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Editor’s
note: The incidents and stories mentioned in this article
are real. The names of the publications and writers have
been changed.
By RICH GOTSHALL
The paint
on the library wall was obvious. It was hard for students
to miss it.
It was even harder for them to miss
it 10 days later when The Clarion came out. There, on the
front page, in a photo that took up a sixth of the page
were the symbols someone had spray-painted onto the wall.
The story by Ashley that accompanied
Jennifer’s photo was well-researched and clearly written.
The writer focused initially on this most recent incident
of vandalism. Then she broadened her article, examining
not just other recent incidents (such as stolen restroom
signs) but also patterns of incidents from previous years.
She quoted students, administrators and the janitors who
had to scrub the library to remove the paint.
The Clarion was criticized over
the next few weeks for its front-page package on the vandalism.
Some people criticized the story, but most took issue with
the photo. The incident raises an important question: How
should a paper play a story about vandalism and in what
way?
To ignore the story is to abandon
the role as informer. Readers will be curious about the
incident, especially since it was in so public a location.
Ashley did a solid job, not just of reporting the single
incident but placing it in the context of a broader problem.
Jennifer’s photo raises questions,
though. First, however, photographers should take the necessary
photos. The debate then should be whether and how to display
it. Running the photo large on the front page runs the risk
of validating the vandals. They often do the damage simply
to get noticed. A large photo of the work takes that notice
to a new level.
A second question involves whether
the photo truly advances the story. The incident is now
more than a week old. Does running the photo have merit
on that basis?
The Eagle’s Claw faced a similar
situation, although the damage was far more substantial.
Vandals caused more than $50,000 at the construction site
for a new wing of the school. Lisa’s story was straightforward.
It covered the damage, the investigation and the arrest
of five young suspects. Her story should have mentioned
the arrests much higher, but that’s an editing question,
not an ethical one.
The incident occurred in mid-October.
The newspaper came out just over two weeks later. The editors
chose to run the story and a photo on Page 4, rather than
the cover. This relieved them of any accusation of sensationalism.
Tony’s photo showed construction work on the new wing,
although it wasn’t clear from the image what the damage
was.
Bomb threats and false fire alarms
pose the same kinds of questions. The Monitor ran a front-page
story about a string of bomb threats phoned into the school,
forcing evacuations three times in five days close to the
start of school.
There is no denying this was a major
story. Ashley’s story played the story fairly straight.
The style was neither overly dramatic nor lighthearted.
She didn’t get to the question of the perpetrator until
the end of the story. It might have been handled better
closer to the top, but, again, that’s an editing question.
The problem with The Monitor’s
coverage was the photo. It was large and the dominant visual
element on the page. It shows smiling students in the sunshine
of the football field bleachers. For so serious a problem,
a lighthearted photo, although clearly an accurate portrait
of the moment, sends a mixed message to readers. Again,
it also poses the question of whether the photo validates
the suspect’s actions.
When a group of students at last
fall’s IHSPA convention discussed this incident, one
asked whether the threats occurred before or after Sept.
11, 2001. It was a good question, and, sadly, one all staffs
will have to deal with. In this case, the paper came out
a week before 9/11. The students wondered how the story
would have been covered a week later.
Rich Gotshall
was executive secretary of the IHSPA from 1979 to 1985.
He is an editor for The Indianapolis Star and regularly
critiques student newspapers for the IHSPA and for the Columbia
Scholastic Press Association, which this spring awarded
him a Gold Key for service to scholastic journalism.
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