By Matt Mackinder
Clarkston News Editor

With the internet and social media being what they are when it comes to disseminating news to readers and subscribers, print media still serves a major role in that realm, according to a handful of Clarkston High School students that took Brooke Davis’ Current Events class in the second semester of the 2022-23 school year.
Cameron Arkinson, an incoming senior, said he gets The Clarkston News mailed to his family’s house and that “it’s very important because it’s one of the main ways that I can find out about things that happened.”
The majority of students surveyed said they get their news from online sources, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, podcasts, other apps), and television.
Katelyn Farrelly, a 2023 graduate, said The Clarkston News gets a 7/10 in importance in getting local news.
“I like knowing what is going on in my community and recognizing people in the newspaper,” Farrelly said.
Farrelly also said that she feels other forms of media cannot be trusted as much as the local paper.
“Other media outlets for news may be more money motivated,” said Farrelly. “Local news writers are also more well known and because of that, may strive to do their part in the community and to correctly inform others.”
Another 2023 CHS grad, Connor Hill, said online news sources are credible. He said he uses Apple News, Google, and Feedly to get his information.
“I think a lot goes into the news we read and it takes a lot of people to produce the final product,” Hill said. “(The Clarkston News) is important. They need to find stories and produce them.”
Incoming senior Zach Juzysta said The Clarkston News is important to keep the community informed, other news sources are not 100 percent accurate.
“I think that a lot of the time, they are telling the truth, but there also are times they aren’t,” Juzysta said. “For example, TikTok people can just say whatever they want and they will try to get views.”
Ethan Line, a 2023 grad, said his hometown paper is “important to have a steady source of local news that is relative to you.”
Abigail McGrath, another 2023 graduate, said she gets “about 10-15 percent” of her local news from The Clarkston News. She noted that she trusts most online news sources “because they are big, trustworthy news sources.”
Recent grad Malachi Sievers explained that he gets the news from The Clarkston News and social media, but favors the local paper as “it’s important and the only way I really every see local news.”
Sievers added that TV and social media are generally legit places to find news.
“TV news is normally more trustworthy than social media news, but not entirely,” Sievers said. “Social media news is biased or inaccurate a lot of the time, and the people who normally replay to social media news are normally very biased as well.”
Kelsey Smith, an incoming senior at CHS, said she gets news from school, her dance team, and Snapchat. Smith also noted that The Clarkston News serves a key role in letting residents “see what is happening in our town.”
Another inoming senior, Desman Stephens, said The Clarkston News is important “during sports seasons but other than that, I don’t look too much.”
Stephens also said online news associations are trustworthy “because they try not to show bias and show multiple sides and not neutral side of a story.”
Two more 2023 graduates, Alex Suida and Nathan Whitley, agreed that The Clarkston News is a key component of the Clarkston community, but differed on online news organizations.
“Those other sources can be biased and censored since it’s broader media topics,” said Suida.
“Most of them (can be trusted) because I take a combination of the results from multiple sources and use them to form an educated opinion,” added Whitley.

PHOTO: Incoming CHS seniors Zach Juzysta, left, and Desman Stephens, right, enjoy the local news. Photo: Brooke Davis