ETHICS
With AI and misinformation on the uptick, the need for journalists to stick to the ethical standards their publications follow is important now more than ever. Staying honest, factual, and unbiased is what makes a true journalist. Throughout the course of my student journalist career, I have been helping other students see the importance of adhering to ethical standards.
At our leadership retreat, members of the leadership staff get together to update our staff handbook, which involves our code of ethics. While most of everything in this section will stay the same, sometimes there are things we will build on, most notable our AI policy.
Code of Ethics
Much like laws that keep people in line, a code of ethics are the rules reporters must follow, providing stable structure for the publication. The Cougar Chronicle has 13 policies that are updated yearly for reporters to adhere to, with our biggest section on artificial intelligence (which I talk more about below).
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To be truthful, we don't manipulate any information from our sources, insert our personal beliefs, or stereotype. It's important for all reporters to capture every angle possible for their article so they are shedding light on the full story.
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When it comes to interviews, all staffers must ask the source for verbal consent to the interview, as required by the RCW 9.73.030 which I talk more about below. While off the record occurrences are rare, we must respect the wishes of the source and not include anything they say from that point on. If an interviewee wants to be anonymous, my decision to approve will be based off their reasoning for it. If they are embarrassed about how they worded something, my answer will be no, however, if the interviewee is at risk for speaking their truth, then I will approve it. ​​
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To make sure that we get authentic responses from our sources, we do not share our questions ahead of time. As reporters, we can only go as far as to tell our interviewee what they'll be interviewed about and the topics we'll discuss.
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Professionalism is a huge aspect of what it means to be a journalist, and when staffers are reporting, not only are they representing themselves but the entirety of the publication. When reporters are unsure of something I encourage them to ask questions, as I take responsibility to help all staffers feel confident about their journalistic abilities. To uphold truthfulness as journalists, it's important for us to make sure that each story we publish is error free, this means fact checking names, titles, numbers, or any information that can possible be incorrect. ​​​​​
This is the revised version of our AI usage chart which shows reporters what they can and cannot use.
The yellow bar graphs show the public's trust for their publication when they don't use AI while the salmon bars show their trust if the publication were to use AI. The noticeable difference between the two shows the lack of trust the public has for AI, which will ultimately negatively affect the publications.
Presenting survey takers with a series of questions about different types of AI they believed to be the most unethical, I was able to find that quote generating was the worst.
This is the certificate a was awarded after completing both AP Seminar and Research with a 3 and higher.
Before we went to Nashville, I was able to see where and when my session would be.
AI Policy
When it comes to artificial intelligence, our publication is not for it. While some things like transcribing and grammar tools are allowed, we do not let any of our staffers use it as a writing tool. The Cougar Chronicle is dedicated to producing honest work done by our reporters, and in order to do that we must actually create articles ourselves.
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Just last year, I walked into my journalism class and was told one of our reporters may have used AI to write their print story, the same day we were sending our magazine off to the printer. Because we weren't going to run a story that was possibly written by AI, we decided to pull it from the magazine, which ultimately shuffled spreads around.
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While I wasn't in on the conversation had between my editor-in-chief, adviser, and the student, I did help with part of the investigation afterwards. Since the revision history on the one story showed it was copy and pasted over, we we're pretty certain the work wasn't authentic. However, when we looked at some of their other stories, we noticed a shift in the writing tone and language, with revision history depicting the step-by-step process of how it was written.
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As journalists we are truth tellers, it's our job to inform our audience about things happening throughout the world in both a factual and honest way. When we fail to do so, we lose the trust of our audience, and with experience from last year, it's very difficult to gain it back. Because I stand for real journalism, I updated our AI policy to clearly show the line between acceptable and unacceptable usages of AI.
AP Research Course Project
My junior year, I continued the AP Capstone Program with the final course, AP Research, where students get to create their own research project. With my passion to keep AI out of journalism, I decided to do a research project to figure out what effect AI within the news production process would have on the public's perspective of that publication, focusing solely on Washington residents. After reading sources on the detection of AI within news articles and its appearance within journalism, I moved into the content analysis phase, creating a survey for Washingtonians to complete. ​
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Questions asked people what publication they read from, followed by a set of hypothetical questions focused on AI usage. From my study I was able to find that most people's trust for their publication decreased when AI was used, with the most unethical type being quote generating. While I only had 40 participants, my results still showed that AI usage makes news publications untrustworthy, proving the importance of both a code of ethics and AI policy. ​​​
Presentation on AI
Mainly driven by last year's incident, my dislike for AI, and passion for authentic journalism, I decided to host a session at the JEA/NSPA National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. I started creating my presentation over the summer, gathering sources of real-world AI incidents in professional publications while outlining the perfect way to deliver my message to the audience. With my AP Research project on AI in journalism, it added another layer of research and depth to my argument of how not producing authentic work is harmful.
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I covered our code of ethics, the different types of AI and their appearance within the journalistic production process, and how the public and publication responded to the situation. After, I dove into the fundamental skills that student journalists need to succeed, highlighting the importance of brainstorming, outlining, editing, and communication.
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I also took this space to explain the AI situation within our publication, showing my audience how we found out and what we did to prevent it from happening again.​
For each of these sections, I explained to students how doing these four things without AI assistance will help them become a stronger journalist.
Maintaining Accuracy
As journalists, it's our job to publish stories that remain honest and factual, so in order to do that we must verify the information we get is accurate. If requested by a source, we can send them the quotes we plan to use in an article before we publish it. While they are able to see the quotes, they are not able to change them, as it's purely to make sure the information they said is accurate.
I split my presentation into five main sections, each building off of each other to prove my point.
Obituary Writing
During our summer workshop, leadership staffers and I came together to create our obituary writing guide.
During our summer workshop, we realized our old obituary policy got lost over the years. Unfortunately, this January a staff member at our school unexpectedly passed away, so we immediately referred to the section in our handbook on what to do. Because this guide was created, we didn't have to spend our time figuring out what to do. So, we dove straight in and reached out to the family, which we still haven't heard back from.
While we never want someone within our school to pass away, it's something that can happen and when it does, we want to be as prepared as possible.
LAWS
Part of being a good journalist comes from knowing our rights as a reporter, since we are not just protected by the first amendment but also additional laws. Now that I'm aware of these laws, it makes me feel more confident in my reporting since I know I have things to back me up.
All Party Consent
In our ethics, we outline the importance of asking consent before interviewing, as outlined by RCW 9.73.030. While recording sound in a public area is allowed without permission, any private conversation can only be recorded with consent from all parties. As journalists, it's important for us to understand our rights and what we are and aren't able to do.
Reporter's Privilege
The RCW 5.68.010 law allows reporters to not disclose anonymous sources, serving as a wall of protection for the public. Because this law is in place, it helps reporters uncover the full story when sources may feel threatened to speak up about a specific topic or issue. This is important because it helps us do our job as journalists, which is holding people accountable, uncovering the truth, and delivering the full picture to our audience.
First Amendment Advocate & The New Voices
Much like reporter's privilege, our right to the freedom of speech protects us and other news outlets from any sort of censorship, however, this isn't the case for all student publications.
Fortunately, Washington is one of 18 states that supports the New Voices Law, helping to keep student-led publications alive. Because we have been given the ability to choose what we write without dictation from our adviser or school district, we make sure that we are covering everything we can. It's important for new staffers to understand that being able to choose what we write is a privilege, not a right.
New voices law interactive map. (Provided by the Student Press Law Center)
Student Press Law Center
One important resource that we've used multiple times for legal help is the Student Press Law Center. When we write stories on hot topics that require legal information, it's important that we have them reviewed before they are published. If we give the wrong information or get the facts wrong, we put our publication at risk for legal trouble. While we have never been in a legal situation where we needed the SPLC to advocate for our publication, it is important that we know who to reach out to if a lawsuit were to occur.
Creative Commons & Reuters Images
Copyright is important to be aware of, and as a publication we do not want to publish images that we don't have the permissions to use. Because of this, our publication relies on images from both Reuters and Creative Commons only if a photo is of something the reporter can't take themselves.
However, even when we use these images we have to be sure that we are giving the correct attribution, which is usually specified beside the image.
A collection of images by Reuters that we pay to use. (Provided by Reuters Images)
NEWS LITERACY
In order to be a well-educated person, one must be aware of what is happening in the local and broader community. While I used to be someone who wouldn't listen to the news because it was too depressing, I've come to understand that it's better to be informed than to be ignorant, especially as a rising journalist. Most of what I hear on the news that's happening on a national or even international scale will likely show its effect locally, and as journalists, it's our duty to be prepared.
News Notes
During my freshman year, each week we were required to find and read a news article either on the local, national, or international scale. While I used to see this assignment as another thing to do, I now realize how important it really was. Being aware of what's happening within the world makes us more educated and connected with our community.
As a journalist, keeping in check with the news is even more important. Each morning, I listen to both the national and local NPR station to understand the large things that are happening and how they are affecting people all around. Most of the times I'm able to see the local impact that these national-level issues are having, like ICE agents now patrolling our town.
While we are not a professional publication, the news we do is still viewed by people, especially since there aren't many local news outlets in our area. So, being aware of the larger issues prepares us to cover their wide-spread impact.
While not an assignment we do anymore, I still encourage all my staffers to either watch, listen, or read the news so they have a good understanding of the things happening within the world.
This news note was about a hyper local issue concerning one of the ferries running the Bremerton to Seattle route. My job was to read the article and dissect it to not only learn more about the style of news stories but to understand the things happening within our community.
AP Seminar Presentation
In my sophomore, I took the advanced placement seminar course, where we learned research and presentation skills. For our team multimedia presentation, we decided to conduct a research project on how the development of technology has affected false information on social media. Through our project we were able to determine that with very few restrictions on social media, the spread of disinformation is amplified. Also knowing most people use social media as a news outlet, it poses the risk that the information people get may not be accurate.
So, we proposed a solution to the spread of false information on social media, which would result in restricting what can be posted. While the answer seemed simple enough, our project had several limitations, especially since it would go against our first amendment right. However, an easier solution would be informing the public what reliable and unreliable information looks like.
As social media continues to gain popularity, this chart shows that people are also using it to give them the news. (Pew Research Center, 2020 media survey)
For our project, we came up with a solution to have social media be more restrictive with what can be posted, however, this plan didn't come without its limitations.
Media Bias Chart
While journalism is supposed to provide unbiased and factual information to the public, unfortunately most of the time that's not the case. Because of this truth, it's important for our staffers to understand which news publications are credible, as well as the ones that aren't. This media bias chart shows a variety of publications ranging from far left, balanced, and far right.
With links to each publication, it's a great opportunity for staffers to see what exactly makes an article biased.
This chart shows hundreds of different publications and how trustworthy they are. (Provided by Ad Fontes Media)
