Improve your school newspaper with AI

Your AI school newspaper assistant

Think of search and generative AI tools as your personal high school newspaper assistant. While your specific school AI policy may limit the use of AI in the writing of articles for the school newspaper, there are several other ways that AI can support student work and learning that may be approved by your school.

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Help with content ideas

Unsure of what to write about or need fresh ideas for your student newspaper? You might turn to AI for content brainstorming help. Come up with article topics and other ideas by checking in on trends, learning from stellar article examples, and more. Try prompts like these to get started:

• List 10 award-winning school newspaper articles and analyze why the topics worked so well.
• I want to create interactive content for my school newspaper’s website. Give me five creative ideas with examples of how they work.
• List 20 trending topics that are particularly relevant to high school students in [location].
• Provide a list of the 10 most respected high school newspapers across the country and explain what makes them great.

Research stories

Great journalism requires thorough research and fact finding. Search and generative AI tools act as powerful research assistants that can summarize information, provide links to sources, and help writers quickly gather context. If a topic isn’t clear, ask AI more questions to get to the bottom of it. Try prompts like these to employ AI as a high school newspaper research assistant:

• I’m researching extreme weather in my town. Make a list of all extreme weather events on record in [location], and note if you can find information on how the high school was affected.
• I’m writing an article about how philanthropy works. Where can I find the most reliable sources?
• Find data from the last five years on the cost of college tuition at liberal arts colleges in [state]. Provide sources for all information, and include raw URLs.

Fact-check

Before your student newspaper goes to print, you’ll want to make sure every t is crossed and every fact is checked. Learn the art of fact-checking and confirm sources with AI help. Try prompts like these to make sure your facts are fit to print:

• How do I fact-check to the highest standard? Provide a list of rules to follow.
• Fact-check this paragraph and provide sources to support each statement. For any statement you can’t support with research, tell me how else to check.
• Provide contact information for local records offices where I can fact-check county data.

Create a social media strategy

Reach more students in more places by improving your high school newspaper’s social media presence. Find student readers where they are and pique their curiosity with strategic social media posts. Try prompts like these to improve your paper’s reach and engagement:

• Develop a social media strategy to engage student newspaper readers. Lay out a rough plan for the full school year. Make suggestions of key topics or events to post about and include the most popular hashtags.
• How can we make our high school student newspaper social media posts more engaging?
• What should we know about social media best practices to have a successful social media account for our high school newspaper?
• How can we make our student newspaper more engaging? Give examples of polls, quizzes and other interactive ideas that have helped other newspapers expand their readership.

While you’re putting together your student newspaper, know that AI tools are there to help you create solid editorial content, enhance your journalistic skills, and share it all with your fellow students.