Editor-staff relationships
Ethical guidelines
Editors should conduct all relationships with staff members in a fair and professional manner. By considering the program’s best interests above matters of personality, students will be able to work together in a positive and productive environment.
Staff manual process
Editors should be aware of potential challenges that may arise as a result of both positive and negative relationships with peers. While it may be unrealistic for editors to define absolute policies, they should use the staff manual as an opportunity to address ethical considerations of relationships with suggested model behavior.
Suggestions
• Favoritism: When editors treat all staff members equally, it creates a positive atmosphere for collaboration. Editors should hold all staff members accountable following a consistent model regardless of personal relationships or friendships outside of the staff setting. All aspects of production, from assigning stories to recognizing excellent work, should be based on individual performance. If editors favor their friends or seem to pick on particular students, it can build resentment among the staff and weaken working relationships.
• Constructive feedback: Editors may find themselves having difficult conversations with staff members about their performance. These interactions are best done in person and privately. It may be inconvenient to arrange the ideal setting for this type of conference, but taking the time to keep criticism private is important for the health of the working relationship.
• Dating: Relationships among staff members may develop into something beyond the student media setting. Everyone involved should work to keep this separate from the experience in the newsroom. Students should enter into dating relationships with fellow staff members cautiously, knowing that regardless of outcome, they will be expected to work together in the future. All staff members should be expected to be respectful of relationships among staff members and not to take sides or let a romantic relationship interfere with their role in student media.
• Team building: Ongoing team-building exercises will help to develop positive staff relationships.
• Siblings: Editors with siblings on staff should make every effort to ensure that the sibling is treated as fairly as other staffers. Assigning the sibling to another editor provides the distance for the sibling’s growth as a journalist.
Resources
Lesson: Organizing Your Staff, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: Role Playing, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: Learning About Your Leadership Style, Journalism Education Association
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Read MorePrior review/restraint
Ethical guidelines
Students learn more when they make all publication choices. Prior review and restraint do not teach students to produce higher quality journalism.
The only way to teach students to take responsibility for their decisions is to give them the responsibility to make those decisions freely. No administrator has ever shown any educational value in prior review.
Continued democracy depends on students understanding all voices have a right to be heard and assuring all viewpoints have a say in their communities.
Staff manual process
The student editorial board should design an editorial policy that establishes student media as designated public forums for student expression where students make all final decisions of content.
The student editorial board should also study JEA and SPLC materials, statements and lessons to build educational arguments against prior review.
Resources
Prior review button on menu bar, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
JEA Board Statement on Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Building a Climate of Trust Can Ease Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Seeking a Cure for the Hazelwood Blues: A call to Action, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: Panic Button, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
Audio: Eliminating Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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Read MoreStaff conduct
Ethical guidelines
Students participating in scholastic media should hold themselves to high standards to earn and preserve trust and respect from the audiences they serve. Lapses in judgment affect the staff as well as the credibility of the media they produce. Students should realize that discipline problems or poor choices extend beyond individual consequences.
Staff manual process
Editors should develop guidelines for staff behavior as part of the staff application. Staff members should be required to sign a staff contract to demonstrate their understanding of and commitment to expected student conduct. The contract should specify consequences and/or conditions for removal from staff. Similarly, students should study professional codes of ethics and may consider creating their own.
Suggestions
• All school rules should apply. Staffs should not condone or tolerate drug or alcohol use. Editors should work with the adviser to determine a policy for how to handle infractions in conjunction with or in addition to school-mandated punishment. For example, if a staff member is suspended from school for a drug-related offense, how does this affect the student’s participation on staff?
• If students cannot be trusted in other classes or programs on campus, their work as journalists also will be questioned. Cheating and/or academic dishonesty should not be tolerated. The staff manual and contract should specify consequences for plagiarism, fabrication and other offenses. This may include earning zero credit and being suspended or removed from staff.
• If staff members are unsupervised or have access on campus to areas generally considered off-limits to students, they should conduct themselves in a professional manner. Students should not go places on campus that are not open or accessible to them. It would be unethical to report on events or circumstances that occur in areas where students have gained unauthorized access, although it may lead to discussion or research for future reporting conducted under authorized access.
• Press credentials are intended only for staff members. Students should use their press passes for reporting purposes only and not to gain free admission for personal reasons. Students should not allow unauthorized use of their press passes or provide non-staff access to friends or family members. When students are wearing or using media credentials, their focus should be on reporting for student media and representing the news outlet. During that time, students are not fans, spectators or audience members in the traditional sense; staff members should be aware they are visible and accountable for how they represent themselves and should maintain a professional, objective manner. Similarly, it would be unethical for student journalists to conceal their press credentials or to attend an event in an official reporting capacity without making their intentions known.
• Reporting on a club, event, or team in which students are directly involved is a conflict of interest; even if reporters strive to remain neutral and report objectively, it is unfair to readers. Staff members may lead each other to story ideas or help connect sources, but they should not write about stories to which they are connected.
• Receiving compensation from sources is not ethical. Students should not receive perks or free items such as meals, tickets or merchandise in exchange for writing a news or feature story to promote a group, product or service. If students choose to write a review, their work should be unbiased and should specify if any aspect of the experience was provided free based on their role as student journalists.
• Students should exhibit professionalism at outside events.
• Regular attendance in class and at required staff functions is part of the student media experience. Students who have frequent absences from class create complications for staff production. The staff manual and contract should specify expectations for attending work sessions and any other required functions so students are able to plan their schedules accordingly. Editors should work with the adviser to determine what level of participation is reasonable from all staff members and what, if any, time outside class may be necessary or required. The policy and contract should take into consideration factors such as transportation, health challenges, extracurricular activities and employment in order to achieve a win-win for students to make an informed decision about their participation on a student media staff. The policy and contract also should specify circumstances under which absences or failure to attend expected staff commitments could lead to removal. Students might consider having parents sign the contract as well to show their understanding of their son’s or daughter’s obligations.
• Meeting deadlines is essential to staff success. Students should work with the adviser to determine what course of action to take in the event of missed deadlines, which may include no credit, reduced credit, loss of privileges and/or removal from staff.
• Students should treat other staff members with respect and should work to resolve any conflicts peacefully and respectfully without involving other students. Editors may choose to create a specific conflict resolution policy to serve as neutral mediators when needed. Conflicts from within the program spreading beyond the newsroom hurt the program’s reputation.
• Bullying of any type should not be tolerated.
• Students should strive to maintain a calm and professional demeanor even in situations that may rise to heated or confrontational levels. Especially when reporting in an official capacity at a community event, school board meeting, protest or rally, reporters should not take an adversarial role or become part of the story.
• The following scenarios might be cause for removal or discipline from student media: misuse of school or media program equipment, failure to meet deadlines, plagiarism or fabrication, drug or alcohol use, stealing and inappropriate behavior on a school trip.
Resources
Guidelines for Avoiding Conflict of Interest, Radio Television Digital News Association
NPR Ethics Handbook/Independence/Conflict of Interest, National Public Radio
Why Transparency Is Not Enough: The Case of Mr. Mike, National Public Radio
Journalists face conflicts of interest too, Society of Professional Journalists
Avoiding conflicts of interest as a student journalist, Scripps Media
Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists
Model Code of Ethics for High School Journalists, National Scholastic Press Association
National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics
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Read MoreBalance and objectivity
Ethical guidelines
Journalists should prioritize balance and objectivity as a staff philosophy and content standard. Staff members can help achieve this by increasing staff diversity and seeking multiple perspectives. Balance suggests a concern for issues surrounding the content of the story, types of sources and overall content student media covers in the span of a year. Likewise, objectivity exists on both the micro and macro levels.
Staff manual process
Editors should engage staff members in ongoing discussions about balance and objectivity, including their definitions and impact on the publication. These discussions should be applied at every level of the publication process, from selecting staff, to generating story ideas, to reporting and writing, and to the visual content creation and photography.
Suggestions
• Staff members should discuss and come to consensus on what both “balance” and “objectivity” will look like. How will the staff measure these goals? What does success in this area look like?
• Keeping tabs on how different members of the student body respond to both the content and news gathering process of student media is important, as responses may be an early warning sign balance and objectivity are out of whack.
• Students should explore and consider what standards professionals use to measure balance and objectivity with consideration to how those standards might work on their own staff.
• A guideline for clearly labeling opinion content so consumers can separate objective from subjective content also aids in maintaining balance and objectivity.
Resources
The Next Journalism’s Objective Reporting, Nieman Reports
The Lost Meaning of ‘Objectivity’, American Press Institute
Tools to Manage Bias, American Press Institute
Principles of Journalism, Pew Research Center
Think Like A Journalist, News Trust
Lesson: With Freedom of the Press Comes Great Responsibility, Journalism Education Association
Balance and Objectivity, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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Read MoreAcademic dishonesty
Ethical guidelines
Students should be honest in all stages of their work. Dishonesty is a serious offense and should not be tolerated.
Dishonesty compromises the integrity and credibility of the student publication. The editorial board and/or adviser should address any instance of academic misconduct immediately.
Staff manual process
Student editors should develop a clear process for handling academic dishonesty. Both media staff and school policies may dictate consequences for academic dishonesty. In addition to school consequences, other approaches could include removal or suspension from the media staff and publishing an apology.
Suggestions
In journalism, academic dishonesty is not limited to cheating and plagiarism. Issues especially relevant to student media include:
• Fabrication — inventing quotes or other content
• Non-contextual content — taking quotes, facts or other content out of their intended context in a way that misleads the audience
• Manipulation of photos, video and text — editing or altering content in a way to change its meaning or misrepresent reality
Resources
The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity, The Center for Academic Integrity
Journalism Department Code of Ethics and Conduct, San Francisco State University
The Medill Justice Project Ethics Book, Northwestern University
Our cheating culture: Plagiarism and fabrication are unacceptable in journalism, The Buttry Diary
Audio: Plagiarism, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
National Press Photographers Code of Ethics
Audio: Creative Commons Licensing, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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