Welcome to Tuesday Tips, where we share expert advice to help you craft exceptional yearbooks. In this episode, Michelle Valenzuela, one of our experienced sales team members with extensive experience as a yearbook adviser, offers strategies for featuring the upcoming election while staying fair and balanced. From visual ideas to storytelling techniques, her insights will inspire you to capture this historic moment with creativity and accuracy.
Now that you’ve heard some expert tips from Michelle on how to stay fair and balanced when featuring the election in your yearbook, scroll down for additional resources and ideas from the Balfour archive:
1. Keep Your Visuals Balanced and Fair
- Use royalty-free images or creative student artwork to maintain fairness and avoid copyright issues.
- Use photos from public domain sources like whitehouse.gov
- You could also perform a Creative Commons search!
- Consider purchasing stock images from AdobeStock or Shutterstock, or take advantage of student publication discounts through AP or Tribune News Service.
- Incorporate illustrations from Pixabay or have students create artwork for a unique touch.
- Design your spread to give both sides equal visual weight—consider a symmetrical layout to ensure balanced representation.
- We’re also creating and crowdsourcing illustrations that are available on the election page of the Balfour Exchange.
2. Stick to the Facts with Objective Copy
- Ensure your text is professional, factual, and free of bias or controversial language.
- Use neutral phrasing to capture key moments without favoring any side, keeping your coverage informative and balanced.
3. Get Creative with Your Coverage
Michelle suggests adding variety to your coverage with fun, engaging elements:
- Election Timeline: Document the journey leading up to Election Day with a timeline of key events.
- “I Voted” Selfies: Feature a collage of students and teachers showing off their “I Voted” stickers.
- Student Polls: Conduct a mock election and display the results in a visually appealing poll.
- First-Time Voters: Highlight seniors voting for the first time and share their personal reflections.
- Campaign Involvement: Showcase students and staff who volunteered for campaigns and tell their stories.
“Election coverage can be balanced, fair, and focused on the facts,” Michelle emphasizes. “And don’t forget to get administrative approval before submitting your spread.”
Expanding Your Coverage: Additional Resources and Ideas from the Balfour Archive
Creative Coverage Ideas:
- Viral Moments: Capture key highs and lows from the campaign, including humorous events like the fly in the vice-presidential debate.
- Quote Highlights: Feature soundbites from candidates, journalists, and celebrities to bring your spread to life.
- Teacher Reflections: Ask teachers about the first election they voted in and share their memories.
- Social Media Reactions: Include tweets and social media posts from students, teachers, and celebrities about the election and debates.
- Down-Ballot Races: Cover state and local elections to highlight issues relevant to your community.
With these tips from Michelle and resources from the Balfour archive, your yearbook election spread is sure to engage readers while remaining fair, balanced, and respectful. Let’s make this election season one to remember!
Balfour remains neutral on political issues. Our role is to simply to provide top-quality printing services to our partner.
