Is journalism dead? We at the Rampage would love to think that without us, RHS students would run amok through the halls, aimless and disoriented without their semi-regular source of local, political, and mostly relevant news. Various students were surveyed to find out how much they really know about the Rockville Rampage, Rockville High School’s student-run newspaper. 

“Uhh…what’s that?” senior Nabeel Chen said. 

Great. Now that we’ve established that RHS students don’t really read the Rampage, let alone know what it is, let’s figure out the numbers. In the last 60 days (as of writing), the most viewed article on www.rockvillerampage.com got 136 views in total. In the last 7 days, approximately 35% of views came from outside the United States. Apparently, more people outside of the DMV area want to read articles written by 16 high school students than the people actually at RHS. 

“I’ve definitely read more than one article in my lifetime, but not any from the Rampage,” senior Jillian Clark said. 

The fact is, journalism as a career, an art form, and a media is rapidly changing in a world consumed by AI, misinformation, and short-term content. The Rampage, which used to be printed eight times a year and distributed throughout Rockville High School, now solely exists as a website with very few readers. The most dedicated patrons of the Rampage happen to be the very journalists in Ms. Trazkovich’s eighth-period class, reading and rereading their articles the same way Narcissus stared at his reflection. 

“I mean, I don’t know if journalism is dead…just maybe dead at Rockville High School,” senior Rebecca Coleman said.