News literacy
As a scholastic journalist that focuses on news affecting my school, I read more local news than the average person such as our town newspaper "The Patch" or our sister school newspaper "The Blueprint." I also subscribe to our District's monthly newsletters and read newspaper and magazines we receive in exchange programs. Of course, I have always been an avid follower of sports news, especially pertaining to the Cubs or college football.
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I, like most people today, have a heavy visual bias. We are naturally drawn towards pictures and visuals. This is a big reason why media today is moving away from print. Additionally, I have a commercial and bad news bias. I'm naturally more attracted to news that is different or bad. While this is common, I also think it can be attributed to the fact that I'm naturally drawn towards things I can take story ideas from. I know that most readers have a bad news bias, so I am drawn to news for a bad news bias.
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As editor-in-chief, I help others check the sources they include in their story. This includes things as simple as running a quick fact check using diversified media outlets, or things more complex like trying to sift through what the real story is. Often as student journalists adults try to deter us from a story by saying another would be better. It's my job to sit down with writers and figure out what truly is the best story, and usually it's similar to the one they originally planned.
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In sports writing, it is common that athletes will make claims that aren't necessarily true or coaches will give plain, broad quotes. Part of news literacy is assuring that the story you're reporting is the whole truth. We often published a story about a team that consistently did well, but missed the state competition by one point or teams that needed a remodel. Our sports section does not only applaud for our teams, but shows what is really going on in comparison to other years.
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When writing a story about planned renovations, I was indirectly told to stay to basics of the plan with plain quotes. However I knew that if I did not include the controversial quotes that the story would be biased in favor of the school. After double checking the facts matched board documents, I proceeded to write the unbiased story with the truth, not the story that made the school look better.
In more rare cases, a majority of the facts need to be legitimized before a story can be written. This year, a prominent staff member was accused of sexual harassment by multiple students, past and present. An editor came to me with information about the situation before it became public. We had to discuss how to pursue a case that had little to no ground in public information. We ultimately decided to contact the leader of the accusations and waited to write a story until the school released some sort of information. While we waited, we went through trying to find sources that we knew were trusted to be interviewed for a sensitive story. Furthermore, the editor and I were very careful to not automatically side with the accusers.