Law, Ethics & News Literacy
Introduction
Halfway through my junior year, I started taking journalism lessons from the Student Journalism program of the Wisconsin Institute of Public Policy and Service. Weekly, we'd discuss concepts of ethical coverage and alternating viewpoints, debating individual words present in national articles. The lessons gave a name to the push-and-pull I'd felt with administration and within myself when reporting for Ladue Publications. By understanding this vital aspect of student journalism, I hoped to educate my community and advocate for student press freedom across the nation.
SPLC New Voices
In the summer of 2024, I attended the Student Press Law Center's New Voices Institute to understand student press freedom in Missouri. In the last legislative session, a bill was introduced to pass the Cronkite New Voices Act, but was shot down before it even reached the Senate floor. In this institute, I learned about the barriers student press freedom was still facing and drafted a plan with another Missouri student leader. Together, we wrote op-eds and spoke with professional advocates to uncover ways to expand press freedom for Missouri's journalists. In this year's legislative session, a new bill has been introduced and I am working to make it pass.
Photo by the Student Press Law Center.
Reporting
Anonymous Sources
Anonymous sources are one of the largest debates in ethical journalism. On one hand, they're necessary to protect the identity of the source — but on the other, they subtract from the article's integrity by failing to provide credibility. During my time as an in-depth reporter and then editor, I had this conversation over and over with my fellow staff members. Most times, we decided against it due to insufficient need. There are, however, two times during which we utilized anonymity.
This story dealt with funding disparities between St. Louis public schools. In one interview, I spoke to a community member that had just transferred from a highly underfunded school in the area; they told me about the hardships they experienced at their past school, particularly with the facilities. They asked me to keep their identity anonymous because they had only transferred a few months ago — the individual still had friends in their past district, and didn't want to come across as ungrateful. I agreed, because I determined that anonymity would have no impact on the article's integrity.
This story explored fear of missing out (FOMO) within high school students. An aspect that my co-writer and I really wanted to cover was party culture — something that many high schoolers often feel pressured to be a part of, whether they want to or not. In this article, I interviewed a student who had gotten drunk at a party, which is obviously illegal for someone of their age. to protect this student from prosecution and continue with our story, we decided to keep them anonymous as it didn't interfere with the reputability of the story as a whole.
Hyperlinking Evidence
In every story, I ensure that evidence is properly cited. This is especially relevant in opinions pieces, where evidence serves as justification for the claim as a whole — without proper citation, the entire argument becomes moot. The quickest way to do this, I've found, is through hyperlinking sources. I did so in my piece on former Vice President Kamala Harris' laugh. I referenced media articles and history throughout the opinion, using the examples to strengthen my argument. Doing so allowed me to be ethically sound while writing the piece, ensuring that each piece of evidence was factual.
Balancing Sources
Over the summer, I reported on the Francis Howell School Board's discussion of book-banning policies. Before the meeting started, I interviewed petitioners out front to understand the climate of the community. There were many more supporters of the library than there were those who were for book banning, which made it hard to report impartially. When I got back to my desk, my editor told me to incorporate this dichotomy into the story. He said that it ethically made sense to balance the sources to show more of one side's perspective, since it was more representative of the event.
Editing
Editorial Policy
During my senior year, I started off my role as executive editor in chief of Ladue Publications by combing through our editorial policy. It hadn't been updated since 2022, and failed to take into account modern ethical concerns. I added an AI policy, which proved necessary multiple times when copy-editing stories, and updated the corrections policy to consider social media platforms, among other edits.
Corrections
The new corrections editorial policy proved useful when, during Ladue Publications' 2024 Election Issue, we left off a candidate from our "On the Ballot" page. Immediately after discovering the mistake, I produced and posted the following post on our Instagram page to make it clear that the mistake was not intentional — and to set a precedent that Ladue Publications acknowledges and rectifies its mistakes.
News Literacy
When creating a list of stories to cover for Panorama's November Election Issue, I knew I wanted to dive into the basics of politics — reporting on terms and facts that many high school freshmen and sophomores aren't aware of. So, I worked with Ladue Publications' editorial board to conceive the "On the Ballot," and "Terms to Know" pages. These provided basic political information, ensuring that our readers understood what was happening on both the local and national scale.
