For the second day of Scholastic Journalism Week Feb. 21, the Journalism Education Association announced the theme of #BalancedReporting. 

The Oracle believes that part of ethical journalism is taking responsibility for one’s work and making decisions that ensure balanced reporting, from the number of quotes from each source to the viewpoints highlighted in each story. Oracle reporters also spend time examining and identifying bias, which is an important step in learning how to make these decisions.

Archer’s publication courses and some history classes offer formal education that highlights the importance of bias and how to identify it. Seniors Sienna Ozar, Presley Wernick and Avery Weingarten are not enrolled in one of Archer’s publications courses. They agreed bias means including your own opinion. 

“Bias is just making sure that your voice is not incorporated and highlighted over factual information,” Weingarten said.

Comparatively, when journalism and yearbook students were asked what bias means to them, they said it is a multifaceted topic. Layout and Design Editor of Archer’s yearbook, Hestia’s Flame, Lucia Ponti (’24) said questioning and being able to identify bias ensures all writing published in the yearbook is balanced and credible. 

“I’ve really learned how much bias can affect an audience and influence how I write — especially journalistically — and what it even means to be biased in the first place,” Ponti said. “It is such a complex topic that I had never understood before enrolling in this course. I don’t think our readers fully understand how much pride we take in ensuring that our information is credible from sources to viewpoints to facts.”

The section in The Oracle’s staff manual, titled “Editing Checklist: News and Feature Writing for All Sections,” contains a fairness and balance checklist that all reporters go through when writing a story. Questions they ask themselves include: Is the story fair? Are all sides of the issue represented? Is your story free from bias? Can readers clearly tell fact from opinion in your story? Are you sure your story doesn’t disguise opinion as fact?

In the publications curriculum, students take a deep dive into examining what bias is and how to identify it in stories. Through The Oracle’s staff manual, monthly publication assessments and articles, reporters reflect on the importance of applying facts over their opinions in articles.

Sports Editor Surya Patil (’25) has been a part of The Oracle staff for two years and said that both the concept of bias and the reporting process are complex.

“After being in this course, I realized that there’s bias in almost everything we see in the media, and it’s really important to be able to identify it,” Patil said. “Being able to differentiate fact from opinion is a valuable skill that I have definitely gained a better understanding of since being in this class.”

According to JEA, “the notion of objectivity continues to evolve in the ever-changing media landscape.” Patil agreed with their statement and said bias is heavily impacting the media. 

“It’s crucial that students and journalists spend time understanding where their news comes from and how to identify bias because it is consuming our media,” Patil said. “It seems like a basic term, however, through having a crucial understanding of what objectivity and bias means, we are able to properly report and advance our communities.”