Law, Ethics and News Literacy
Ensuring the quality of my reporting and the overall work of the staff is of critical importance. Reporting is the foundation of any stories and reliable, knowledgeable and diverse sources are a necessary element for that. In my work I always strive to hear from all stakeholders and get outside opinions. I often turn towards Stanford University across the street to get professional perspectives and to validate my findings or what I've heard from other sources. For example, in my news story "E-cigarette epidemic sparks concern: Board, PTSA struggle with vaping as deaths mount," I noted differences in the research around e-cigarette's health impacts and upon further investigation found that some studies were funded by e-cigarette companies like Juul. To make sure I was citing the most accurate information and get deeper insight, I attended a lecture at Stanford by Professor of Pediatrics Bonnie Halpern-Felsher.
VERIFYING INFORMATION
After a story has been published, I follow up with the sources referenced to confirm that the information reported is accurate and to confirm they feel they were accurately represented. On Verde we ask all story writers to go through this process as it helps us identify any potential issues that may have slipped by us and sometimes sources have ideas for additional areas we should explore in the future. The below example is an email I sent to a Paly student I interviewed for a news story.
KNOWLEDGEABLE SOURCES AND PERSONAL BIAS
Photo: Zoë Wong-VanHaren
Every reporter approaches a story with their own perspective, experiences and values. These elements have influence over all aspects of our lives including what stories we choose to write yet in the reporting and writing process, we strive for the truth untainted by our personal lens. Accomplishing that goal — the pursuit of the truth — means acknowledging my unique frame of reference and being mindful of my personal engagements with the topics in my stories.
"The role of religion" was a feature story I pitched based on the diverse religious sentiments within my own extended family. I've never been to church whereas my cousins went every Sunday and said grace with every meal. But I watched some of my cousins break away from the church as they grew up and I was curious to explore religious trends in the Palo Alto community.
In approaching this story, I knew I was limited to my own atheist perspective and my experience with my Christian family. So I stayed conscious of that and made sure to speak with diverse and knowledgeable sources that could provide unique outlooks from different experiences with religion that would make my article more complete and also help me check my any assumptions I may hold. In addition to various Paly students who were able to give insight into their perspectives and experiences, we spoke with the pastor of a local church who provided the new angle of a religious leader and who — with his longer experience with religion compared to our high school sources — was able to speak to more long term trends. For a less personal and more academic perspective to separate fact from perception, we interviewed Barbara Pitkin, a senior lecturer in religious studies at Stanford University.
Every source and every reporter comes with their own frame of reference, but in merging various perspectives in my articles, I am able to build a more complete picture of the truth.
INCORPORATING CONTEXT
Journalism isn't just about honestly communicating the situation and the topics of discussion, but clearly communicating as well. An effective way to ensure I am accurately representing my sources is to make sure I incorporate sufficient context. For example, in my story "The calculating consumer," we talked about SoulCycle and Equinox which are owned by a company which faced backlash after its chairman hosted a fundraiser for President Donald Trump. We interviewed one woman who canceled her membership as a result and also a Paly alumna who chose to continue. Initially we had minimal context around the quotes but an editor raised concern that in this simplified format readers may extrapolate that the alumna was a Trump supporter. In order to make sure we were accurately representing her we changed the section to clarify that she did not approve of the Trump fundraiser and the reason she continued was because she prioritized her experience as a customer over the chairman's politics.
Art by Samantha Ho
STUDENT PRESS RIGHTS
"With great power comes great responsibility." As student journalists in California, we are lucky to wield such power and I appreciate the significance of that. The laws that allow us to critique, praise and question are the foundation of our publication. So even though I wasn't directly involved, the incident that took place on Nov. 4, 2019 between a couple of Verde staffers and campus security sticks with me as a reminder of the importance of defending those rights. At the beginning of 5th period — when Verde meets, cops ran across campus chasing a robbery suspect and an officer fell and was injured in the process. After an all clear announcement was made, three Verde reporters went to investigate and photograph the scene. Though they stayed well behind the barriers campus security had set up around the injured cop, campus staff tried to make them leave and even blocked the camera lens. They ignored the students explanations that they were within their rights to photograph in a public space.
The news story covering the police on campus was published that day with a photo then-Editor-in-Chief Emma Donelley-Higgins faced challenges in taking. But the interaction and disregard for student press law demonstrated by campus staff sparked a conversation that stretched on beyond the news event. In addition to our class wide discussion in which we dissected the situation, the EICs contacted the Student Press Law Center to get professional input on the legal elements. An SPLC attorney confirmed that reporters should not have been deterred as they were. In the end, we published an editorial calling on Paly staff and administration to better educate themselves on student press law and abide by it.
Engaging with this conflict and the conversations around it reminded me not to take the rights afforded me as a student journalist for granted. And it prepared me to step up and defend those rights if the need arises. While those freedoms are vast, I am also keenly aware that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. As EIC I think critically about the impact the work we publish will have in the community and I carry with me the responsibility of reporting fairly and safely.
ANONYMOUS SOURCES
In our news story "Coronavirus impacts Palo Alto: Students, officials crush rumors of disease in city" from February 2019, we also used an anonymous source for a student who spoke about his family's experience with the virus since we were unable to obtain consent from his mother regarding his discussion of her medical history.
In my reporting and editing work, there have been times when I have worked with sensitive topics and sources which require an extra level of care. For example, in my feature story "Digital Deportation," we interviewed a family of undocumented immigrants from our community. To make sure that they felt as comfortable as possible in speaking with us, we only sent my story partner who knew them personally and Verde's photo director who was fluent in Spanish and thus better able to lead the interview. We were careful to protect their identities throughout the reporting and story writing process. In our text, we substituted their names for "Maria" and "Eric" of course noting the change and the reason behind it. For design we turned to art since people focused photos were out of the question.
Photo: Myra Xu
SAFE MESSAGING TRAINING
I organized a safe messaging training for our staff with the County of Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services. I had a representative come and give a presentation to our class about responsible reporting regarding mental health and suicide. We also went over a sample article and discussed what the journalists did well and what areas they could improve in. This training gave me and my Verde peers the information to cover challenging topics confident that we are making ethical and responsible decisions in our coverage.
We unfortunately needed this information when a person was killed on the train tracks by our school. Very little information was available at the time and we chose not to publish until we knew more about the situation. Initially we had considered making a news announcement over social media but in reflecting on our training decided if it were a suicide it would be irresponsible to share details regarding method and location (really the only information we had at the time).
TEACHING NEWS LITERACY IN CAMP MAC
In the summer of 2020, I was a counselor in the virtual version of Camp MAC — a camp run by Paly journalism students that introduces 8th and 9th graders to journalism. Over the course of a week, students learn about journalism skills and put them in practice. Their work is collected and published in a print magazine that is sent home to families (seen right). The proceeds from the camp help fund the Paly journalism program.
As a counselor, I helped design and implement lessons on reporting, interviewing, writing and more and I worked with kids on projects that included personality profiles, news stories and sports coverage. I recognized that not all of those students would go on to pursue journalism, but I wanted them to leave camp with a better understanding of what quality journalism entails and to have the critical thinking skills to filter out fake news.
