Lights, Camera, Action

A new MTV show shines the spotlight on high school journalism.

By Holly Beilin

First Published: Fall 2007

Cypress Bay High’s journalism class has more to worry about than deadlines.

The class is starring in MTV’s newest high school series, “The Paper,” which will air in January. The show focuses on the lives of students involved with the school’s newspaper, The Circuit.

“We’ve been in disbelief ever since we heard that we were chosen to do the show,” says Amanda Lorber, a senior, the paper’s editor-in-chief and a main character in “The Paper.” “It’s just starting to sink in now.”

MTV shot a pilot for the show last spring and came back to the school this year to film the first season’s eight episodes.

The show has several main characters and depicts them researching, writing and editing stories.

Being followed by cameras “was weird at first,” says senior Adam Brock, The Circuit’sbusiness manager. “It blended into my environment pretty quickly, though.”
MTV installed microphones on the ceiling of the newspaper classroom and wired the room for sound. The film crew also followed students outside of school and to all functions related to the newspaper, including an ice cream party at Lorber’s house.

“The Paper” will not follow in the footsteps of popular reality shows like “Laguna Beach.” It is produced by MTV News and Docs, the more serious branch of MTV, and is being marketed not as a reality show, but as a documentary series.

“The normal teen isn’t all about drinking or partying,” Brock says. “There are smart, intellectual kids.”

“The Paper”will show what goes into putting together a high school newspaper – a worthy subject, journalism teacher Rhonda Weiss says.

“I hope it shows people how much hard work and dedication goes into journalism,” she says. “The media gets a bad rap, but it is so important to our society. People don’t realize that.”

This article is reprinted with permission from Teenlink South Florida, a publication of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.