Working to uphold journalistic integrity is something every strong leader in a publication room needs to be doing 24/7. If even one person in your program is not upholding it, your entire program is negatively affected. I made it my goal to teach each of my staffers during my time as an editor in high school just how important using reliable sources and upholding journalistic integrity is. The easy way out is never the right way for a good journalist.

I was lucky enough to be at a high school that didn't require prior review from our administration. However, our Board of Education tended to breath down our neck anytime we post anything that they don't like. To ensure that the student press will remain just that, I would meet with higher-ups in my district every so often to ensure we keep those rights. I took the lessons that I learned from those meetings and brought them back to my staff since I believe it is important that we try and understand all points of view. I knew that if we didn't make a conscious effort to keep a healthy and respectable relationship with the higher-ups in our district, we might of ended up losing the privileges we have right now.

On my publications staff, we try every possible means to stay unbiased and morally correct. To avoid bias we forbid anyone to write about any activities that they are a part of. While it is impossible to fully track, we also ban people from using the easy way out and just interviewing their friends. Before my staffers interview someone, I like to ask them one simple question. Is this the best person to interview or is it just the easiest? If we are writing a story about a controversial issue our staffers are required to get an interview from both sides so we can avoid bias as much as we can. If my staffers ever need help thinking of who would be the best person for their story or need help with writing interview questions my Co-EIC and myself made a master google doc that explains all their questions for them.

If a staffer ignored the rules set for them, our Editorial Policy had several repercussions listed. Minor offenses will be met with a warning. Bigger and multiple time offenses will be left to the Advisor and Editor-in-Chiefs on if dismissal is warranted. Things like plagiarism, sending content off for prior review or quote falsification can be seen as a major offense warranting staff removal. As an Editor-in-Chief it was my job to thoroughly explain these rules to my staffers. However, if issues were to arise it was my job to understand and diffuse the situation. In my time as an editor, I had to have multiple conversations with people about the major offenses listed, and each time a solution was reached in which staff dismissal was not needed or warranted and it was used as a learning experience.

On my school’s website, we have a tab dedicated to our editorial policy in case people outside of our program wants to read it. It is a requirement to know the basics of the editorial policy if you want to be an editor in my school’s program. If people outside of our program call into question our journalistic integrity, they are allowed to leave comments on our website. For huge grievances, they can fill out a letter to the editor which is also found on our website. As the WEB Editor-in-Chief, it's one of my responsibilities to look at these messages and determine if there is any backing to their claims. If there is, I contact my advisor and we take a more in-depth look into them. To avoid situations like these happening, we always call into question if the content that we are publishing has a purpose. If it is libel or derogatory without reason, we won't publish it since it reflects poorly on our entire program.

My staff prides itself on being inclusive for all students. All the factors that sadly divide society do not matter when you walk into room 105. Race, gender, sexual identity, social class, and all the other things that separate us do not matter in the journalism room. We have students from all walks of life in the pub room and that blend helps us cover a diverse number of topics properly. This diversity allows for us to have different stories pitched on our story idea sheets so we do not see the same student names pop up repeatedly. Diverse content is needed for journalism to work. Without it you are just reading the same story repeatedly just in a different font. I am very glad for the diverse amount of people that I have met over my years in this program as they have taught me valuable things that I will carry with me forever.