I had no idea what law, ethics, or news literacy meant my whole life until I joined Newswriting my freshman year. Seeing how my advisor pushed her students to practice their freedom of speech and write testimony made me feel like I had been living under a rock because I did not know, at all, how the world and its governments work. My time as a student journalist was spent learning how to write and being an ethical reporter which convince me that there is more than just writing a story - the purpose of the article is also meaningful to the writer, readers, and sometimes the world.
LAW, ETHICS, & LITERACY
LAW
Over the four years that I have worked with my advisor, whether it was an English teacher or as a part of another school organization, I have received emails that notify me of interesting bills in which I may want to write testimony for to practice my freedom of speech. I have wrote some testimony when I was a freshman, and I did not realize how impactful testimony was because it showed how many people care about the topic of a specific bill which take years to stay alive in order to win, like my advisor's journalism bill that once died but then revived later in the years.
ETHICS
My advisor has been an advocate for many bills that support student journalism because she is the advisor of the student newspaper and she also wants the best for her students and fellow journalists. She frequently reminds students to use their power of free speech to submit testimony to bills that they care about. In May 2022, Governor Ige signed the Hawaii Student Journalism Protection Act into law at McKinley High School which marked a breaking point in history for both our school newspaper and journalists around the state.
NEWS LITERACY
In my freshman year, the coronavirus pandemic has struck and closed schools for the remaining of fourth quarter. It was a challenge for teachers to teach their students through a screen and even more so for some students to learn remotely because they were not used to it. Teachers often provided assignments that were "optional" and ungraded due to the circumstances of struggling students. My advisor assigned my Newswriting class a quiz about current events in which we either answer from memory if we have read the news or actually research the answers which is also another valuable aspect of being a credible journalist and writer overall.