According to Forbes, in the 20 years between 1990 to 2010 the amount of people who read the news has decreased by 61.5%. Not only has the number of people who read the news decreased but the way in which people consume information has also changed. Pew Research, a surveying company, reported in 2021, just under 50% of Americans “often” consume their news on social media. This has led to targeted information, misinformation, and more.

News is a vital part of communication in our society as it informs us about changing events, issues, and more in the outside world.  This information allows people to make informed decisions about their lives. When news becomes partisan, it becomes a continuous cycle of feeding a divide in our country and beyond thus moving the needle in decisions. This divide also drives the spread of fake news as there is no one to fact-check. News has the opportunity to provide information about important events, issues, and more but in recent years this information has been partisan and wrong.

When talking to students about news as a whole all of them got their information from online sources and most of them reported getting it from news apps such as apple news and google news. When asked if new news is targeted toward their belief system, one student who wished to be kept anonymously shared, “This is narcissistic, but I think the news that does not match my belief system is just factually incorrect. So why would I ever read it” and most students picked up on the fact that news is divided in our country. Most students shared the perspective that news should be less biased and people should read articles from varying viewpoints in order to gain a full understanding of what is happening.

Zoning down on CHS news of Knight Time Review also known as KTR is a student-run news publication with the mission of “uKnighting us through the stories that define us.” KTR gives students a voice to share their thoughts and opinions in order to make CHS a stronger community and pose solutions. The stories are published every two weeks on our website or on the Late Knight News Show in almost every BKT.

Each round staff writers easily spend 15 plus hours working on articles but they are still not getting out to as many people as we’d like. Even though people have heard about KTR they don’t know how to access the articles and don’t care. When students were asked why people don’t read KTR articles, students shared, “that students don’t care about our school, so they don’t want to hear about news concerning the school” as well as “KTR is only sharing one perspective”.  KTR is currently working on changing the environment  in order to create a class that represents all perspectives in the school. 

Students provided constructive criticism in order to make our publication better. One student shared that posting an announcement on canvas would spread the word to the entire school. Another student offered the idea of making additional print as it is more engaging and more people are inclined to read. A final suggestion was getting more of the student body involved. If you have any ideas about how to get KTR to a larger audience or make it better in general please share with KTR.