Law, Ethics & News Literacy

Publications classes are almost entirely student run. Especially yearbook, we create our own stories, spreads, and covers. That can be hard some times spreads fall apart, some win awards and same goes with stories. Having a student run class can have conflicts but we all have to learn to move on and agree on it. Whether it is how we cover showstoppers or a design choice. One of my staff members wanted to do a showstopper on our athletic department, she had whole story going and an idea of the design. We were not able to report it even more because the head of the department had her baby. My football story was about leadership, and looking up to others, but we already knew that. We knew they watch films together every Wednesday or that they go bowling as a team. I didn't dig deep enough to a story that could have been amazing. As a class we struggle with club coverage. We go to meetings but we somehow always miss the action going on. We as a staff need to go to ALL the meetings and write down and report what clubs do and when they are going to do it. We decided to send out a google from to the whole school about clubs. The form consisted of question's like what is your favorite event that your clubs do?, What upcoming events are you most excited for? People always ask why yearbooks are so expensive but you are paying for the book we built from one spread to another, from a story about homecoming to a story about girls and boys lacrosse. No, we don't get paid so what do we get from it? It's about learning how to write AP style, and how to do proper reporting. I did not know about law and ethics until my Sophomore year. My photojournalism teacher showed us the film "Shattered Class". It was about a journalist named Stephen Glass who faked multiple stories for The New Republic. This has stuck with me because it showed the consequences of what could happen if you didn't tell the whole truth. Not only with me but with my whole staff. For students to see the yearbook at the end of the year, they want something real even if they don't know it they want real reporting. Real stories from that school year to eventually look back on it.