The Buzz on The Buzz

By Jennifer Giri and Claire Paterson

If you’re reading this, you must know that The Buzz is the current BHS student newspaper. But it wasn’t always called The Buzz, and it certainly wasn’t always the way it is today.

First, and most obviously, our paper used to be just that – a paper. We used to have a physical newspaper that would run every so often and contain an abundance of student work. Now, however, our news is only available on a web page, branfordbuzz.com.

So what else has changed in the paper, and what has prompted such drastic alterations?  Everything seems to have one common denominator: school spirit.

Ms. Butler, a past student and teacher here at BHS and the former advisor to The Buzz, talked to us about what the paper used to be like. Not only did the name change from The Hornet, to the Hornet Herald, to The Sting, to The Buzz, but so did the content. This is only natural considering that the newspaper has been around since around 1938. But some things never change.

Looking back at a newspaper from 1964, with the headline being “Hornets, Sting Yellow Jackets”, the rivalry between Branford and East Haven has been going on for what feels like forever.  It’s still covered today, as illustrated in an article published on the Buzz two years ago about the ongoing competition.

Something very apparent when looking at the old versions of The Branford Buzz (when it had a different title) is the presence of student-produced artwork and opinions.  Today we cover hard news about things that are going on in the school.  In the past, these sort of stories were still published, but along with comics poking fun at staff and articles claiming students as “student of the month” or something similar.

Our school has long offered something unique that most high schools would be afraid to allow.  Butler said, “We had a principal who believed in freedom of speech, because as you know, you don’t have freedom of speech in high school journalism. It can be edited or proofed by anyone and you can lose your article. But our principal Dr. Higgins believed that everybody had the right to say it.”  And the same rings true with Mr. Panagoulias, according to The Buzz supervisor, Mr. Miller.

When Ms. Butler was in charge of the school newspaper, many people would send “Letters to the Editor” in order to get their thoughts put into the paper without necessarily being a part of it.  In one issue, a girl wanted to publish an article on the idea that anyone on welfare in America should be killed.  After talking with the principal and the girl, it was decided that she had the right to have it publish. Needless to say, the next issue was completely full of letters to the editor in response to the her opinion.

Recently, within the past four years, Mr. Miller has become the head of the newspaper department. He works with the digital journalism class and the club members of The Buzz to write articles. It has gone completely digital. This is for a couple of reasons. Miller said that previous from the digital changes, it was “very difficult to put out issues and it seemed dated.”

The cost of printing is expensive, and compared to a “$20 fee per year” to create and publish on a website, it wasn’t worth it. Also with instant access and updates fed through Twitter, there is more of a chance students will be interested enough to read it.

We want you, the reader, to give us some feedback. The school newspaper brought spirit and widely talked about subjects and ideas throughout the years. It used to be a cherished item at the high school, but without student interest, The Buzz could be forgotten.

What do you want to see in the newspaper? Do you have ideas to modernize the newspaper? If so, send us your feedback.