The Peak News Journalistic Ethics and Media Vocational Training Program for junior and senior high school students is designed as a two-semester course (2nd semester optional), coupled with a professional-level internship placement at The Peak News.  This programs focus is to train a new generation of ethical journalists equipped with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, as well as real-world experience and professional contacts in the local media industry. The first semester will focus in the basics of ethics and other academic studies as applied in various sub-categories of the Media profession, as well as practical training in the field. The second optional semester will include higher-level academic and vocational training, as well as the development and implementation by each student of a personal Podcasting program. Overall, we will provide our students with:

• Journalistic Ethics Training
• Media Vocational/Technical Training
• Internship/Vocational Opportunities

The Journalistic Ethics curriculum covers essential principles and practices necessary for ethical journalism:

• Crucial Nature of Journalism: Understanding the role of journalism in disseminating accurate and complete information within a free society.
• Passionate Storytelling: Exploring the “why” of journalism to discover what makes for great storytelling in general, as well as how to tap into the unique passion and skill sets of each individual reporter.
• Truth-Seeking and Reporting: Methods for seeking and accurately reporting the truth.
• Transparency and Accountability: Serving the community with transparency and accountability while minimizing harm to individuals being reported on.
• Independence and Conflict of Interest: Maintaining independence from personal biases and conflicts of interest, while still allowing for the individual style of the reporter.
• Law and Journalism: Constitutional and legal considerations in journalism, including freedom of the press and libel laws.
• Personal Responsibility: Emphasizing the journalist’s responsibility to uphold ethical standards, personally and of his community, as well as exposing unethical conduct within the media industry
• Diligence and Productivity: Developing a workstyle that allows productivity and personal success in the Media field for the long-term.

The Technical Training component focuses on practical skills in information gathering and storytelling across various media formats:

• Information Gathering: Techniques for gathering accurate and reliable information from diverse sources.
• Storytelling Modalities: Training on how to tell and distribute compelling stories in written language, audio/voice, and video formats.
• Tools of the Trade: Equipment skills training for written language, audio/voice, and video formats.
• Assignments: Producing reports on the same news items in different formats to develop versatile reporting skills.

All of our students will be provided with immediate placement in a real-world internship, primarily at Salem Media radio studios in Colorado Springs, as well as at other local media outlets and production companies. Key aspects of our internship program include:

• Publishing Opportunities: Interns will publish news reports in various modalities on The Peak News website.
• Broadcasting Opportunities: Exceptional work may be reported by the intern on our daily news-talk radio program on AM 1460/FM 101.1 The Answer.
• Employment Opportunities: Potential for part-time and “stringer” positions at The Peak News and on other projects as those opportunities become available.
• Cooperative Placements: Interns will be primarily placed at The Peak News, based at Salem Media in Colorado Springs, which operates two radio stations, to gain practical experience. We contemplate that we will have too many interns that can be accommodated at Salem, and so have already, opened channels for students to be placed in internships at broadcasters and production houses across the region.
• Concentration: The program requires that students learn and practice every aspect of the Media trade, but allows a level of concentration depending on student preference:
• Journalism: Concentrated on news gathering and reporting.
• Broadcasting/Tech: Concentrated on radio and audio/video podcast production.

The Peak News Journalistic Ethics Program offers a comprehensive two-semester course designed to equip aspiring journalists with the skills and ethical grounding necessary to perform true journalism and lay the foundation for succeeding in today’s media landscape.

The curriculum includes:

• Duration: Two 12 week semesters + Graduation Ceremony/Celebration for each semester

• Class Hours: Two 100-minute in-person classes per week, preceded by a brief Zoom call each week to review the upcoming schedule and expectations. Each week Day 1 will be ethical/philosophical instruction and discussion, and Day 2 will be some sort of practical vocational training, including field trips with guest speakers every third week, unless guest speaker/field trip schedules demand we reverse the schedule on any given week.

• Lab Hours: 2 – 3 hours per week volunteering at radio station

• Team-Building Projects/Homework: Students will work to recruit and lead a volunteer team to collaborate on various aspects of producing and promoting their podcast, ensuring a holistic real-world learning experience and a successfully launched business by the completion of the second semester. The finale of the course will be a Podcast Trade Show, both in-person and virtual, where each student will have a booth to present and promote his or her podcast to the student body and general public, to solicit for fans, sponsors, volunteers, and guests.

• Measuring Success: Incoming and outgoing personal assessments completed by each student to measure the change in both competency and engagement. Final presentations and peer assessments to evaluate students retention and ability to apply knowledge, as well as their improvement in the quality of their work over the course of the class and internship. Reviews provided by those in direct oversight of their internship. The percentage of students who choose to continue their podcast, undertake another media internship and/or seek continued studies and/or employment in media after successful completion of the class. One-year follow-up to see what percentage of students are continuing in some level of media work.