Small-town schools find small-town ways to entertain themselves. Whether it be reading student-written articles or scrolling through the school pages to look at the latest happenings. For Lewis Cass High School, a group of students comes together to create a main base of entertainment for others. Students at Lewis Cass are welcome every other week to watch the Kings’ Cast. Ideas plotted straight from scratch, the newspaper staff works week by week to put the funniest yet most informational footage, on students’ screens.

     Through filming and editing, a lot of time and effort goes into making the Kings’ Cast. The online newspaper class at Lewis Cass is able to discover many aspects of journalism whether it is filming, editing, or writing scripts. The Kings’ Cast has a wide range of features such as sports updates per season, featured athletes, fun challenges, student-involved interviews, and even bloopers. Members are able to engage in these interviews which are not only fun but may inspire them to join the class so they are able to be on the other side of the camera. It takes a lot of time and dedication for students in the journalism class to put the broadcast on the Promethean for fellow peers’ entertainment. Each student has a special talent or trait that they contribute to the making of the Kings’ Cast whether it is editing abilities, creative filming ideas, or the good humor to pull them off. Time is either a friend or a foe for the journalism class, especially the editors. Sophomore, Raegan Mundy is one of the students in the journalism class who contributes to the editing. Raegan was asked what goes into editing the Kings’ Cast. She responded with,  “A lot goes into editing the Kings’ Cast. We have to create and record the transitions, make cuts, and be sure that everything is in order.” What may look like something very small, may have been something that took the longest to edit. When asked what the biggest challenge is when editing, Mundy said, “The biggest challenge is probably the amount of time that we have, sometimes we have a lot of time and sometimes we don’t have more than two days to get everything done.” The editing team can have a really good week with lots of time and availability, or they could have a really stressful week with not much time to get things done. Lastly, when asked about how much time goes into editing the Kings’ Cast, Reagan mentioned, “It really depends on when we get done filming everything and also when we’re all available to edit. Sometimes we can get it done in a day or two and sometimes we’re racing the clock to get it done.”

    Kings’ Casts have been filmed and uploaded for seven years. Students are still able to go onto the Kings’ Cast YouTube page and look at past broadcasts. Many improvements in not only technology but the segments of the Kings’ Cast are very visible. Even improvements can be seen from last school year compared to this year. James (Michael) Myers, a returning junior member of the newspaper class, was asked what looks different between these two years. Michael said, “We seem more focused this year, which allows for us to have bigger and grander ideas for our broadcasts.” It takes a lot of focus from everyone in the class to bring together a broadcast that will please students all throughout Lewis Cass, and people outside of the school. When asked what he believes makes a Kings’ Cast entertaining, Michael replied, “The usage of our student body gives us the ability to connect with our audience.” Students are able to engage in challenges, interviews, voting, and much more. This trait allows the Kings’ Cast to show the closeness of Lewis Cass’ student body. Michael was also asked what has been his favorite segment of the Kings’ Cast the class has done so far this year. James mentioned, “My favorite segment this year was definitely the teacher signature segment. It was a fun challenge digging through yearbooks and Facebook to find the older pictures used.” Journalism staff digs deep to find these trends off of any social media so that viewers can see students taking on these trends. 

     Being able to have a main source of entertainment as a student can be hard to find, but with a group like the journalism staff here at Cass that is capable of making such humorous and informative broadcasts, any student can find their boredom fading away the second that Drake and Josh parody intro song comes on. As the videos keep coming, we hope the laughs will continue, and the bonds will grow. Ideas will sprout, and trends will emerge, inspiring more footage. The journalism staff encourages you to watch their broadcasts every other week on the Kings’ Courier website, or their YouTube page, “Kings’ Cast.”