"The Paper" used to be my paper

I learned last school year that MTV would be doing a multi-part “documentary” about my high school newspaper, The Circuit. I was skeptical of how the network that brought you “My Super Sweet 16” would cover a journalism class/newspaper and I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Here is the trailer for “The Paper

The show premiered Monday night after being released Thursday for free on iTunes.

I’ve met most of the kids featured and I didn’t notice any such rancor when I visited, but obviously there’s a wee bit of tension — or more than a wee bit. Nevertheless, they’ve put out some great issues this year, so I can report [spoiler warning?] that the newsroom does not burn down.

As a “reality show,” it is of course not actual reality because people are always going to play to the camera, particularly when two of the featured staffers have been in drama club. Try to guess which ones by commenting below.

I’ll be visiting again sometime during the week of April 28 and perhaps I will do an interview with the featured players and Mrs. Weiss, the most awesome high school newspaper adviser ever.

Stay tuned for that, and the rest of the series — Mondays at 10:30 p.m. on MTV.

Side note: The Miami Hurricane was approached last year by a group that wanted to a reality show about us called “The Chronicles.” We got a good laugh from the mock-up flyer/poster, which hangs in my office, because of how hyped the concept was.

We thought it would be a pretty boring show since there was no office drama and declined.

Weigh in: Did you watch “The Paper?” What did you think?

Related links

MTV’s ‘The Paper’: Where Teens, Journalism and Coolness Meet – Mallary Tenore

Meet some teenagers who are passionate about journalism – Romanesko

MTV‘s New Show Called “The Paper” – premieres on April 14 – Wired Journalists

MTV to air series on high school newspaper – Student Newspaper Survival Blog

MTV on High School ‘Paper‘ Trail – Editor & Publisher

3 thoughts on “"The Paper" used to be my paper”

  1. A few related and unrelated things:

    Delete the “t” in front of “poster”. It’s damaging to the readers.

    I can’t say anything about MTV. I’m a grad, I watch Vh1.

    I can’t help but wonder how many ways I won’t watch this movie. Way number one: I will read random blogs until science grows powerful enough to make us all everlasting and perpetually connected to the web, moment in which proto-epistemology will delete everything that was once televised. The indictment? Lack of context. The human condition would have become bearable for the first time.

    I’ll probably watch it.

    I picked up one edition of The Hurricane from the floor. It caught my attention, something that those orderly displayed in sets fail to do. I opened it up and read an opinion piece from a fellow named Drucker who fancies himself a “free thinker” because he defends incest. French writers have done this for years now, Houellebecq comes to mind. It’s funny how a student ‘free thinker’ in a mainstream educational institution in the U.S. indulges in foreign philosophically libertine notions and makes then his own.

    If I were editor I would prevent my paper from bleeding pretentiousness. It’s the humanist thing to do, don’t you think?

  2. Great, post, Greg. I linked to it on my blog. That’s neat that “The Paper” used to be your paper.

    Cheers,
    ~Mallary

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