It’s going to be a legendary year for Downey High because for the first time ever, the school will have a multimedia-based student-run online newspaper called The Downey Legend.

The Downey Legend is still in its developing stages, as Editor-in-Chief and Downey senior Crystal Fresquez is assembling a staff with the help of advisor Michelle Napoli. Fresquez says she formulated the idea of an online newspaper while at a five-day summer journalism camp at Cal State Long Beach this past August. Since Downey currently does not have a newspaper, Fresquez says she felt that the school was in great need of one. “Although I don’t have experience, all I have is a vision,” she said. “With this online newspaper, I hope that it will be able to highlight the achievements of Downey High students, which often go unrecognized.”

According to Fresquez, The Downey Legend will start off by focusing on school sports and eventually branch off to promote school events and student achievement. Because The Legend will be online, she says this will allow visitors to the site to interact through polls and videos. With multimedia journalism making headway through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, she hopes to incorporate these into the online newspaper as well. Fresquez says she is willing to learn from her peers and advisor in order to make The Downey Legend a success.

“I don’t know everything and I’m still new to journalism, but I’m willing to learn from other students,” Fresquez said.

This brand-new publication is a class offered on campus where students will learn to write stories, shoot photos and videos, and upload content online. Since this multimedia publication is unprecedented, Napoli says she is looking forward to what the students can accomplish in the course of the school year.

“Because there is no already established expectation, as this has never been done before at Downey, it allows room for creativity,” Napoli said. Students at Downey are anticipating the launch of The Downey Legend, as it will be a source of news and information the school has never seen before. Students have a positive view of the online publication, since they will be able to read about school events and announcements at their own leisure.

“I would definitely read the online newspaper,” said Megan Newbold, a junior at Downey. “I can’t hear the morning announcements, so I can catch up on what’s going on at school online at anytime.”

“I think an online paper would be great,” said Downey junior ZacWickham. “It’ll allow students to find out what’s going on in a school wide basis.”

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Published: September 18, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 22