Standard 2—Legal and Ethical Principles of Scholastic Journalism
Legal Principles: In the prerequisite class for being on staff, we learned about key Supreme Court cases like Tinker v. Des Moines and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier that paved the way for the scholastic journalism we are involved in. However, the treatment of journalism in schools continues to be a fluid issue. In 2017, I had the chance to attend the hearing for House Bill 1130, which, had it gone through, would have given protection to student journalists, essentially establishing public forums for all school journalism programs in Indiana. This experience allowed me to see the extent of censorship in other schools in the state, which I didn't understand because we are fortunate enough to operate as a public forum already. I've never had to worry about facing censorship from the principal or other staff members, a practice that allows our publication to be diverse and creative in its topics. Thus, I have worked to put out the highest quality of content possible as a way to thank the school and honor the administration’s trust in our publication.
Ethical Principles and Guidelines: I co-wrote two stories that both required a FERPA form. This gave us parental permission to use their children as sources in relation to their conditions and any treatments necessary to care for them (essentially, information that would be confidential otherwise). For other stories, sources have asked if they can remain anonymous. Since it is our policy to name all sources we reference, I verified the quotes with these sources and ensured that they were okay with being portrayed in that light. Moreover, I voice record interviews in order to be as accurate as possible, and I do not stray from the audio recordings when placing quotes into the story. I did help with a story about unconventional living standards that was biased in the initial draft, but we continued to make revisions and ultimately published a story that was much more objective.
Legal Principles: In the prerequisite class for being on staff, we learned about key Supreme Court cases like Tinker v. Des Moines and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier that paved the way for the scholastic journalism we are involved in. However, the treatment of journalism in schools continues to be a fluid issue. In 2017, I had the chance to attend the hearing for House Bill 1130, which, had it gone through, would have given protection to student journalists, essentially establishing public forums for all school journalism programs in Indiana. This experience allowed me to see the extent of censorship in other schools in the state, which I didn't understand because we are fortunate enough to operate as a public forum already. I've never had to worry about facing censorship from the principal or other staff members, a practice that allows our publication to be diverse and creative in its topics. Thus, I have worked to put out the highest quality of content possible as a way to thank the school and honor the administration’s trust in our publication.
Ethical Principles and Guidelines: I co-wrote two stories that both required a FERPA form. This gave us parental permission to use their children as sources in relation to their conditions and any treatments necessary to care for them (essentially, information that would be confidential otherwise). For other stories, sources have asked if they can remain anonymous. Since it is our policy to name all sources we reference, I verified the quotes with these sources and ensured that they were okay with being portrayed in that light. Moreover, I voice record interviews in order to be as accurate as possible, and I do not stray from the audio recordings when placing quotes into the story. I did help with a story about unconventional living standards that was biased in the initial draft, but we continued to make revisions and ultimately published a story that was much more objective.