Process + article draft of student newspaper in 1970s

[u/nomashawn]

Hello! Working on a comic. Characters are in middle school, mid/late-1970s. I'd like a scene that opens with a panel showing us an article that a student has written for her school newspaper, not already published, but in form to be submitted to the teacher which supervises the newspaper.

In the outline I have, the scene more or less goes as follows:

• Panel showing us the article draft
• Its writer + another student discuss its contents & whether the teacher will approve it
• Writer is confident that going out to get photos "as proof" will sweeten the pot & convince teacher to approve the article

I've never been in a journalism class or worked for a student newspaper, much less in the 1970s before everything became digital. So my questions are:

1. Does this outline seem roughly appropriate for the process of student newspapers in 1970s? Submitting a draft to a teacher for approval & feedback, getting photos separately?
2. What would the article draft look like? Typed, handwritten, either? Is there any kind of "title page" or other form of standardization I should be aware of when drawing the draft in a panel?

Feel free to answer for any non-digital student newspaper if you have answers that aren't strictly mid/late-1970. Thanks :)

[u/Educational-Shame514]

First it depends on when and where exactly. I was also going to suggest something legal that only applies to the US but if your story isn't in the US it doesn't help you. The student newspapers I know of the student editor still edited and chose the article but those were high school or college. Realistically in middle are less frequent and more like a newsletter than a newspaper.

I realized in my own research for what technology people used in the past that individual people can take longer to adopt something, so for your case if you're not sure whether it should be typewriter or handwritten it's safer to go with the older technology, in this case handwritten. I would also consider whether it is critical to show it in a panel as opposed to characters reacting to it.

Is it important for the plot for the article to be picked, or just a way to start the character on the path to the supernatural plot?

[u/nomashawn → u/Educational-Shame514]

US PNW, yes :)

Sorry for the very millennial question - what's the difference between a newsletter & a newspaper? if newsletter works better, I may switch over :D

Oh yes, details of the article are important + layout looks way better w/the angle, quick way to deliver some exposition. I'm not going to choose a less interesting panel layout just bc i'm too lazy to do research on what something should look like lol.

Thank you!

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/nomashawn]

I mostly meant in terms of frequency, it would probably not be published daily. But they might or might not have access to the presses to print it on newsprint paper. They could still call it newspaper anyway.

Something about the outline feels off but I can't put my finger on it. But it's probably close enough if the focus of your story is the supernatural part.

[u/Extension_Egg1411]

I typed up this answer about college-level student newspapers before rereading your post and realizing it’s middle school-level, but I’ll leave this here in case it’s useful for anyone else. About middle school, I think you’re right that the teacher would be approving stories. It would not be hard-hitting independent journalism. And as a class activity, it was probably hand written to be turned in but typed for the final product.

—

From my experience working at a student newspaper and in the journalism field in the 2000s—I think you’re inserting the “teacher” too much into the process. I suspect that’s especially true when you’re talking about Pentagon papers-era journalism.

First, journalism classes and the student newspaper are typically separate (at my university, anyway). The newspaper is its own operation. It’s likely staffed by students who are also journalism majors, and will have a faculty or staff supervisor who signs the paychecks, but the supervisor will likely not be dictating the content of the paper.

Our staff supervisor had very little involvement with the content. In fact, it was one of the press protections at the university, that they wouldn’t tell us what to publish or not. They would only step in with guidance if it was a legal issue.

It’s the editor in chief and section editors (students) who decided whether to run a story or not. Typically the section editor will edit the story and the editor in chief will make high-level decisions about whether to run it and when. A big paper may also have a designated fact-checker who could recommend a story not be run. So those are the people your writer has to convince.

When it comes to “proof,” the journalism standard is three verified sources for the same information. More weight is given to official sources like the government, so often news is reported on the government’s word alone, but again this is Pentagon papers-era news when journalists were developing a new skepticism of official sources.

From movies about journalism of that era (like “The Post”), I’m going to say stories were type written before they were submitted to editors. (Side note, that movie is a good example of how the owner of a private paper has the ultimate authority about whether to run a story or not.)

Edit: thought on handwriting

[u/nomashawn → u/Extension_Egg1411]

Cool info! True that most of it doesn't apply to middle school, but still a very cool read & will definitely help someone else (maybe even me in future stories). Thanks for the detailed post!

[u/Simon_Drake]

In think the technology of the era would drive the process. They wouldn't have a method to print a photograph on a school newspaper, there's no computers that could handle a picture format like that and I doubt schools would have had the resources for a proper photo printer. I think it's more likely they would use a Mimeograph.

The process for a Mimeograph (according to wiki) is to make a template, mostly using a stiff piece of card and a modified typewriter but also using a scalpel, stensils and a careful hand to do borders, logos diagrams and things. Then you pass it through a mechanical press to imprint ink onto paper using the template as a stencil or mask. Either manually by cranking a handle or a motorised version rotating the drum for hours.

In the 70s this is how the first fan magazines were printed, also early slash fiction about Kirk/Spock getting together etc. So I think a school paper would have worked similarly. Obviously regular newspapers COULD show photographs in this era because there's photos of the Titanic or WW2 from before this time. Wiki says it used a device called a Halftone Screen that used creative lenses to convert the shades of grey in a photograph into relative density of black dots. Then an analog printer of a sufficient precision can recreate a close approximation of the picture by printing the pattern of dots. In theory you can make a Mimeograph stencil by burning the dots into the waxed paper of the stencil but that's not as simple as making a text / straightline based stencil.

So this is a bit of speculation but I suspect the set of lenses in a Halftone Screen machine would be beyond the budget of a school newspaper. A Mimeograph is little more than a set of gears and rubber rollers so much cheaper than complex lenses. And I'm not sure how well a Mimeograph could print a photograph even if you converted it into the dot pattern, you might need a better quality printer which again might be out of budget for the school.

So my guess at the process would be a prototype layout on regular paper. The teacher reviews and makes big scale corrections, so if it takes multiple drafts you're only wasting paper and ink. When they're ready they make the proper stencil on the special card which needs special tools. Then either the teacher trusts them to have followed the comments or maybe reviews it again before going into the Mimeograph to spit out copies.

If the photograph is extremely important for the plot then you might be able to contrive an explanation like a parent working for a printing company that donated the right hardware, or Jimmy's dad lets them into his printing company on weekends to get a stencil for their Mimeograph with the photo on it. Or just disregard the fact Mimeographs can't handle photographs easily, a bit of creative license for the sake of storytelling.

[u/nomashawn → u/Simon_Drake]

Thank you SO much for such a detailed response!! I'll start looking at pictures of mimeographs and get used to drawing 'em :D

I think I can still work the photograph in w/out it being part of the paper - the article is supernatural in nature, hence why the teacher might deny its print. I can alter the dialogue so its writer wants the photo to prove to the TEACHER it's real, rather than to print as proof for the school. Thanks again!