Laws, Ethics,
and News Literacy
In a private Christian school, the boundaries of how far I could go with the subjects of my stories quickly became apparent. Obviously laws and ethics are important to any journalist; however, in my first year, we always had that extra step to take in developing a story, which is getting administrative approval. There have been so many stories we wanted to write, but ended up tabling after a debate about whether or not the school would allow it. In these debates, we weighed the news value of the story against what we knew about law, ethics and school policies.
For example, our school has always had strict rules about cross dressing. The whole idea of LGBTQIA+, especially in regards to transgender students, was never in the spotlight until last year. Things got complicated when a transgender female student wanted to play volleyball. She was allowed to play on the girls squad, but there was uproar from the community. Community members, coaches of opposing teams, and concerned parents argued that allowing her to play girls volleyball was unsafe and unfair. The news even spread to the mainland, causing members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas to come to Maui to protest.
Our journalism staff probably debated reporting this topic a thousand times but always concluded with "we can't." The story was too good to not cover; however, we had to follow our school's rules about covering controversial topics like this. We were in the midst of our ethics lesson and continuously talked about how what we were learning could apply to our current situation; it was newsworthy, timely, consequential and all the other things that make news news; however, administration wanted us to slant the story to show the transgender student in a positive light when our instincts told us that there was a lot of negativity toward her. If we wanted to be students here, we just couldn't go there, and this is only one of many stories we wanted to cover, but "couldn't."
Despite the prior review and our defined role as a public relations arm of the school, I still have found ways to conduct meaningful and impactful journalism, as well as promote news literacy and awareness of media law and ethics by applying the principles of the SPJ Code of Ethics.
Use the menu to the right or scroll to navigate through my laws, ethics, and news literacy tab. Click on the images or gallery to enlarge.
The yearbook story on the left is what I wrote before it got approved by administration. The story on the right is the one that will be published. The text in red shows the change I had to make to the story in order to get it approved. We felt strongly about printing the interview subject's original words, including "I would've killed myself." The way it's written on the left has more impact and conveys a message that this teacher is passionate about; however, due to the "inappropriate language," I had to edit it out. Knowing my school's policies, I acted accordingly and handled this situation responsibly.
The enrollment in our Literary Arts program has hit an all--time low within the past three years. I decided to take matters into my own hands and talk to English teachers and school counselors. I asked them to recommend students that they felt would benefit from and excel in Journalism. I then reached out and encouraged the students to pursue journalism. I offered them scheduling help and advice in hopes of increasing our enrollment. I got some responses and even got one to enroll.
Click on the gallery and use the left and right arrows to scroll through the examples.
This is a clip from my 15--minute senior presentation. Prior to the presentation, I spent my junior year conducting research on the impact of social media on traditional journalism, and I spent the summer producing the magazine Nā Koa. In this clip, I set forth my thesis; to see the entire presentation, click the button below.