Ashly McNally:
multimedia/web
journalist of the year
As President, Webmaster, News Producer and Production Manager of PompanoTVI.com, I have learned more than expected. From the uphill battle of learning to write in AP style to the correct amount of headroom, my passion for storytelling and love of journalism has become my way of life and expression.
The Digital Video Production magnet program here at Pompano Beach High School is relatively new, having been restarted in my freshman year. Our website was only established last year and we have come a long way since then. In my sophomore year, I was only the News Producer and Secretary of PTVI and a staff writer for my school’s yearbook, The Beanpicker. Last year, I became a contributor to PompanoTVI.com and a writer. This year, I contribute, monitor and upload content to the web, in addition to running shoots as Production Manager, editing videos for companies such as Pinnacle Advertising (available here) and running my personal blog (available here). What can I say? I like to stay busy.
Despite being a newer publication, my staff and I have pulled through to create the site you are looking at today. As student journalists, we create content via every medium under the sun to reach out to and inform the student population at PBHS.
As a result, we are also helping our namesake, Pompano Beach Elementary School, start their Morning Announcements show. I primarily am helping through teaching website design and video editing. My goal in life is to better others and their lives, and this project is one way to connect my passion with that goal.
I believe in the power of spreading journalism across all media. I started with broadcast journalism in my freshman year, then learned about print in my sophomore year and have been learning about online and social media storytelling since. Multimedia journalism is not just important to the survival of news. It is the future of news. I, as a student journalist, am the future as well. I am carrying the torch that started with a newspaper, then radios, then television sets and now onto portable devices.
With that being said, and with the work samples I’ve provided below, it would be an honor to be selected as the Florida Scholastic Press Association Multimedia/Web Journalist of the Year.