Word-centric posts
The ODYSSEY's Word-Centric Posts (WCPs) were a product of my imagination. I follow several national news outlets on social media, and I started looking at their work as an example for what we could be doing. Up to that point, our posts were usually dull, single-slide graphics, with a long caption that we hoped would attract readers to a more informative story. Taking inspiration from professional outlets, I began using Canva to create graphics that conveyed poignant, interesting information on the slides, rather than in the graphic. This proved to work – these posts were more visually engaging and informative, doing a better job of moving our audience from our social media content to our published work.
After Apalachee
Caption: The deadly Apalachee High School shooting occurred more than four months ago, in which time the rest of the country has largely moved on. But, in Barrow County, at Clarke Central High School and in the greater Athens community, the devastating mental health effects of the tragedy persist. “I replayed the whole incident a lot, and the whole time my head is just thinking about the people that lost their lives, the families that will no longer see them again,” Apalachee High School senior Shamir Stokes said. “(I’m) thinking about all of that, and just thinking that this could have been me.” Photos, graphics, and story by Wyatt Meyer
Read Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer’s full investigative news story on the ODYSSEY website. The package is best viewed on a laptop.
I made this post for my article about the mental health effects of the Apalachee High School shooting. In the post, I basically synthesized my story’s roughly 300-word introduction to fit on slides with photos. The design was almost the exact same as the one in the Newsmagazine layout, an important branding detail. The use of spot colors and varying font sizes emphasize the points of the story I want readers to care about, the relative cliff-hanger the post ends on encourages readers to learn more. Despite being text-heavy, the emotional weight of the post made it our second-most-liked piece of content ever, with an ODYSSEY record 16 link taps to read the story. The post was viewed by more than 30,000 people.
Sounds of Safety,
Words of Worry
Caption: After Wednesday’s deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, Clarke Central High School administrators and security officers met with CCHS students to explain the steps being taken to ensure their safety in a Sept. 6 assembly. CCHS Principal Dr. Swade Huff urged students to speak up if they noticed any suspicious activity. “If you see something, say something. If you hear something, say something,” Huff stated in his remarks. “We need your help to make sure Clarke Central High School is a safe space to learn.” Graphics, package, and story by Wyatt Meyer
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Read Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer’s news story on the aftermath of the Apalachee High School shooting on the ODYSSEY website or at the link in bio.
This post was one I made to promote my breaking news story about the CCHS and CCSD safety assemblies. The most important thing to me here was immersion – it’s one thing to read quotes, but it’s another entirely to hear the words spoken by someone. Splicing my audio recording of the safety assembly, I put text on the slides so people could listen and read simultaneously. I divided quotes between whether they were about safety versus fear, doing so to communicate the story better. I’m embarrassed to say I borrowed the final touch from Instagram reels – I thought some movement on the slide might retain viewers’ attention (like how some reels have a Subway Surfers video on the bottom), so I made a moving audio bar on all the slides to mimic that effect.
2024 Election Reactions
Caption: ODYSSEY Media Group editors interviewed 16 students, advisers and journalists from around the country about their reactions to the Nov. 5 presidential election at the National High School Journalism Convention in Philadelphia. Though their reactions came from a small sample of the nation’s student journalists, they told a profoundly different story to the one that broke on Election Night, when Republican nominee Donald Trump won the election. “I was sleeping when the results came in, and I was kind of numb at first,” Gray David, a freshman at Philadelphia’s Springstead Chestnut Hill Academy, said. “When I got to school, I started crying.” Graphics and story by Wyatt Meyer and Liya Taylor, package by the ODYSSEY staff
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To see the full national election reactions package, go to the ODYSSEY website or click the link in bio.
The ODYSSEY Editorial Board interviewed several students and advisers at the National High School Journalism Convention in Philadelphia, publishing a multimedia package about their reactions to the 2024 elections. This post was the design companion to the package, synthesizing the most poignant reactions on social media to promote it. From a design standpoint, I made sure to include lots of faces on the first and subsequent slides, giving every quote a direct voice. Furthermore, the black-and-white color palette, apart from mirroring the one used on our website, contributed to the balance we wanted the package to have – cut and dry reactions.
The Healing Process
Caption: For those in attendance for Clarke Central High School’s 48-21 win over Apalachee High School, a theme emerged: a return to normalcy. After more than three weeks away from competitive football, Apalachee returned to the gridiron aiming to honor the memories of the victims in the deadly shooting at Apalachee on Sept. 4. “We’ll try to prove that we can live up to Coach Aspinwall’s memory. He wanted us to win, and it stinks that we couldn’t have won with him, but now we’re gonna win for him,” Apalachee junior varsity football player Maximus Beaty, a ball boy, said. Photos, graphics and story by Wyatt Meyer
Read a full coverage of the game by Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer on the ODYSSEY website.
This post was the result of a day's reporting on Clarke Central High School’s varsity football game against Apalachee High School. Between myself and two of my staff members, we interviewed several people, and this post was another that aimed to synthesize their reactions to communicate the atmosphere of the event. As the photographer and post designer, I made sure every quote had a visual companion to retain interest, while on the first slide, I tried to innovate – I used ambient noise I recorded from the moment of silence prior to the game to bring viewers into the ambiance of the occasion.
Can we be safe?
Caption: A deadly school shooting at Apalachee High School occurred yesterday, the latest example of the gun violence epidemic in an already long-running series. Despite sparking activity on social media and prompting statements from politicians around the country, Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer worries whether any true action will ultimately be taken. “As I look to our leaders, the people who can enact change on behalf of us as students, I struggle to find evidence for dove-white hope,” Meyer wrote. Graphic by Wyatt Meyer
Read the full editorial on the ODYSSEY website or at the link in bio.
I made this post – and the template for all ODYSSEY editorial posts – after the editorial I wrote about school safety. The post design is simple: a headline with a single spot color if desired, and then subtext including “An editorial by _____.” These words are crucial – I didn’t want anyone mistaking this for an informative piece. From there, the post template remains black and white, taking the most impactful quotes from the story and repurposing them on social media. I borrowed the concept from The Los Angeles Times.
Going Pre-pro
Martin Suiza, Athens United Soccer Association Director of Coaching and Athens FC Director of Operations, stands in Clarke Central High School’s Billy Henderson Stadium on April 29. Suiza collaborated with the United Soccer League to bring a pre-professional soccer club to Athens. “For us to be a thriving organization, we have to be willing to listen and we have to be willing to learn from either our mistakes or mistakes of other clubs, and make sure that we continue to work on our goal of providing the best service for our community,” Suiza said. Photo by Aza Khan, story by Cooper Jones
This post was a more basic application of the Word-Centric Post template (see Design) that I created. The dominant visual and headline bring readers in, with the orange background color signaling a human interest story rather than a hard-hitting piece. The use of photos, including a “slide-to-reveal” aspect where photos are split across slides, encourages readers to keep swiping and engaging with our content. The final flourish on this piece was a schedule, almost like social media multimedia, that supplemented the story for those interested in attending the new pre-professional soccer team’s games.
Passion in the Process
Athens might not be known for its dance scene, but that hasn’t stopped Clarke Central High School students from indulging in it. Dancefx dancer Josephine Thrasher, a junior, spent her young life trying new things, but found dance to be the escape she needed. “When I’m focused on school and work, I need somewhere to go to take my mind off (those things), something that makes me happy. That’s what dancing is,” Thrasher said. Photos by Aza Khan, story by Abigail Holloway, graphic by Wyatt Meyer
Check out the full package on the ODYSSEY website!
This post promoted a multimedia package on two dance studios in Athens. Once again, the background colors – purple and peach – reinforced the human interest aspect of the story, but having two reinforced the juxtaposition of the two dance studios. For the opening slide, the concept was taken from the multimedia package – letters were used as cutouts and photos were placed inside of them. The content of the post used bright colors and photos to bring readers in before promoting the package.
Her Light
Shines On
Caption: Clarke Central High School senior Katherine Queen sits in the Eve Carson Memorial Garden on May 1. Queen received the Eve Carson Humanitarian Spirit Award for the 2023-24 school year, which she perceived as an immense honor. “I (want to use) my college degree to help people as a neuroscience major, being able to make progress (in) the field of either medicine or surgery,” Queen said. “Anything like that can help people, and I think that’ll carry on her legacy.” Photo and story by Aza Khan
For more on Queen’s journey, read Photography Editor Aza Khan’s story on the ODYSSEY website!
This story was about Katherine Queen, the recipient of a CCHS scholarship named for Eve Carson, the star academic student who was killed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In a post as much about Carson as it was about Queen, the blue spot color reinforced the uplifting nature of the story while also mirroring the blue found in UNC Chapel Hill’s mascot. The graphics are fairly simple, but overall work to communicate a cohesive message better than a simple caption.