Eli Shipley is a senior and a new addition to The Charger Online. After doing Studio 415 their junior year, Eli wanted to continue to put their knowledge and skills to use, and what better way than joining the school’s newspaper?
Eli has been attending the school since freshman year. They wanted to go into culinary, due to unforeseen events, they had to take a gap year in their culinary journey. Eli decided to go into the Principles of Broadcasting in order to fill the checkmarks for their sophomore year, and to get closer to their friend. They quickly fell in love with the technical and writing aspect of the class, then quickly changed pathways into Broadcasting.
After learning the basics of the first class, Eli moved his way up into Studio 415. It was a rocky year, with many staff changes and other events, but they persevered. It was over before they knew it, and they moved onto the third class up – Mass Media Production – with the hope to continue what they wanted to do and create short films and music videos. Before the new school year, Editor in Chief, Erin Renee Johnston, managed to sway them into returning to journalism and joining The Charger Online as a staff reporter.
The new staff reporter loves many arts. He enjoys breaking down the insides of their favorite movies and shows, picking it apart and putting it back together in a way that makes sense to them. Eli wants to share what they have found within the school, as he believe that if you pick even the simplest thing apart, you can still manage to find a diamond. That is what they tried to do with their past journalism projects, and hopefully their future ones as well.
One of their favorite things about reporting is being able to find enough information between small amounts of people to write a good story. If you have enough story that your issue is having to cut things out, Eli will tell you then you’re doing something right. The hardest part of reporting, to him, is thinking of questions to ask your interviewee.
“Think of the information you already know about the person,” they advised, “what’s their role within the school, or their team, or something about them. Then find things that those roles can give the answer to. Nothing yes or no, nothing yes or no. But don’t forget to ask things that you think your subject might be interested in. You’re not just an interviewer, you need to show yourself as someone likeable that they would want to talk to.”
Eli hopes that people can look to them as a source of help in the future, despite only having this school year to prove their worth within the news outlet.
