As those who follow our social media accounts may know (namely our Facebook, Instagram, & YouTube channel, all linked in case you’ve been missing out), the start of a new year brought about the start of a new Redwood Voice!
The first month and a half of this experience has had its ups and downs as any organization would, but so far we have seen it as overwhelmingly positive. Alongside a resounding reception from the community excited for Redwood Voice to be jumping back into the fray of journalism and media activism, we’ve properly introduced our current team on our YouTube channel in a short miniseries, began a regularly occurring series dedicated to archiving the Del Norte Unified School District Board Meetings in the wake of difficulty attending them and complaints that the information does not easily reach those who miss the meetings, and our typical event filming in which we broadcast amazing occurrences in our community, like this year’s Women’s March. This is further paired with the gathering of news for KFUG Community Radio’s bi-weekly (every two weeks in this case, just to be clear!) newscast, which is comprised of the Redwood Voice team. We also have numerous projects being planned behind the scenes that include further connecting Redwood Voice to our audience and dipping into new forms of media we’ve not previously explored.
Of course, these new and exciting changes will all come with time. There are still items on the table being considered and issues being resolved. As you may have noticed, for instance, the rate that videos are edited has shown slight limitations. Though we are able to produce videos we are proud of that demonstrate events and stories in full, some have shown a tendency to be late, a problem due to the fact there is only one current video editor who must thoroughly edit every video. That same video editor attends these events, films them, interviews people if necessary, compiles all the useful footage, troubleshoots any issues that may have come up during filming, edits the video, looks up any necessary information to proof-check what’s going on and provide correct info, spreads it, connects it to the people involved, and starts the next one. Then they manage all the social media accounts and write articles, like the one you’re reading now. And of course, with one member being a full time college student and another working a second job, roles are continuously being configured and chosen.
This has lead to a clear solution we are hoping to soon explore, but with which we won’t share much more information until our plan is perfectly streamlined: expanding the Redwood Voice team. Although we will not be sharing more until we know more about our situation in utmost certainty, if you or somebody you know is interested in journalism and media, namely youth in the community, please reach out! (One of the improvements coming soon to our website will be configuring the sign-up sheet for joining Redwood Voice.)
In the meantime, we will be continuing to clean up Redwood Voice. Our website, for example, has taken a bit of polishing just to get where it is now, and will continue to require some work. Most work thus far has had to do with conflicted coding on the website that has made links malfunction and strange glitches occur, such as crediting authors incorrectly. Additionally, we’ve been removing outdated information, which still requires work. For example, if you look on our radio tab shortly after this article comes out, you will see advertisements for radio shows that haven’t existed in quite a long time. You may also notice the cover photo of our website pictures people who are no longer members of Redwood Voice with an older logo. So, we have some work to do! Credited authors, our tagging system, and the format of many articles will be configured to provide a more enjoyable experience to our audience. All the same, we wish to add more content here! This means that even though we will be continuing to repair and clean up the website, we will soon be posting articles and linking videos in the coming days!
We are incredibly thankful for the support of the community and are excited to be continually growing!
