Laws, Ethics & News Literacy

Sourcing

I used pseudonyms for two girls in my substance use disorder article to protect their safety.

I try to emphasize the importance of source variety as well. For example, I noticed that whenever Eastside covered topics relating to Black identity at my high school or events from the African American Culture Club, editors would always reach out to the same girl. Thus, during one of our Editorial Board meetings, I spoke about this concern to try to increase diversity of perspective in our reporting.

Pictured above is the story I wrote on substance use disorders. Circled is the pseudonym I used for one of the girls interviewed.

Plagiarism / artificial intelligence

In the beginning of the year, one of the section editors came to my co-EICs and I to tell me about how she thought one of the articles someone submitted to her was written by artificial intelligence. When we approached her, she denied it, but then we later found out she actually did utilize it. At the time, we were not sure what consequences to give because this was a situation entirely new to us.

As a result, I attended conference sessions about how to address AI in classrooms and spoke to other EICs to see how they were addressing the issue. Eventually, I was able to draft the first ever AI policy for my school newspaper, serving as a foundation for future changes as the technology evolves.

Another time, I was reading a story on Eastside Online and realized it seemed very similar to another article already online. I reached out to my EICs and helped them come up with a plan to recenter the values of accuracy, originality, fairness, and truth in Eastside.

I met the Redwood Bark EIC at the JEA-NSPA conference and she shared her draft / official AI policy so I could use it as a reference.

I reached out to past EIC, Anushka De, to hear her thoughts on the role of AI in journalism today.

This was the AI policy that I drafted, edited, and finalized for the Eastside Editorial Board.

Editing / writing to avoid bias

Whenever I am editing articles, I try to recognize any biases that may appear in sourcing or writing. For example, in one article I edited about the Israel-Hamas conflict in my school, I commented about biases that occurred in the writing to try to allow for the most objective writing possible.

Additionally, when I am writing my stories, I always try to include the other side and the opposing viewpoint to present a balanced argument for readers. For example, in one Features story I wrote, I reached out to someone who thought that the current bullying reporting system was adequate to best understand her perspective.

This portion of a story shows a detailed counterargument I included in the story I wrote about the ineffectiveness of my school’s reporting platform.

This was an edit I made to stress the importance of diversity in quoting those from different backgrounds.

This was an edit I made to stress the importance of diversity in quoting those from different backgrounds.

I tried to help the writer present a more balanced argument by suggesting the insertion of a counterargument.

I tried to help the writer present a more balanced argument by suggesting the insertion of a counterargument.

Here I also stressed the importance of a balanced story and objective language that best reflected the situation on hand.

Here I also stressed the importance of a balanced story and objective language that best reflected the situation on hand.