Law, Ethics, and News Literacy

Ethics

As an Editor-in-Chief one of my main responsibilities is to teach the staff about ethics in journalism. It is critical that not only I am spreading accurate information as a journalist, but that I am teaching others about it as well.

When quoting other I have explained the importance of asking first to record the interviewee in order to accurately quote the person in the story. I also emphasize the importance of going to interview in person and taking notes even through they are recording. We have to ensure that the information we are quoting is factual which proves why fact checking is also important.

I edit the third drafts of both print and website writing, when I do edit I ensure I fact check information and also look through everything in great detail to remove any bias in the story. Editorializing can get both the writer and publication as a whole into problems and could also loose our credibility. Because of this, my co-EIC and I take it very seriously and present to our staff the importance of our information being fact checked and correct.

This year we also ensured that all print opinion stories was clearly labeled opinion to make it clear to our audience. In our third issue our cover story is a news story on drugs specifically smoking and vaping. Before each issue The Muse conducts a school wide survey to get statistics to utilize in our story from the student body. For this issue most of the survey was done on google forms as usually, but the questions for the smoking and vaping story was done on paper. This was because we wanted students to feel like they were able to share what they have experienced freely and then fold it when they were finished. My co-EIC and I had to educate the staff on how this issue's survey was running differently. Staffers were supposed to come directly to the newsroom after collecting all the surveys and drop them off in the box so it was entirely confidential and there were no chances of anyones answers getting leaked. Since this is a sensitive topic we decided to have anonymous sources. I worked with the writers of the story to go through the name checking list and choose fake names that do not match with any students name. An example of our layout is junior Mark Cole*. We include the asterisk at the end of the name to emphasize that it is a fake name and we put an explanation as to what the asterisk means on the spread of the story.

All members on the staff are provided personalized press passes. My co-EIC and I explain how they can not be used for personal use and how staffers must be ethical and not just do it to get a free ticket out of an event.

Law

I have also learned more about the laws connected to journalism. Currently The Muse is not under prior review. My co-EIC and I meet often with administration specifically our school principal. We discuss the print stories we are covering with her and get her opinion on any of the stories. Especially if we know a story may be controversial we discuss how we plan to cover the story and what the angle is. There is always the possibility of being censored in the state of Florida so when writing goes through the draft cycle we check each detail. We also have an artist-in-residence which is like an assistant for our class. She is a college student who also does journalism, so we ensure we have her edit over anything that could be problematic to ensure everything is cited and accurate.

We also have a New Voice club on campus which aims to get New Voice legislation passed. Not only am I apart of the club, but The Muse will be partnering with the club on Thursday, Feb. 22 — Student Press Freedom Day during Scholastic Journalism Week to hold an event in the cafeteria. This will allow us to share the important of Student Press Freedom and share more about who were are and our mission when it comes to following the law.

Under the law, we are not allowed to use any preferred names and pronouns. unless a document is signed by a parent. At the beginning of the year we tried to inform those who had any of these so they could get the form signed. Before writing any story I stress to the staff the importance of checking the name checking doc and not just assuming what they think someones name is or what the spelling of a name is.

When it comes to copyright my co-EIC and I had to deal with a situation before the year started. We recieved an email that an image was used that was not ours. While this was an image from a time way before we were on the staff we had to email them and try to get the fine lifted. This has also taught us how we needed to inform our staff about copyright utilizing this senerio. This was the email that we sent to explain our situation:

"This is Sofia Hennessey-Correa and Mariana Colom. We’re the editors of a student-run publication called The Muse, and we’re contacting you in reference to a copyright claim we received for the content that used to be published on our website.

We received the takedown request and removed the offending image from our website.

The case number *** we received was on content that was published in 2017, under a different staff. The students whose stories contained offending images have graduated college and are in no way connected to the current staff. Since then, we’ve also purchased a stock photo service and we educate our staff on proper copyright practices, including which content we can or cannot use under copyright law.

As a student publication at a public high school, we’re entirely funded by the money the students on staff raise through donors, subscribers, and advertisers. We can barely print our issues because we receive no district funding. Paying the fine in its current state might result in us not being able to print an issue out of lack of funds.

Given these circumstances, we hope you’re satisfied with the removal of images we didn’t realize were violations and will cease to pursue the collection of monetary penalties from students.

Thank you,

Sofia Hennessey-Correa and Mariana Colom"

Now, we emphasize the importance of telling the staff that if they need an image they can not take it has to be either creative commons or tribune news source which we pay to have a subscription to.

News Literacy

One of my jobs is to inform staffers about what is reliable news and what is not. With such widespread access to technology like social media and other publications it is important that staffers know what is true and what is not. As a student publication we must not spread fake news and be a reliable publication that our school trusts. We explain to our staff the difference between fake and real news and how to identify it. That way when writers cite other articles or information in their stories they know that the source is a reliable one that can be utilized.