Opinion

Farewell, AM News

By: Grace Hut

540/600 words

Each graduating class at Columbia High School (CHS) tends to remember certain things about the school; the exhilaration of a football game at Underhill Field, the stream of singing voices that floods the auditorium during the musicals, and the countless nights spent tiring over essays, just to name a few. The Class of 2017 is no exception. As the school year winds down, graduating seniors are beginning to say goodbye to the features of CHS that each student must part with at some point.

Of course, there are some differences in the experiences of different classes at CHS. The Class of 2020, for example, won’t have the opportunity to watch the AM news show each morning like current sophomores, juniors, and seniors have in years past. Due to the schedule change that occurred this year, the AM news team does not have a consistent time slot to air their show. Just before school started in August, the AM news directors, Carson Cummins ‘17 and Hannah Epstein ‘17, were informed that the usual 8 minute announcement period that follows period 2 was going to be cut completely. Without any scheduled time to air the AM news show, the directors had to push to find a way to present their content to the school. Cummins said, “Hannah and I met with Mr. Camp and Mrs. Aaron and decided to air one 8-minute show every Friday, rotating the period each week. This was most definitely a compromise, as we ended up reducing our overall air time by 80%. We had to cut videos and segments that couldn't fit into our small show, and had to learn how to space out our content.” 

Now, instead of having AM news televise morning announcements each day, administrators deliver the announcements over the intercom system. Sophia Annand ’18, who will be director of the show next year, commented, “Having AM news every day was important because it acted as a fun way to get the students involved in the morning announcements and it wasn’t a boring like currently when an administrator says the announcements over the loudspeaker.”

Indeed, many students feels that watching AM news was much more fun than listening to the announcements over the intercom. The AM news show featured a number of comedy sketches like Hans Brown’s ’16 wilderness adventure show and the freshman of the week segment. Shows like these provided students with an exciting start to a day, and were sure to get their attention. Now, many students simply ignore the announcements, do work during them, or look at their phones. Claudia Steiner ’17 said, “The visuals of the televised news shows made me more inclined to listen than the auditory announcements do. Having my hearing and vision stimulated simultaneously makes for a more compelling experience.”

The new schedule for next year has yet to be officially announced, so the future of AM news remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that the upperclassmen who got to experience the AM news morning announcements are thankful for it. Matt Rothenberg ‘17 said, “It was that thing that I looked forward to every day to mark the end of Spanish. It was truly the center of Columbia culture, and underclassmen in the future will miss out.”  

Equipment used to produce the AM news show

Courtesy of the SOMSD district website


New Times, Old Media
by Kayley Mount
768/600 words

Look around you. Nearly every person you see is holding a smartphone in your hand. On this miniscule device, that person can call, text, listen to any kind of music, read the news, write a paper, research any topic, take, store, and send thousands of pictures, set an alarm, play a game (by themselves or with a friend), check the weather, reconnect with an old friend, stalk someone on social media, track their health, set a reminder, set up a date on Tinder, online shop, and the list goes on and on. Modern technology has made it possible to complete multiple, various and sometimes unnecessary tasks in the time it takes to tie your shoes. With such advanced and efficient methods, are there people who still prefer older media and technology?

Is there something more appealing about listening to your music on a record player or taking pictures on a vintage polaroid camera? Is it nostalgic to pop in your favorite VHS tape and rewind it all the way back to the beginning? There are easier ways to do this, but people still regress back to older methods. It appears that older media is even more popular amongst younger people now than it is with people who used it in their time. According to Chris Nitti, ‘18, “I think they're most popular with younger people. I think because we didn't grow up with it, we have a fascination for it, and sometimes a greater respect for it.” Nitti still uses a record player and has a mini DV camera that uses tapes. When asked why he chooses the older technology, he said, “I like my SD camera because it has the older look. As for a record player, I use it because I like the collecting aspect of vinyl. I like the big covers and artwork, and looking through record stores is a lot of fun.” Nitti is not the only CHS student that uses older methods to listen to music. Elijah Navlen, ‘17, said “I have a record player and two cassette players, both with extensive collections... Originally it was for sampling old records for my music but soon it expanded to listening, especially when it comes to things that are harder to find digitally.”  

Another draw of the older technology is the process it takes to use it, because it’s not as immediate as the technology that replaced it. Sophia Heriveaux, ‘18, said, “I enjoy film photography because the experience of shooting traditionally is entirely separate from that of digital. It is primarily the rougher process which I like whether that's filling new rolls of film, a constant awareness of your use of light, the satisfaction of the shutter going off, or perfecting your image in the dark room...digital can't replicate that.” However, as enjoyable as the process may be, using older methods can be difficult and time consuming. Sometimes the technology is just too dated to be more useful than newer models. Heriveaux said, “The negative factors of using older media is that they were catered for people living in that time. Today's society is much different, and since these forms of technology were designed to fit a culture where you worked and met most people in person, (depending on the medium) they may not always be ideal for our use today… Moreover, older technology is more limiting to use. For example, in most laptops today, there is no CD slot anymore. This makes playing CDs a greater chore than it used to be.” Heriveaux is not the only one to see the drawbacks of using older technology. Nitti adds that it “can be unreliable, and sometimes easier to break. And if it breaks, it's harder to find someone to repair it.”

There are pros and cons to using an old record player or film camera over the newer, digital models. Some people find the process of looking through a record shop or loading film into a camera therapeutic, even if they know that they are easier ways to do these things. Sometimes the end effect of using the newer versions is not quite the same as what they can achieve with the older technology. However, as with anything, there are drawbacks. Most of society has moved on from these ways, meaning that it is harder to come across what’s needed to use the older technology because it’s assumed no one wants to use it anymore. But there’s something to be said about the people who stick by the older technology and media, it shows that just because something is newer, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Davis at theodysseyonline.com