When you walk into the technology room in 1st period, you will see a multitude of things: perhaps you will see Nathan working hard on the announcements with Alexia or Ariel. Or maybe Vishnu, keeping up with current events. Perhaps you will see Oliver, scribing away at another pop culture think-piece. Maybe Erith, writing about her beloved K-pop, or Andrew, writing about sports, or Keshav and Austin, debating memes or video games .

The news-media class is always abuzz with energy and creativity. In the room next to ours, is the computer lab. This is where the Opinionist is filmed. At the back, Nathan films the announcements every morning, ensuring that the students know the news of the school. Along with a green screen, the set up includes multiple monitors, spotlights, a boom mike, and a teleprompter. The Announcements are the most viewed of our websites content, and are reposted on our YouTube channel. There are  primary teams of announcers that switch out daily: Oliver Barnfield, Vishnu Sreenivasan, Alexia Clamou, Ariel Sun, Lucy Wassmuth, Keshav Laxminarasimhan, and Austin Nguyen, with other people occasionally chiming in. We started doing jokes a few weeks in, and this has continued to be a popular segment of the broadcast, with students sending in jokes. The Intro’s were started off a while back as well, at around the same time. This tradition was kick-started by Oliver Barnfield, who created the 1st musical intro, set to Brass Construction’s song Movin’.

For more information on the announcements, see this more in-depth article by Austin Nguyen. Updated Behind The Scenes of the Canyon Echoes Broadcast.

The running gags and camaraderie are everywhere, from “begonias” to the infamous “Zoo Wee Whisper Incident”, a subject which evolved into an episode of The Opinionist.

A large cabinet hides the cameras that we use to take pictures and videos. It is next to Mrs. Sharpe’s desk, which is near the large whiteboard that is used for the sketches that are featured in some Opinionist episodes.

Canyon Echoes has won many awards, including Distinguished Merit through UIL.

The other whiteboard has some accolades and reminders of good photo composition. The Newsmedia classroom is a hub of ideas and stories, and there is truly never a dull moment.