In October, Annenberg Media removed from public view several pieces of content, a practice that is not typical and goes against the newsroom’s policies.
Four stories were placed “under review” on the Annenberg Media website. They dealt with a variety of topics: the plight of a local business, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a mole festival and a workers strike. When faculty learned the stories included substantial material taken directly from professional news outlets or Wikipedia, we began the review process. In most circumstances, the pieces would be edited to either clearly attribute or remove the unattributed material and republished with a clear note explaining what happened. In this circumstance, doing so would leave little original material, so the stories will remain under review.
This is a student-led news outlet with robust faculty guidance and financial support from the Journalism School. It’s a classroom first, and we are using the experience as a learning opportunity.
Annenberg Media also recently removed from public view a TikTok which used profanity that goes against the newsroom’s ethics policies. While the word used has taken on a different meaning within the USC student population and the video was light-hearted in nature, it crossed a boundary and would have been better suited to a personal TikTok.
We hope these disclosures signal the newsroom’s commitment to transparency.
All of these instances are a reminder that the faculty and staff at the Annenberg Media Center can do a better job of communicating both policies and best practices for reporting in the student-run newsroom.
— Christina Bellantoni, Director of the Annenberg Media Center | christina.bellantoni@usc.edu