Commitment to diversity
In journalism, it is important to make sure you tell as many stories as you can. This means diversifying coverage to cover a wide variety of people and groups.
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Diverse coverage
In yearbook, we are very conscious about coverage a wide range of people and groups. Our main resource is Jostens coverage report. One way we utilize coverage report is looking up how many times a potential source is in the book before contacting them. Coverage report also allows for sorting names by how many times a person has been in the book to try to get people who are rarely in the book in it. A way that we get more people in the book is through using ABCDs, which include a headshot and a quote from a student about their experience at West High.
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On web, we also have a few ways that we ensure diverse coverage. The main way that we make sure student groups are covered is by requiring beat/timely coverage once per trimester. We changed this system this year. Previously, every student club and sport was assigned to one or two staffers. The problem with this, I discovered, was that many of those clubs rarely met or held events, or stopped meeting entirely after the beginning of the year.
This year, we only assigned sports and the most prominent student groups to staffers. Any staffers without an assigned beat are required to do timely coverage, meaning they can take on an assignment from Gossip Friday, or pitch their own beat idea. Gossip Friday is a tradition that we have on web where the news and sports editors make a list of what is going on the next week and staffers can volunteer to cover them. Requiring beat/timely coverage as a graded assignment ensures that staffers are encouraged to take on these assignments to make sure we get as much covered as we can. We mainly use Bound to make lists of what is happening, because it includes a majority of West’s events from both sports and extracurriculars, but the class is also asked if there is anything else going on that we missed, which helps us make sure we don’t miss anything important.
Outside of the beat system, our pitch system also encourages diverse coverage. All staffers pitch ideas, and we are not limited by a certain number of pages and therefore can allow for more stories. Since our staff comes from a variety of grades, backgrounds, and social circles, the ideas they pitch span a wide variety of topics. When looking for sources, staffers occasionally use google forms that a secretary sends out to the student body. This helps us reach people that we may not know, or didn’t know held a certain interest.
Diverse staff
While I have less control over who is on my staff, I do what I can to encourage diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. In the conversations I have with prospective staffers I always ask, “what are you interested in?” And go from there. While some people on WSS and TE explore all different areas of journalism, some people find their niche and stick with it. For example, we have some very talented artists who almost entirely create art. They are not required to write articles or take photos, we allow them to use their skills for journalism in the way that works best for them (and also their art is amazing and makes our publication better!).
When it comes to recruitment, we mainly put up posters around the school encouraging people to take Foundations of Journalism — the prerequisite for joining staff. This wide-ranging recruitment effort helps us reach a variety of students.
I do have control over making sure everyone on staff feels included, regardless of prior experience. For those who have less experience, my editorial staff and I take a more hands-on approach in making sure they feel confident in what they are doing. The first web cycle functions essentially as a training cycle. This year, I paired all new staffers with returning staffers on assignments so they could learn how being on staff works. The editorial board also does “boot camp” presentations at the beginning of the year on their respective sections.