Sara Wilson: Where did you go to high school?

David Jones: Tuscaloosa County High.

 

SW: What was the publication?

DJ: It was the first year of their video program. They call it CATS-TV.

 

SW: And what was your role?

DJ: Now, they have an actual person doing it who knows what she’s doing. But the year I did it, our teacher didn’t know anything about anything. We just had all this equipment. So me and other students had to figure it out.

 

SW: So you were part of a founding class?

DJ: Yeah. I was a videographer and video producer.

 

SW: What year was this?

DJ: That was when I was a junior in high school, so that would be 2013-2014.

 

SW: That’s interesting. So, why did it start that year? Was it an initiative from a teacher? Or from students?

DJ: They had done something similar at other city schools, so they wanted to do it in the county schools, especially at County High. One of the alumni, who was a city council member, gave us equipment like camcorders and editing software.

 

SW: How many students were involved in the start?

DJ: I would say the class was 20ish people. It was 20 people in the class, but only like 10 people did anything.

 

SW: What type of content and stories did you produce? Where was it housed?

DJ: Just a classroom. They have a station now, but we were just in a classroom with a green screen and computers. It wasn’t as much of a news program. It was news, but it wasn’t a traditional news program. It was like a YouTube-inspired news “thing.” We had hosts who would sit there and say the news—any school announcements—and we had a sports section. Me and my friend would do the funny videos. We went around campus doing silly sketch stuff. We did a “Call Me Maybe” lipsync when that was a thing.

 

SW: And how often was it broadcasted?

DJ: I want to say we did it once every two weeks.

 

SW: Was there any kind of preparation as far as journalistic education or did you just jump into it?

DJ: It was more of a jumping into it thing. There were standards, but our teacher was not a journalist. She was just an English teacher who wanted it to happen. She didn’t know anything about any of the stuff. So she helped us pick the stories to do. If there was one that was definitely not good, she’d tell us not to do that. But there was no educational link.

 

SW: You said ‘her,’ but she’s not the one who is still overseeing it, right?

DJ: No, absolutely not. I think the person is now Jodi Evans. She did it at Hillcrest, and apparently she is awesome.

 

SW: Yes, I’ve emailed her. I’ve also reached out to the Hillcrest people. It seems like they are kind of a standard of broadcast—or are they?

DJ: I think Hillcrest, as far as county schools, did it first. We would watch theirs to see the kind of groundwork, but the inspiration for all of it was the BCN-TV.

 

SW: What’s that?

DJ: It is a city school thing. It is the news program with multiple high schools in it. That is what got everyone interested in that.

 

SW: Was CATS-TV uploaded?

DJ: We had a YouTube channel, and we’d send an email to all the teachers and ask them to show it. The homeroom teacher was supposed to show it.

 

SW: And did they?

DJ: I think for the most part. One of the episodes we did was awful. It was like 23 minutes long. So I don’t know how many of them showed it after that. But it was a big deal. A lot of people were into it.

 

SW: That was my next question. So student reception was overall positive?

DJ: Yes, for sure. Part of it was we would do funny things. The news part was pretty brief. It was cool, though, because you got football highlights. Our skits were pretty good because we had some seniors who really knew what they were doing. They really knew their stuff as far as media, so the episodes were well made. But also, we totally—it was totally unethical but we didn’t know anything—we would just rip videos from the internet and show it as our funny video. We would just use whatever popular music, and so people liked that.

 

SW: You’ve touched on this a little bit, but can you speak to what were some of the main strengths of the program, and also some of the main weaknesses?

DJ: One strength and weakness was the base of students who were into it. They were really, really into it. The impression I’ve gotten is that that’s the way it has been since. There has also been always five to ten students who very much want to do it and want to chase stories. It was also a weakness, though, because we didn’t have a lot of faculty support. Not that they didn’t want to support us, they just didn’t know how to do it. They didn’t know what to tell us. The program was pretty lousy, I’d say, but I also haven’t watched it in a long time. I mean, I know I’ve seen some of the videos, and the skit videos were definitely the best part. Those were always very well-received.

 

SW: What do you think faculty could have done to support the program more?

DJ: Any sort of lessons on journalism, ethics, or any kind of thing to give us a path towards what we should do, rather than just watching what Hillcrest did and doing the same thing. That was part of the fun of it, but it also wasn’t great.

 

SW: Did you guys as students dig into that educational aspect on your own at all?

DJ: It was mainly just emulating other things that we had seen.

 

SW: If there were five or six involved students, what were the other 14 or so kids doing?

DJ: So, our year, it was probably like eight people who were working on videos. We were the ones going out with a camera and interviewing people. And then the other students would sit in the classroom. We had to give them roles technically, so we had some students who we called “Security,” so they were in charge of making sure nothing got stolen out of the room. I don’t remember what the other ones were. They were the students who were basically taking the class to take it, not because they actually wanted to do anything. We had some assignments, so they would still get a grade.

 

SW: Was there any kind of hierarchy within the staff?

DJ: There was one guy who knew how to edit, so he was in charge of putting it together. We had a big board where we would write out how to put the show together. There were a few seniors that were very involved and they would run the show. Our teacher also had a lot of input as far as what would go into the episode. But those two or three seniors were definitely in charge, not because it was an official position but you wouldn’t step on their toes.

 

SW: Was there ever an instance of you guys wanting to put something in the show but your advisor nixing it?

DJ: Probably. I remember one where our advisor kept something in that we wanted to take out. It was on that 23 minute episode. The reason it was that long was because there was a segment of us interviewing students who went on overseas mission trip. They didn’t cut it or anything. Iit was basically uncut interview that was really long and boring. So we didn’t want it in the episode, but she wanted to keep it in there. I have no idea why. It was bizarre.

 

SW: How did that involvement lead you to your current field of study and involvement with the Crimson White?

DJ: It absolutely led to what I am doing in college. I am more of a film major. I am not as interested in news, although it is a component. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated high school. I don’t think I decided on my major until Bama Bound. I knew I wanted to do something I really enjoyed doing, and I really enjoyed CATS-TV. I wanted to do media at the CW, and I had past experience from high school. I also had a lot of video experience just from college, because I didn’t start doing multimedia at the CW until I was a junior. So, I guess through a ripple effect of me becoming a TCF major because of CATS-TV, it led me to be prepared for the CW. But I’m not working at the Crimson White because I really love video news or anything.

 

SW: What does multimedia entail for the CW?

DJ: It is pretty loose, but it is specifically video and podcast. I am in charge of video content and curating podcasts, but we don’t have any podcasts this semester. We had three podcasts last year and last semester. One of them dropped out, one was mine that I’m still working on, and another was my friend’s that actually became really successful so they started producing it themselves. What happens with podcasts is that nobody knows how to do one, so you have to explain that it is a lot of work.

 

SW: What is your podcast going to be about?

DJ: It is basically a talk-show thing where me and other person who works for multimedia rank things. We pick various topics and, depending on the topic, have different people come as guests. I’m really only doing it so we have content on the audio side, and because it’s easy.

 

SW: Tell me about the video side of multimedia.

DJ: Event coverage is the most obvious type of video—go to an event, interview people, get B-roll and cut it into a recap. One of the first videos I did was right before Labor Day, so I went out and asked students what they were doing for Labor Day and if they knew why Labor Day was a holiday, and then cut it so it was a little funny thing. So I’ve done stuff like that. I’ve also done profiles on student artists. It is various things. The thing that is interesting and that I really like, but it is also kind of tough, is that it’s the same kind of situation as CATS-TV—not as bad, obviously because I have guidance—but it’s its own desk in every way. None of the people at the CW know that much about video, so they are not as invested in it. So I can basically make a video about whatever I want, but I also have to do it.  So this year we are doing similar videos, but short and only on social media. We used to upload to YouTube and post a link, and nobody would click on it. So now the videos are 90 to 120 seconds and on autoplay.

 

SW: And has the reception been better?

DJ: I think so. They are at least getting viewed more. I think there are videos I did in years past that have like two views still.

 

SW: Where do you find the value in scholastic journalism and why do you think it is an important thing for people to pay attention to and invest in?

DJ: At the high school level, I think it is important because it gets people interested in journalism in the first place. It’s not the worst thing ever, but if someone gets to college and they want to write for the newspaper, it can be hard. It’s important to spur the interest when people are young. People aren’t looking for high quality stuff really. It’s more of a novelty. And then in college it still is a little bit of a novelty, but I think it is important because you’re covering things for students that the Tuscaloosa News and other outlets are not. You can be informed in a way you wouldn’t be otherwise.