COMMITMENT TO
DIVERSITY
As a publication, it's our duty to amplify the voices within our community. When I report on events, interview subjects, or draft my articles, I take the time to look at things from our communities' perspective, asking myself the question "Am I representing these people in the most accurate and honest way possible?" Since I'm an editor for every publication at my high school, I able to make sure we collectively tell the full story no matter what, as that's our mission as journalists.
Figments Magazine Club
Since my freshman year, I have been a member of the Figments Magazine club. Each year, the club produces one magazine filled with student art, including photography, poetry, illustrations, and more. Having a magazine that publishes student work is a great opportunity for student artists to get their name out into the community early on.
Not only that, but Figments hosts an art walk in May, where students can have their artwork printed out for the public to see. All the money raised at these events goes straight to next year's magazine cost, so we can continue to provide a space for student artists to get recognized.
These are three of the magazines we've released over the years. Each filled with student artwork ranging anywhere from photography to poetry.
This is the submission form where students can submit any work of art that they would like to be published in our upcoming magazine.
Quarterly Diversity Report
After looking at another student publication for ideas, I saw the American School in London did a diversity report to make sure they accurately represent their community. While our publication has always been aware of finding new people to interview, we have never actually kept track of it. Starting this quarter, I'm creating our own diversity report to better understand if our coverage is diverse.
To do this, I'm taking into account the types of content we are producing, specifically looking at when it was published, the topic, and how many photos and interviews were used. The goal is that by the end of the quarter we will have a relatively even amount of coverage done for each story type with little to no overlapping topics.
Another thing I'm keeping track of is the people we interview. If we interview the same person multiple times for different stories, we are not truly representing our community. So on Google forms, I'm making a list of all the people our reporters interview.
At the end of the quarter, I will send out a survey to each person we've interviewed, asking them to provide more specific information about themselves like their pronouns and ethnicity if they are comfortable doing so. When I get all the information, I will put the data into a pie chart for us to see how diverse our coverage is.
It's important for us to understand how we are representing our community, and doing a diversity report each quarter will give us that chance. It's my job to teach returning staffers how to continue it, so our publication can fulfill its duty to accurately and honestly represent we're representing.
This Google spread contains information on the stories we are covering starting February 1 till mid-April. (BKR: Be Kind, Rewind opinion column)
This Google spread contains information about the people we have interviewed throughout so far. Towards the end of this quarter, I will send a survey to all interviewees asking if they feel we accurately represented them, while also collecting other information like pronouns and ethnicity.
Print Themes
Starting this year, our publication has implemented solid themes to our quarterly magazine issues. Our first theme set out to uncover the unheard stories, like girl's flag football becoming its own team at our school or Bubz Cafe working with high school students to create a space for all. While themes help our magazine stay consistent, they also push reporters to look at the world around them from a new perspective, helping to shed light on areas we haven't.
This is the front cover of our first magazine issue this year, titled "The Unheard."