Although short-staffed and having to start from scratch due to a fresh slate of untrained reporters, SPTV has managed to still put on a show everyday.

Now, SPTV has an introduction class called mass media to help combat that problem. Mass media is a class that teaches students how to create and edit video projects, learn to use computers and find their way through different softwares. This class is essential for this day and age, according to mass media teacher Sara Berghoff.

“Even if you’re never going to go and edit video ever again in your life, the ability to sit down at a computer and be able to find your way through different software is really essential in this day and age,” Berghoff said.

This is the second year that the mass media class has existed. Last year, mass media served as a class for special projects, but Berghoff later decided that she needed it to be more of an introduction class.

Berghoff has a three-year plan for the class because she believes that it will take three years for students to get into the system of taking mass media before SPTV. Although that will leave SPTV short-staffed for the next couple of years, it will lead to a better quality SPTV in the end because everyone on staff will have some background knowledge.

“The goal is that after they take mass media they’ll be able to move into SPTV and eventually we’ll have a higher quality, more knowledgeable SPTV,” Berghoff said.

Senior Payne Sutherland took SPTV, then mass media and now SPTV again. Sutherland believes that mass media made him more comfortable with being on SPTV.

He believes that mass media is a beneficial class to take even if students end up not taking SPTV because Berghoff goes through a step-by-step process of how to use Macs and different computer software before you get to college.

“You learn so much about the equipment,” Sutherland said. 

According to Berghoff, mass media is a self-directed class. She has students go on scavenger hunts around the building to get different videos and then allows them to put those videos together.

Berghoff hopes that the class will get students more comfortable with how to use technology. She also hopes that students will be able to create their own YouTube channels because the class was originally about doing special projects, not an introduction class.

“I tried to set it up so it really gives people an opportunity to come up with interesting creative projects,” Berghoff said.