Teen Scene, Inc., located in Leland, and local TV station WWAY announced a new partnership last month. The purpose of the partnership is to bring a wide range of experience and commitment to promoting writing and business skills among teens in the Cape Fear area.

Teen Scene, Inc, a veteran owned non-profit organization, was originally founded in Anniston, Alabama in 2004 by Gerald Decker. The idea was to allow young writers and artists to publish their vision while also learning the basics of what it is like running a business. In June 2020, following a period of inactivity, Teen Scene, Inc. was once again open for business and published their first editions of The Teen Scene for middle and high students and Cape Fear Voices for creative minded adults who want to publish their work.

As a staff member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the ‘70’s, Mr. Decker realized the importance of writing and how building confidence in writing at an early age was a critical to one’s success. Many of the early writers for The Teen Scene are now leaders in their communities as attorneys, business owners, physicians, and even some elected politicians.

Marcy Cuevas, the News Director at WWAY News said “WWAY decided to become a community partner of Teen Scene because their mission is one in which we firmly believe.” When it comes to journalism and writing, cultivating young minds is critically important. Cuevas stated “the youth of today is the future of our industry.”

Marcy Cuevas said the importance of writings from teens and young adults is “even if teens and young adults don’t go into journalism, writing can benefit you in so many other ways.” From learning to express oneself clearly to sharpening your thinking skills, writing is the key to communication. You’ll be able to use this skill well beyond high school and college.

Cuevas said the importance in the role of a journalist is “to keep the public informed, we hold public officials accountable.” She says there’s too much disinformation online in today’s era of 24/7 social media, which means our jobs are more vital than ever when it comes to relaying the facts to the public. During times of disaster, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, we support the community by providing critical information. In journalism it is crucial that every journalist report the truth, not what they hear, but what they see.

What happens if there are no journalists or news people? Cuevas said without journalists there would be a lot of fake news since no one would be fact-checking it. You wouldn’t be aware of events taking place in your neighborhood, new bills being debated, tax ideas, and so on. Alternatively, you may live in a society where the government controls the media. Right now, Russia is a wonderful example of this. They are censoring what is reported by shutting down independent news organizations.

News Channels like WWAY play a huge role in journalism even though they don’t necessarily write in a newspaper. How is that journalism? Cueva

s said “we are storytellers, we make sure the information we report is accurate and fair before we go on air with it.” Journalism isn’t always writing for a newspaper, or on social media, it can be someone who is reporting information live on a news channel. As long as you are reporting any information, pictures, drawings, videos, etc. you are playing a role in journalism.

As part of this partnership, noon anchor Jeff Rivenbark will participate as an Advisory Board Member with Teen Scene, Inc.