Opinion: Journalism and NWN should count as Public Speaking

As the world changes and grows, schools must adapt to the diverse students that walk through their doors. This includes how they define school skills like public speaking. People traditionally think of public speaking as classes that consist of long dull speeches, but I think it’s time to widen how we determine what is and isn’t in the public speaking category.

Public Speaking is defined as an ‘organized, face-to-face, prepared, intentional (purposeful) attempt to inform, entertain or persuade a group of people (usually five or more) through words, physical delivery and (at times) visual or audio aids’ according to pressbooks.com. By this definition, writing is a visual attempt to inform the public.

A perfect example of this is Niles West’s journalism and news class. I think that both of these classes should count for a public speaking credit.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines journalism as ‘printed and electronic communication dealing with current affairs.’ This fits in with the public speaking definition because the class is centered on informing the public. Public speaking includes informing the public, which is what sections like News, Sports and Academics do.

The Journalism course at school also incorporates a unit on vlogs, which is basically a long speech intended to entertain the audience. Some may ask whether or not videos count as face-to-face communication, but Niles West already has public speaking classes like Digital Storytelling which include videos, pictures, text, narrative and music.

After journalism, students can take Honors Newspaper Production (NWN). I think NWN should also count as a public speaking credit because of the various types of media we do. As I already stated, videos count as public speaking in the eyes of Niles West, and NWN has a whole section dedicated to unconventional ways of reporting news, like videos and podcasts.

Yes, NWN is mostly known for its articles, but articles can also be narratives which is a form of public speaking. An example of this is our Opinions and Arts and Entertainment sections.

Most importantly journalism and NWN give students the confidence and skill to speak their minds and perfectly articulate their thoughts. An instance of this is how I’ve been able to learn how to interview people. This skill has really given me and my classmates more in-depth knowledge on how to interact with individuals while still getting the information we need.

Even though NWN and journalism don’t count as public speaking credit, I encourage you to take it especially if you love giving our school a voice, enjoy a laid-back environment and want to get an English honors credit.