Harlem High School Students Participate in Media Lab Summer Program

Three members from the Montana Media Lab (MML)-an innovative, digital media lab based at the University of Montana (UM) School of Journalism-were in Harlem from May 31-June 3 to work with a dozen Harlem High School (HHS) students. Two recently graduated seniors, three former juniors, three former sophomores, and four former freshmen all participated in the Summer News Literacy and Digital Storytelling Program.

The Assistant Director of the MML, Mary Auld led the workshop. Working out of the Harlem Public Library's Meeting Room, Auld was accompanied by two recent graduates from the UM-Missoula's School of Journalism: Dante Filpula Ankney and Hunter Wiggins.

After collecting stories that started at the gas station and spread into the community, the group stitched together the multiple perspectives that they had gathered from recent, longtime, and returning Harlem residents. The journalists edited their interviews and sound bites to create a five minute radio program that they hope will air on Yellowstone Public Radio. "That's the end goal of this version of the Audio Storytelling and Media Literacy Summer Program, anyway," said Filpula Ankney.

Some of the people that were interviewed were Harlem Junior High Science Teacher and Wildcats Coach Lyle Falkinberry, HHS English Instructor Matthew Hodgson, community member Ben Carrywater, and local author Dale Mailand. During the editing process, some of those voices were blended or even cut to meet the story's time constraint. The project's objective is to tell Harlem's story, capturing where the community has been, what it is now, and where it is headed. The work of the student group culminated in a community celebration. Billed as "the big event," they invited everyone to a presentation of their learning in the Harlem City Park at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, June 3. Refreshments were served after the story aired to the public.

"We're aware that we've collected a lot of material for a five minute audio episode, but we're hopeful that the students will use their work to create other storytelling projects-whether that be through a podcast series or some other digital storytelling method," Auld stated.

The piece begins with music as someone rolls into town, then segues into the words of Darius Longknife, a recent graduate of HHS who plans to attend UM in the fall. Additional voices add angles that capture the importance of community and the idea of both leaving as well as returning home. The story builds towards a poem by Nellie King, "Three Miles from the Rez," in which she mentions "lonely sidewalks" and a "restless town." In circular fashion, the story closes with words from Longknife.

Each summer, representatives from the MML take workshops like this one on the road, teaching digital storytelling to youth in rural parts of the state and on Montana's reservations. The organization believes that such outreach helps empower adolescents to find their voices at a young age. Furthermore, teaching news literacy to youth also helps them better navigate the 24/7 media world we live in.

"We want to share the skills we've cultivated as journalists," said Filpula Ankney. "There's so much disinformation on social media, so we try to give these young people insight on distinguishing between opinion, satire, misinformation, disinformation, and genuine news."

"Our goal is also to enlighten them about the strategies that are used to manipulate them-with everything from polarization to inoculation theory," added Wiggins.

MML works with middle and high schools across Montana, customizing trainings that help students tell the stories they want to tell. Their mission is to give journalists and non-journalists alike the tools to tell their stories effectively across multiple platforms.

Other communities on MML's summer itinerary are Lodge Grass, Great Falls, and Miles City. The program arrived in Harlem as a result of a connection that Hodgson made with Auld while he was in Missoula for the Annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. "I thought this would be another venue for the students to share their voices," Hodgson said.

When she's not teaching, Auld makes radio stories about human-environment interactions, in particular those that involve food. With a master's degree in environmental journalism from UM, Auld has worked as a farmer, classroom teacher, and environmental educator. Now, she spends her summers helping journalists navigate and embrace new ways of storytelling. The MML offers customized online and in-person workshops on podcasting, video editing, smartphone storytelling, social media, and more for news rooms across Montana and the country.