As journalists, our job is to: seek truth and report it; act independently; minimize harm; and to be accountable and transparent to our readers. This is important now and forever because we must maintain credibility as a news platform. 

We report on news, events, places and people. We spotlight clubs, cover sports, draw illustrations, make comics, design games and type up passionate reviews and columns. We now even make multimedia projects. Each of these pieces go through a long editing process  to strengthen content. We also stay late nights to design page layouts, sell advertisements to contribute to our budget, and network with other local journalists. And if we may be honest with you, we do not expect anything back from it. We do not expect you to read our paper, we just hope you will and are pleasantly surprised when you do and appreciate feedback. 

That being said, we are writing this to you to be crystal clear about our processes by which we navigate. We base our processes off of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics and teach it to our on-coming staff. 

Seek truth and report it: Our production cycle starts with a pitch that a reporter picks up. They then conduct interviews, take media, draft the piece and push the story through different levels of editing (section, copy, media, editor-in-chief, adviser). 

Section editors look for the correct amount of sources shown and relevance to their section. Copy editors correct grammar and check facts as needed. Media managers check media of all types and confirm its connection to the story. Editor-in-chiefs make sure the coverage is balanced and looks for anything that may go against our code of ethics and policies. Finally, our adviser double checks edits, discusses potential impact on the audience, and points out when or if we should contact the Student Press Law Center.

We publish in print to reach a local audience and spread relevant information throughout school with our red distribution boxes. We publish online to seek out a wider array of people and to get our more timely pieces.

Be accountable and transparent: Recently, our publication has faced a handful of roadblocks while reporting. This is not the fault of our hardworking writers and editors but instead a result of the extensions we’ve had to grant ourselves to make sure that the pursuit of honest news doesn’t go against our principles as well as the boundaries of others.

Sometimes a story requires us to showcase more perspectives, which means that the reporter has to conduct more research and interviews. Other times a fact could be confirmed by one source and not by another, so it is always important to corroborate and work to get all our ducks in a row before releasing anything out to the general public. 

We do our best to fact-check ourselves and address feedback, and while we can run a retraction if we get something wrong, we also understand that physical media cannot be easily changed, so we will do our best to do it well the first time.

Act independently: Since we are a student publication, the editorial board (print and online editor-in-chiefs, associate editor and managing editor) makes all final decisions, whether that be regarding policies or publishing. We consult the law, we seek out reader input, we collect story idea submissions, yet we facilitate the public forum. The Oracle editors share leadership responsibilities, and the editorial board manages. Our adviser is here for general support and works to make sure we know our rights and responsibilities.

Minimize harm: Minimizing harm means to ensure that we keep all sources and those involved with the creation of our pieces as safe and protected as possible.  

Editors-in-chief are the only ones who are made aware of sensitive information varying story to story, such as anonymous source identity or deeper issues regarding content. We work our hardest to keep all information and identities as contained and confidential as possible if need be. 

In addition, we also understand that fact-checking has been recently removed from some social media sites such as META, which we use. We want to reiterate that anything published on our social media (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) goes through the same production cycle as any story or piece of media that is published. 

Therefore, as we continue to make such lovely content for you to read to your heart’s content, we want to inform, persuade and generally hope to make it so you take something away. You may find all our policies and information within our student handbook, linked on our website (mhsnews.org).

We also have a Student News Source app, which you can get active notifications on your phone when a new story is published. You may also find info about the publications in the school announcements that go out every week or–for staff members–through our press releases that are emailed out. You can also contact us through [email protected].  Reasons to reach out could be to write a letter to the editor giving your perspective on a story or to pitch a story and give ideas, resources and more. 

And when you see our editorials released soon, they will be diligently fact-checked and made sure they’re representative of true, honest sentiments and beliefs of the Oracle leadership and staff.

It’s important for you, the reader, to know this because we are a student journalism network and we want to be as vulnerable and honest as possible with the community that inspires our stories and inspires us all together. 

Thank you for your eyes, and support. 

–With respect, The Ed Board