"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Law, Ethics and News Literacy
Understanding law
The first amendment is everything to a journalist. It was the first idea I was taught when I walked into a journalism classroom. It is stamped on the back of my press pass, keeping it close to my heart. In a state that practices Hazelwood, and as a journalist who has to consider my school's prior review policy, I am well aware of the law. It is equally important that the journalists around me also understand the law. At the beginning of the school year, we begin by going over basic rules such as Associated Press style but also go over plagiarism and citations. Journalistic writing is very different from typical MLA style which is why we take extra care to teach all of the rules. Ultimately, when a journalist makes a mistake with citations, it is their responsibility and the editor's responsibility to fix it.
My press pass!!!
My article about how teachers can practice political beliefs required a lot of consideration of the laws. There are quite a few court cases and laws that consider the roles teachers can and can't have. I took the time to pour over different articles and cases to completely understand teacher limitations. All articles are important, but because this particular article dealt with laws I knew how important it was to portray the information accurately.
For most of my earlier stories, getting and checking facts was not particularly hard but with stories that are breaking such as the return to school plan or the state-wide changes to winter sports, we have to be extra careful with the information that we report. With these stories, we always try to verify information with a trusted source before releasing anything. For example, with the stories about winter sports, we always contact our school's Athletic Director to confirm our information and also get his take on the situation.
​
For my article "The girl behind the mask reveals her story," I had to really consider what information I was including because there was a language barrier. For example, Ashley thought that she had experienced a bullying situation from a teacher but it was never something we could verify because she did not know enough information. I did not include that information in the article because it would be unethical and potentially a lie.
Engaging everyone
When working with The Cougar Star newspaper and yearbook students, they are often all interested in opinion articles. While I love their interests and passion, I try to encourage them out of their comfort zones. I work with them to structure their ideas from an opinion to a feature article (for example). In doing this, they gain more experience and try something that is potentially new for them. They all have so much energy so many of them will honestly do both a opinion and a feature for fun.
We really are not lawyers
There is absolutely no way that I could ever claim that I understand laws relating to journalism completely. I have educated myself through the Student Press Law Center's materials and other sessions held by JEA/MIPA but I still regularly consult my fellow editors, my adviser and google to make sure what we are doing is right. I have used the Student Press Law Center's legal help with smaller questions. Through email, I have consulted their lawyers about laws regarding book covers and Spotify codes. I appreciate and utilize this resource because staying on the right side of the law is extremely important as a journalist and citizen.
It can feel extremely easy to choose a random picture off of the internet to go along with an article. It's tempting, really. What I try to do is make sure that we are being completely lawful about where our photos come from. The way I think about it is that as journalists, we create a form of literature. If someone were to use that literature without proper citations or without permission, we would be extremely angry. The same should apply for journalists, artists, and graphic designers. Even though it is harder, and even though we might not be copyrighted, we uphold the law on The Emery and The Enthymion.
​
I am constantly considering the ways in which I portray my biases with word choice. My job is always to present all sides of the story in order to help the reader make their decision. I have made sure to consider how I am portraying sensitive topics such as the cheating ring, the teacher contract, and the district bond. I also have my adviser and other students read the article solely to detect any bias. Click the buttons below to read the stories.
​
​
