Law and ethics are prevalent in all types of journalism. Plagiarism lands people in lawsuits and unethical reporting can land people in the same place. In student journalism especially there are specific guidelines that can be broken in a public newspaper but not in school. My broadcast journalism class has a handbook that is provided to all students and is a reliable source to reference when dealing with ethical issues. Even small grammatical errors that seem unimportant violate the AP Stylebook. Over time I have developed a sense from right and wrong in journalism, but there are still times when I have to double check my judgment. As a leader in CHS Wired it is up to me to keep my fellow reporters in check, if they produce stories that break the ethics of our handbook it will fall back on me because I review every story before and after they are made. This page also touches on news literacy because following the laws and ethics of the CHS Wired Handbook and of the AP style booklet makes for trustworthy news.
Law and Ethics
It is my job as a producer of CHS Wired to review every story before it is released. I do this to ensure the story follows our handbooks ethical guidelines.
Just recently towards the end of a production cycle, I went through everyone's finished stories. One of the stories had profanity in it, the reporters thought it was okay to have it because the words were bleeped out and mouths were covered. I still did not allow them to publish their story that way because the middle and elementary schools watch our show, and even though the foul language is not heard it is still implied - which is not the right message to be sending out. The reporters understood and reshot the parts with profanity with appropriate words. Pictured is where I referenced back to the handbook to make sure my decision to not allow their piece to air that way was right.
Whenever I have any ethical issues during the production of CHS Wired I will refer back to the CHS Wired handbook to help me determine whether certain material is appropriate to air.
During another production cycle, I was going through all of the stories that were going to be put into the show. One of the pieces was a comical bit mocking airpod users. I understood the students who made the piece got their inspiration from a youtube video. After watching their bit I realized it was almost exactly like the youtube video, of course, they could not replicate the exact video, but it was so similar their piece was not original. I talked to my advisor about the story and we both went into the handbook to help us make a decision. Pictured is the section in the handbook where it states anything copyrighted would not be ethical to air. We decided the story was copyright and did not allow it to air. This was a good learning experience for me to identify copyright and for the students who did not understand the ethics and laws they were violating.
Personally, my favorite ethic in our handbook is to stay unbiased. I feel this should be the basis of all journalism. Biased news easily falls down the rabbit hole of fake news, so I feel having this ethic keeps our show accurate and trustworthy. I covered a story on a new bus policy at my school, I was asked by a bus driver if the goal of my story was to show that the policy was wrong. I was taken back and explained to her that I was only covering the facts of the story to inform my student body and coaches of the new change. I was confident that once she and my community saw my piece they would leave feeling informed my swayed to feel a certain way about the policy. Here is a link to my video which is also found in under the broadcast category.
This small highlighted portion from one of my stories looks like nothing, but according to the AP style rules, it is all wrong. AP requires a journalist to write: Said Blank."quote". I used to put a period before giving the quote credit, but I soon learned that was not the right way to write it. This small detail does not mislead readers in any way, but it is still unethical when following the AP style guide. Even now I am still faced with odd spellings like "OK" instead of "Okay" and "100 percent" instead of "100 %".
The laws and ethics I face in journalism go beyond broadcast. This year I have been introduced to the rules of AP style writing. I will reference back to The Associated Press Stylebook that conveniently lays on my mentor's desk at my local newspaper.
