The Eagle hosted a roundtable discussion with multiple student-led affinity and cultural organizations Feb. 17 with the goal of identifying areas that we have overlooked or underreported in the past so we can better serve the community.
Editors present at the meeting asked questions about how each organization wanted to see themselves reflected in The Eagle’s coverage, what types of coverage would lend itself best to each organization, harmful stereotypes frequently seen in the media that should be avoided in reporting and what The Eagle and other mainstream media tend to get wrong.
The Eagle is using this input to help generate story ideas, such as increasing coverage of queer students of color, transgender and nonbinary students, students on the aromantic spectrum, the presence of ableism on campus, racial and ethnic identity and more.
Editors also asked questions about how communication and transparency could be made more effective. As a result of this feedback, The Eagle published a guide to our reporting and interviewing methods in order to make interviewees more well-informed of our reporting processes and the journalistic terminology a reporter may use with them if they are ever approached for an interview.
Based on feedback about our reporting processes from the student groups at the roundtable, editors also discussed trauma-informed interviewing practices with reporters in the event of reaching out to an affinity or cultural group for comment about a tragedy or other negative event that has affected them.
The Eagle and select student groups also discussed expanding the pool of students being contacted for interviews on particular issues as a way to diversify the voices being featured in our coverage.
If your student organization or club would like to be involved in the next roundtable discussion, please contact editor@theeagleonline.com.
