Student Journalism
At the forefront of student journalism in NC is the fact that we are not protected to create what we want without the threat of removal from administration. Foard Publications has been incredibly fortunate to have a school district and school that appreciates the work we produce and values student-run journalism.
This year, we felt the pressure. When ICE came into Hickory, I went to a spontaneous protest at Taco Bell. I called another journalist from my class to let him know what was happening in case he wanted to cover it for our broadcast division. We decided that an Instagram Reel would be the best form of coverage for the event. The video unexpectedly took off, gaining 70.8k views, 3,899 likes, 65 comments, 1,127 shares, and 450 reposts. The community response was notable, with both positive and negative comments.
This not only sparked conversation about our newsroom's comment section but also raised some flags at the district level. I held a discussion with our staff about why we covered the event and how we did so without bias, and we also debated whether to include the story in our yearbook. The ultimate decision was that the issue was clearly important to our community, and it needed to be covered.
Educating Our Audience
After the response to our ICE coverage, with community members reaching out to our principal, I reached out to SPLC for guidance. They suggested we share some of our policies and establish the student-led aspect of our program. This was in part to help the public understand what went into covering stories and the process, but also to help protect ourselves because North Carolina does not protect student journalists.
In the spring semester of my senior year, I decided to take our broadcast journalism class again. I had taken it freshman year, so it had been a while. To start off the semester, I did a non-traditional segment explaining what went into creating the yearbook. The anchor of Tiger Eye News also did a segment explaining the broadcast side. The segment served as an educational piece to our viewers, providing high schoolers with news literacy, explaining the checks and balances of our program, and reassurance to the community that we value journalism. It also served as an educational experience for me (I realized I talked way too fast and could work on it).
Click the picture to watch the episode!
Fact Checking
When I attended the School of the New York Times, we met with The New Yorker's associate research director, Teresa Matthew, who explained the extensive process of fact-checking. I never knew how much work went into ensuring a story was air-tight, and hearing about it genuinely sparked something in me. That same day, we had the chance to get some extra reporting done in Greenwich Village, so I went back to all the sources I could and fact-checked my story.
This experience has made me a vigorous leader when it comes to the details of a story. After I got back home, I took a look at how we ensure a story is correct to eliminate any gaps in our process. We created a system where we record our interviews, transcribe them, and upload both to a Google Drive folder. For our feature stories, we visit the subjects, confirm their accomplishments, and talk with others impacted by their stories.
SPLC Encounter
I first heard about SPLC at NCSMI during their annual update on journalistic law. I was very intrigued by the legal aspect and took extensive notes. I didn't realize how much I would be reaching out to them throughout my high school journalism career.
In my junior year, I reached out to SPLC for clarification on our rights as photographers. We had some complications with photographers posting pictures from events on their personal Instagram accounts. I reached out to SPLC to clarify the rights of photographers and the use of photographs in the yearbook. I also met with the administration to discuss press access at events and ensure that our photographers' intellectual property and the integrity of our publication were protected.
Standards and Ethics
In another session of my class at the School of the New York Times, we met with the New York Times Standards Editor, Aisha Khan, to learn how the New York Times created its own guidelines. In our groups, we then created our own Standards and Ethics. The process sparked a lot of debate about AI use and whether or not we thought it was okay for unbiased journalists to be politically active.
When I got to school this year, one of the first things we did was create a Standards and Ethics guide. While we have identified many areas for improvement, the process of creating the guide helped our staff understand that the work they produce is serious. One of the things I have loved about the process is all the conversations it has created and the opportunity to improve our practices every chance we get.