The Very Best Website in All of Wakefield

Note: This is the article promoting this very site that will be in the next issue of Spin, but since I'm so nice, I'm putting it up here first!
If you’re anything like me, you love this newspaper. I love writing for Spin, which is why I’ve continued doing so since the beginning of my freshman year. It was my first taste of journalism, which is the major I’m looking to pursue in college.
Unfortunately, Spin only comes out four times every school year. Not only does this deprive us of the great articles, but it makes things harder for journalists like me. The Spin writers begin writing their articles a month before the issue is distributed, so they will have time to revise and the editors will have time to edit and do the layout. We have to write about a current event, but one that will still be current in a month. Don’t you wish WHS had a more frequent news feed?
Allow me to tell you about my blog, the Wakefield Étudiant. Hit us up at wakefieldnews.blogspot.com. Chris Morrill, who graduated back in the spring, and I put it together in April 2006.
Chris “wanted to do more journalism, outside of Spin.” The blog format allows for several updates every day, providing readers with content similar to what they would find in this quarterly newspaper, but at a far greater frequency. As Chris says, “The Étudiant gives you the latest news when you need to hear it…now.” We’ve been following big stories like the upcoming election in 2008, the conflict in Darfur, and the protests in Myanmar. The blog setup allows us to give you frequent, in-depth coverage of these stories.
Currently, six people, all of whom attend this school, write for the site: juniors Chris DeCarlo and Glen Maganzini, sophomores Brian Li, Ryan Suh, and Liz Sullivan, and I, a senior. I first discovered that Liz was aware of the blog when she mailed me one day asking how she could write for it. Glen says he has “always had a profound interest in journalism, so [he] decided that writing for this blog, which [he] thought was awesome, would be in [his] best interest.” He calls the blog “a voice, a quasi revolution in the local news blogosphere.” Ryan says he joined the blog staff because he “thoroughly enjoy[s] delivering information to the public, as well as writing about what is happening all around the world.” He also calls it “wonderful” that he can post his thoughts on current events.
Ryan likes how the site gives readers “a heads up on what’s happening.” He praised the site for the wide variety of posts, some funny, some thought-provoking, which are all worth reading. One can find a CD review, a world news headline, and the latest on the Patriots, all in only one day’s worth of updates. We also follow events right here in this school. Recent WHS-related pieces include a report on the conference with Congressman Tierney and coverage of our football team.
We also round up the latest local, national, and world headlines. One can find news from around the globe, be it from Boston, Washington, or Darfur. As Liz says, people “need to be informed.” People need to be aware of what’s going on in the world. The Étudiant is a one-stop news shop for WHS students. Bookmark it!
Wakefieldnews.blogspot.com