SPJ Florida talks podcasts 101 with high school journalism students

Lindsey Kilbride

As Hagerty High School’s journalism department  works to expand its media program with podcasting, students got a chance to chat with a Florida podcast producer.

SPJ board member Lindsey Kilbride of WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville talked to the Central Florida students about the tricks to recording in a noisy school environment and shared her methods for vetting ideas and taking them to production.

The staff had questions about working with a small team and promoting their projects. Kilbride also listened to the students’ first attempts at podcasting and gave feedback.

““It was a lot of fun to talk through some of the staff’s content ideas and help wrangle them down to more manageable projects,” Kilbride said. “I plan to continue working with students in both high school and college on podcast production.”

The student’s teacher, Brit Taylor, said the students were “fired up” after the chat.

“Now we just have to hone in on what ideas they want to run with,” he said.

Hagerty High produces six print issues of The BluePrint during a year as well as updates to its online news site and social media a couple times a week. The journalism students recently won an SPJ Florida high school newsroom grant to purchase a microphone and other podcasting equipment.