The changing landscape of high school journalism 

It was NorCal Media Day, where student publications across the region blearily woke up last Saturday morning to gather at Riordan High School. Sponsored by the Journalism Education Association, the event offered our publication the opportunity to explore workshops led by other high school journalists, receive feedback on our paper and even teach a course of our own on covering breaking news through social media. 

The entire day was a blur — getting lost finding classes, meeting our publication idols and gushing over their work, watching our breaking news simulation come to life and receiving compliments from advisers who watched our publication develop over the last few years. 

But amid the excitement and chaos of the day, it was the final workshop that left me reflecting on my role as a student journalist the most. Taught by publication advisers and members of the SPLC, we tackled the ethical challenge of protecting a source’s identity, particularly immigrant sources. At first, it seemed like any other standard ethics presentation I’ve attended at past conventions. But just as my attention began to wander, a tidal wave of questions broke loose. 

One reporter shared how her publication was trying to cover the crimes of a classmate who generated and shared sexually explicit deepfakes of a group of girls. What level of investigative journalism could the publication conduct when a minor commits a crime? Is granting anonymity to all the victims the “right” choice to make? 

Another publication talked about their coverage on party culture and interviewing students condoning illegal drinking. After a long debate, they had decided to give pseudonyms to all student interviewees. Was this a reasonable decision? Is there a threshold a source needs to meet to be granted anonymity — if so, what would that look like? 

It was dizzying. One by one, more publications piped up, sharing their ethical dilemmas when considering credibility and coverage prioritization, preparing for potential confrontations with federal authorities and facing publication policies that forbid the very act of granting anonymity to sources. 

As I watched the SPLC members, who were doing their best to respond given the time constraint and lack of context, puzzle over one issue after another, it seemed that everyone in the classroom had collectively reached a quiet realization — high school journalism has changed. 

Maybe in the past, many of these dilemmas involving federal authorities and protecting immigrant sources were simply fake scenarios for high school publications to consider. But no longer were these hypotheticals to be debated and pondered on in the safety of a classroom, the SPLC member had said. Lives are now in danger. Civil rights are in danger. Journalists are in danger. Now, with the given political climate of our nation, such decision-making rests on the shoulders of high schoolers whose writing could drastically alter the course of someone’s life.  

One slide from the presentation described it best: “It’s hard to believe.” And it’s true. It’s hard to believe that teenagers are confronted with dilemmas of such weight. It’s hard to believe this is now the reality of high school journalism, one that I now face as I work with my fellow editors to guide our publication.

And yet, maybe those are the reasons why journalism is worth pursuing. Yes, we are navigating through uncharted territory.  But at the same time, we teenagers are actively redefining what it means to be a student journalist, one ethical dilemma at a time. 

Iny Li is a senior at Burlingame High School. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.