Week 2: Student Response to Discussion One and Two

FridayJan 19 at 11:12am

Manage Discussion Entry

Eric,

Assuming there is no one else on the newspaper staff to cover this story, I would interview anyone close to the situation, including Riley Frederickson. This could be students, teachers, or maybe the principal from the high school.

If readers were to find out that I was a long-term friend with the person who was heading up the club misusing the money, they would have every right to question if my report was biased . . . wondering if I were trying to protect him, or hide something. Also, it could lead to a situation where other reporters would want to interview me, making me part of the story.

According to Jacquette, “What they are hoping to avoid is a situation in which other reporters find it important to be reporting on them, for then their very presence at a news scene will have become newsworthy in and of itself” (2007). However, Jacquette also says, “It is possible for journalists to surmount their individual standpoints on issues in news reporting by becoming aware of and trying in their professional work to mitigate to the best of their abilities the potentially detrimental effects of perspective and bias in the search for truth” (2007).

I would report on the fact that the high school in general was collecting money from the state and misusing it for other general expenses. I would mention that there was an auto club being held after school, directed by a teacher, but that it was not a course and did not meet any curriculum standards. Hopefully, everyone who reads the story would see that I was not letting any personal relationship I had with Frederickson affect my reporting.

Reference

Jacquette, D. (2007). Journalistic Ethics: Moral Responsibility in the Media. Pearson Learning Solutions. VitalBook file.