The Morgan PawPrint is the Morgan school’s source of news, but how much do you know about it? In the spring of 2012, students in English Teacher Leslie Chausse’s class created The Morgan PawPrint. Today, the PawPrint has changed from where it started, but the hard work and ethics the PawPrint believes in remain.
The Morgan PawPrint wants to ensure everyone’s voice is heard and to inform its readers about the facts they need to know to stay informed. The students at the PawPrint decide what articles they want to write; sometimes, students, administrators, and teachers come to the PawPrint to suggest events to cover or articles they want to see on the PawPrint. Once the student journalists have chosen a topic, they begin to research the article, create a list of people to interview, create the interview questions and determine the necessary photos. After the student writes the article, a student editor will review it and make suggestions. Before publication, Mrs. Chausse will give it a final review.
Once the student journalists have chosen a topic, they begin to research the article, create a list of people to interview, create the interview questions and determine the necessary photos. After the student writes the article, a student editor reviews it and makes suggestions. Before publication, Mrs. Chausse will give it a final review.
Once the article is approved, it will be published to the Morgan PawPrint for people all over the world to see. In the month of March, the PawPrint received over 2,000 visitors and was read by people from over 40 countries. The PawPrint has an email, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter to promote its content.
The PawPrint follows the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, (SPJ). The SPJ Code of Ethics has four principles that the journalists of the PawPrint follow:
- Seek Truth and Report it
- Minimize Harm
- Act Independently
- Be Accountable and Transparent
The PawPrint does not use anonymous sources and unless the post is an opinion piece, students strive to remain unbiased. Student journalists seek the viewpoints of all sorts of people: students, teachers, administrators, and community members.
Recently officials and citizens have made accusations of fake news. At the Morgan PawPrint, we want our readers to know we strive to deliver reputable news to our community. If there is something that readers want to see as an article or researched by the journalists at the Morgan PawPrint, send us an email or talk to a member of the PawPrint. We want to ensure that we publish the truth for our readers.