MacJ earns three-peat for best social media reporting
National Scholastic Press Association again awards MacJournalism first place for Best Use of Social Media
With this award slide, the National Scholastic Press Association announced that MacJournalism had earned first place in the nation for social media reporting for the third consecutive year.
November 22, 2020
The National Scholastic Press Association announced Saturday afternoon that MacJournalism had won first place for social media reporting in its annual NSPA Best Use of Social Media competition. The first-place award marks the third year in a row that NSPA has named MacJournalism as tops in the nation in social media reporting.
You can only take so many Zoom screenshots; we’ve had to get creative with our reporting this year.
— Shield co-editor in chief Ellen Fox
The MacJournalism Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts are jointly managed by the newspaper and yearbook programs. Yearbook co-editor-in-chief Lindsey Plotkin said she was most proud of MacJ’s consistency over her three years in the program.
“It shows our resilience to keep working at a high level,” Plotkin said. “Everyone who has been a part of MacJ these past three years deserves credit for helping win these three first-place awards.”
Senior Ellen Fox, Plotkin’s counterpart on the newspaper side, said that yesterday’s award and the two before it validate the effort it takes to run the social media accounts.
“Countless hours have to be put in to keep up this Instagram,” Fox said. “To get national recognition for that hard work feels so gratifying. I’m impressed every day by the work ethic we have here at MacJ.”
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Fox added that the pandemic has made the work harder but also more important to do.
“It’s so much harder to get posts up when we’re not all together,” Fox said. “It adds an extra step in communication not to mention the fact that there’s less to cover in general. You can only take so many Zoom screenshots; we’ve had to get creative with our reporting this year.”
[Winning three years in a row] shows our resilience to keep working at a high level,
— Knight co-editor in chief Lindsey Plotkin
And frankly we’ve had to rely on you. There have been so many times over the past year where we haven’t taken the photos on our feed. You have. And there have been even more times when students, teachers and community members have graciously given their time and energy to help us tell the stories that have appeared on this feed.
So to the countless number of people out there who have contributed a picture or a quote or who have helped us to correct an error on a post, thank you. You are a reason why we have been so successful over the past three years.
The MacJ seniors now have the opportunity and challenge to win a fourth next year.
