Law, Ethics, and News Literacy
When I reported on the mask walkout at my school, I captured the image of a student holding up her middle finger to another student. In Colorado, student journalists have First Amendment protections, so we published this image without prior review/censorship from administration. In the interest of maintaining a positive and constructive relationship with my school's administration I decided to notify the principal that we published this photo and give her a heads-up about any possible angry emails coming her way. At The Rock, I conduct mini-lessons about practicing First Amendment rights as journalists. We emphasize the importance of reporting the whole truth, meaning that our content isn't censored by administration, so we can report on the truth.
Following the DCSD Board of Education controversy, I spoke on 9News and Fox 31 Denver about covering these events in an unbiased manner as a student journalist. I also spoke on Colorado Public Radio and was quoted in a Bloomberg Education article. I discussed our ethical responsibilities as student journalists to cover all sides of the story truthfully, even when opposing sources don't respond to requests for interviews. In my interview with Andrea Gabor from Bloomberg/The Washington Post, I discussed our First Amendment rights as student journalists in Colorado. Throughout these interviews, I emphasized the importance of our work as student journalists to make students more news literate about what's going on. By writing content for students, we are helping them become more media literate and conscious of the world around them.
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Last year, I discussed the importance of news literacy with Russel Haythorn from Denver 7 News and what we're doing to help students become more news-literate.
9 News
Fox 31 Denver
Colorado Public Radio
The Washington Post/Bloomberg
Denver 7 News
