Web and
Social Media
The Home of "The Hawk Eye"
“The Hawk Eye” has made tremendous strides in the print edition, but Hebronhawkeye.com has always been our newspaper’s proper home. It is the place we post every story we write, and the true No. 1 source for news at Hebron. This makes the way the website is run crucial.
I did not start out invested in different story layouts. In truth, I had very little care for it. The stories were what mattered to me; posting something on the website just meant clicking a few buttons to make sure it got posted correctly.
As I grew more involved in “The Hawk Eye,” I grew more invested in our website. My sophomore year, I scrolled through the publications bringing in mountains of awards at convention and those who won Gold Stars. Each one had an impressive catalogue of even more impressive stories, but what made me start comparisons was the website layout of each publication I looked at.
The next year, my goal was to take the success that I saw and replicate it. I worked hand-in-hand with our web editor over the summer and throughout the year to come up with specific story layouts and tweak our overall website design.
Other Features
While I didn’t do the “heavy lifting” of the website’s remodeling, I sat down with my web editor at the time daily to talk about ideas for what we should include and what could be taken off. The vision we shared was simple: we wanted “The Hawk Eye” to be the place that students could turn to when they want any information regarding Hebron or the Hebron community. To do this, we walked through what we get online to do and looked at professional and scholastic newspapers in our area. Below are the sidebars of the homepage that we chose to include and why we chose them.
The weather was something my web editor and I went back and forth on. While we both thought the idea was neat, and that it was a staple on the old website’s design, we weren’t sure how much people would check it. Having the weather wouldn’t draw people to the website, but we chose to include it because it could still be something helpful for someone who happens to be on our website.
Living in Texas, football will always be one of the biggest topics in the state. No matter if its at school or work, "Did you watch the game last night?" is an always relevant question. Aiming to draw more traction to the website and live up to our claim of being the No. 1 source for news at Hebron High School, we added sports scores to the website. After every game, one of the reporters on each sport's beat would update the score on the website. This allows for website viewers to look at the most live scores possible or see our website as a place to find information regarding Hebron Athletics.
Our "Trending Stories" has become a sense of pride for "The Hawk Eye" staff. If your story makes it up there, you can see how many people actually read your story every month. While the reward of seeing your story under "Trending Stories" is important, the
feature has a second use for editors: seeing what students
actually want to see. We compare the topics --- sports,
entertainment and opinion are often the most well-received by
viewers --- but also how the story did on social media. The more
our staff members retweet or other organizations comment, the
better the story does. This helps us plan our other stories, and
allows for stories to remain relevant after they leave the story
carousel of latest posts.
Our print edition is the introduction to the newspaper that most Hebron students go through. That being said, not every single one of them takes home editions. Those featured in an article can find a print edition full of our best stories on the website and see the pages designed after their story virtually for an added way to share their story with friends and family.
Sharing Our Voice
The word “screenagers” often comes up whenever someone talks about Generation Z. I can’t say it’s far from true — whether it’s for school or social media, I’m also attached to any electronics I own. While it might not be healthy for society, this can be healthy for a publication.
As a school newspaper, our main audience is students. Teachers and parents might read “The Hawk Eye,” but our stories are written by and for the student body of Hebron High School. This makes our mission to remain active on social media all the more crucial.
Social media has become the tool used by many professional publications to reach their audience — adults and children. Followers scroll through Instagram, TikTok and X to get their news, and most don’t follow through on their interest from headline to link. Though we’re not quite in the big leagues of American journalism, “The Hawk Eye” has similar struggles.
One of the ways we try to remain active and increase attention back to our website is to work with our sources to promote the story. Even a quick repost to one’s Instagram story can boost our stories. Our reporters do the same with their own stories and ask friends to do the same.
I don’t post much on any platform. When I do, it’s usually related to journalism. The apps might be something cute to scroll through every once in a while, but it has become even more of a way to further my scholastic journalism career. Awards might be great and UIL practices might make my face light up, but the simple truth is: stories are written to be read. Social media is the best way to do that.