing did over the summer. The student's ledes follow below:

by Annabelle Giblette

PCN Correspondent

Joanie Sjostrom spent the summer in D.C. and did many things including sightseeing and going on tours of extravagant landmarks while enjoying a look back at our nation's history as she visited a variety of places.

by Leslie Young

PCN Correspondent

Evie McCorkle had a fun time working at 3 Sisters this summer where she helped her co-workers out and made coffee for many people.

by Evie McCorkle

PCN Reporter

Leslie Young spent a thrilling summer in Missoula going to water parks, riding go-karts and, most importantly, spending quality time with her older brother, Weston.

by Joanie Sjostrom

PCN Correspondent

Annabelle Giblette spent her leisurely summer days playing lots of hard, vigorous volleyball around the state of Montana.

The first 2017-18 issue of the Mustang Gazette will be printed in mid-October and the Gazette and PCN are looking into publishing Gazette stories in the PCN in the near future. Other area schools interested in student journalism are encouraged to reach PCN publisher Mark Hebert at [email protected].