‘Titan TV’ gets students more interested, involved

BY Nova Blanco-Rico

Schools have learned to take advantage of the increasingly easier to use modern broadcasting technology. Temescal Canyon High School (TCHS) is just one of those schools. Announcements used to be only spoken on the intercoms, adding nothing but a voice to inform the forgetful students. TCHS’s “Titan TV” adds more personality, entertainment and information through videos.

In the beginning, Titan TV started out as a Digital Media Production class. The class teacher left in 2009, leading it to be added into ASB which is an extracurricular program that aims to unify the school by raising school spirit.

The beginning of Titan TV only produced one video recapping different events within the campus. Now, it produces five videos a week. Monday through Thursday they release four daily announcement videos, replacing intercom announcements

On Fridays they release a well-crafted episode that promotes events, recaps on sports and displays certain accomplishments by students, among other things.

The teacher, Neal Post, does the work that sets the path for the students. He allows the students to run the class on their own. By allowing the students to take control of the class, it helps them understand the responsibility that comes with making something that many people rely on for helpful information.

To run the class, students are separated into different committees. There are a total of four committees: Commercials, TSPN, News and Announcements and Editors.

The Commercial Committee focuses on entertainment and persuasiveness by creating something that gets students wanting to be involved in events. TSPN focuses on recaps and footage on football games, water polo games, baseball games, and so on.

News and Announcements aim to give the students the information about on-campus clubs, community service, or anything that is of relevance. The News and Announcements Committee also takes the time to do interviews with the staff of TCHS to show appreciation.

The editors receive all the footage that is produced by these committees and stitch it together to make the final product, adding more to make the episode the best it can be.

Each committee has a student leader who makes sure everything is on time and going smoothly, so they can make quality videos that meet both theirs and others’ expectations.

Titan TV also allows students to show their creativity to the school through segments within the episodes. For example, Commercials, where students must come up with a sketch that hits on the topic required for the episode, such as homecoming.

The committee must plan an entertaining sketch, film it and give the editors some idea of how they want the sketch to come out. The editors can be creative within their editing as long as it doesn’t compromise the purpose of the segment. It’s similar to other committees, who can express their imagination through weekly special segments.

Special segments allow for anyone in any committee a chance to create something fun for the viewers. For the special segment released on Oct. 27, 2017, News and Announcements did a fun segment where they scared students for Halloween. The special segment allows for the students to be inventive because Titan TV must be a balance of professionalism and entertainment.

Every Friday, the class goes over and evaluates the feedback that the staff and students sent to Titan TV. The feedback is always extremely positive, but there is always criticism that the students must learn to use. On this, the teacher stated, “In the end, my Titan TV students know that feedback, whether positive or negative, is necessary to produce quality content that can be enjoyed by all.”

The future of Titan TV is unknown, but as of now, Neal’s goal is to be able to make Titan TV live. Instead of a prerecorded daily announcement format, it could be live and broadcasted every morning on campus. Also, being able to live stream events, such as sporting games, school rallies and even the graduation ceremony, allows everyone to watch and not miss out.

In addition to live streaming, Titan TV wants the inclusion of stand-alone videos to promote classes, clubs and programs at TCHS to get students more interested and involved.

Announcements have now become something more than just to inform. Students are creative, given the right tools and can make something that can bring up involvement and spirit in the school. There are more schools that do what Titan TV does and schools that are just beginning to it. In due time, every school will have their own “Titan TV.”