At this week’s Round Table, Erina, Jack, and Madeline spoke withGeanne Belton, Director of Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program which hosts the annual Newsies for high school journalists from across New York City and helps prepare teacher advisors to start new school newspapers. As all of us podcasters are involved in journalism, we were particularly eager to learn from Geanne’s perspective as a former journalist who has been teaching for 20 years at Baruch College, where she’s blended her interests in, law, media, and ethics (which can be murky in journalism!) We talked about some of the core tensions in journalism today: ensuring privacy of sources WHILE doing one’s job to inform the public; protecting against plagiarism; promoting news literacy and ethics; and mitigating risks of various kinds. We talked about the challenges and opportunities of the lines between producers and consumers being blurred in ways they didn’t used to be. And we talked about the powerful role student journalists—and journalists across the board!--can play in asking hard questions, bringing issues to the forefront, building community, informing community, and holding community accountable. We emerged from the conversation feeling more committed than ever to our journalistic endeavors. Thank you for listening!
