RICHARDS, Texas (KRHD) — Richards Independent School District students launch weekly newscast as part of new journalism class
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Richards ISD has launched a new class allowing students to produce a fully professional newscast each week.
The program features students Gunnar Fowle and Katherine Mickelis as news anchors, Joshua Cadwallader on weather, Charlie McMillan and Tristan Douga on sports and Addison Kighd as a reporter.
"I like talking to people. I like being in front of the screen. And I think it's really the coolest thing ever," said Tristan Douga.
Instructor Dan Arnold explained the comprehensive nature of the program.
"So in this class they basically learned the basics of journalism, video journalism, and they do it by putting together a new sports and weather broadcast, once a week," Arnold said.
The production process takes dedication from the student journalists. News anchor Gunnar Fowle described their timeline.
"Whatever day we start in the school week to the last day in the school week, so about 4 days," said Fowle.
Co-anchor Katherine Mickelis said the team has developed their skills over time.
"As we've been doing it's gotten easier to know what we're doing, and we kind of have a system now, so it's gotten a lot easier," said Mickelis.
Students developing communication skills
The journalism class is helping students build confidence in public speaking and interviewing.
"Talking publicly. You can just get better. You can work on it. You can get more confidence in doing it," said Joshua Cadwallader.
Reporter Addison Kighd has discovered a passion for interviewing.
"I like interviewing. It's fun to hear what people have to say," said Kighd.
Mickelis emphasized how the program builds communication skills.
"It gets you able to public speak and it gets you more experience with talking to people," said Mickelis.
Sports reporter Charlie McMillan has noticed significant improvement in his on-camera presence.
"And I'm getting better talking and getting better with like ad lib and like hand motions and how to say the words. I just feel like from day one to now it's way better," said McMillan.
The students are currently working on their fourth episode, and the Panther family community has expressed pride in their efforts.
Students post their weekly newscast on YouTube and share links on their Facebook page every Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
