The Standard, as well as the wider world of journalism, has crucially recognized and adopted the push for diversity in journalism on a scholastic level. By extension, it is therefore integral to my personal mission as a journalist as well.
Diversity statment
For a few years, our staff has floated the idea of cementing our commitment to diversity in a diversity statement. This year, I, along with my fellow managing editors and adviser, set the process in motion, drafting our own diversity statement that outlines certain practices and the ideals of diversity to which we aspire. Furthermore, we have written editorials that have commented on our school’s diversity, equity and inclusion work, the best example being one in our second print issue of this school year (Note: the editorial can be found on Page 2 of this virtual flipbook). The editorial can also be found below:
Source list
This year, I reintroduced a staff-wide practice that had been phased out in the last couple of years. We once again utilize a source list to track what members of our community we interview when. However, this time we have recognized the ability to use the source list as a resource to aid our diversity of coverage. In tracking our sources, we have noticed that we often return to the same people in our community for comment, and these perspectives are usually those of majority-represented groups. This source list allows us to mitigate that effect, searching for alternative sources, and thus, platforming the voices of those who have seemingly been underrepresented in the past. It is difficult to measure the long-term effect of this shift as of yet, but I am optimistic.
Working with the administration
Recently, I invited our school’s Director of Institutional Equity to our editors’ class to open a relationship. We conversed about an editorial we had written (mentioned above), clarifying our position. In addition, we consulted her expertise for our diversity statement. And lastly, we offered student perspectives on our school’s efforts to incorporate learning on diversity, equity and inclusion. As a result, in collaboration with our school’s Social Justice Council – which I am also a member of – we are kick-starting an initiative called dialogue dinners, wherein students can volunteer to discuss pressing issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in a casual setting. I am very proud of myself and our staff for taking this idea to heart as it truly gets at the core of our newspaper’s mission within our community – that we are “dedicated to creating a collaborative, open forum that cultivates productive dialogue within the School community…”
