Interview with Taipei American School’s Editor-in-Chief

The Taipei American School recently won a pacemaker award for their online publication titled Blue and Gold. Harker Aquila interviewed their Editor-in-Chief, Adrienne Shih.

TD: How has the staff at your school worked together to create a pacemaker-winning news site?

AS: At the start of the year, we delegated 4 people from our 15-person staff to be in charge of our online platform. They were led by our two online editors. The Blue and Gold has never had a very strong online presence prior to this year, so we really wanted to emphasize that this school year. After everyone is assigned their articles, we have an “online deadline” where the online staff will reformat the articles to place online. In terms of web design, the two online editors work in tandem with me on coding and HTML.

TD: What is your position on the staff and how have other members led the staff throughout the year?

AS: I am the editor in chief of the Blue and Gold. I work closely with my managing editor (Berlin Cheng, grade 12). She is in charge of the administrative tasks, such as contacting our printer and keeping tabs on our budget. As I said above, we also have two online editors. The online editor position was created this year in hopes that having journalists dedicated to the online platform would increase our web presence.

TD: What impact does it have on your program and school to have won this award?

AS: As a personal aside, I never imagined that a 15-person staff from Taipei would win the NSPA award. Our school has been incredibly supportive, and the administration has been following up on the status of our award since we were finalists. Having won the Online Pacemaker, I think it’s fair to say that the journalism program at TAS will put an even greater emphasis on web-based platforms. We are hoping to further explore other digital mediums, and I hope that next year the Blue and Gold will have even more success with not only our digital sector, but our print paper as well.

TD: What is your advice for other schools that are working on establishing their own online news site?

AS: Don’t be intimidated. Creating a website (especially one for a school paper) may seem daunting, but with patience, you will find success. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask your peers. Make your online news site engaging by adding videos, polls, and other interactive features. People like to be engaged! Finally, realize that road bumps are inevitable when it comes to designing an online news site. Code may not run correctly, articles may be disappear, or people might leave spam comments (all of which the Blue and Gold Online has experienced this past year). The difficulties are temporary and will be resolved in a matter of time.

TD: How has your school interacted with the Harker School, being our sister school, and how has Harker’s journalism program affected you, if at all?

AS: As an international school, TAS has always prided itself on being globally active. Having been able to work with journalists from the Harker School has widened the Blue and Gold’s global perspective, and we are extremely lucky to have this partnership. TAS readers love to see what occurs in a school similar to their own across the pond.

TD: What is your favorite part of your award-winning website?

AS: Being a person obsessed with the aesthetics of web design, I would have to say that my favorite feature of the website is the layout. We originally started with a pre-made WordPress theme, but decided to code our own in order to add specific features that the layout pack did not include. I love that the layout of our web pages is streamlined and modern, but also practical and user-friendly.