A Journalist, Activist and Researcher.
News Literacy
As journalists, it is critical that we know our ingrained biases and are aware of them as we report on a story. I learned this skill by working on a single story in my sophomore year that taught me how easy it is to include my own views in my writing.
Beyond the Binary
Sources: "Beyond the Binary," a Features long-form story exploring the lives of intersex people and their lack of medical autonomy, was originally supposed to be a print story for the El Estoque September 2017 issue that was later converted int a year-long investigative journalism project. Along with my co-reporters, I interviewed several prominent sources like Human Rights Campaign Youth Ambassador and intersex activist Jonathan Leggette and Public Health Advisor and intersex advocate Emily Brehob; Dr. Ilene Wong, a practicing adult urologist at West Chester County Hospital and board member of InterACT Advocates for Intersex Youth; Arlene Baratz, a breast radiologist and parent of two intersex daughters; and Lalan Rajkumari Kinner, an Indian intersex activist and member of the South Asian Hijra cultural group of intersex people and transwomen.
Each of these sources had vibrant stories to share, and none of them held back when it came to revealing the most vulnerable aspects of their lives. I am incredibly humbled to have gotten the opportunity to interview such knowledgeable and well-learned people because not only did their interview improve my story's credibility but it allowed me to grow as a human being, journalist and intersex ally. Below is a picture of me alongside Lalan Rajkumari Kinner and her family on my last trip to India, when I traveled to her village and interviewed her for what was at the time just a passion project.
Bias: Because the sources we interviewed had such compelling stories to share, my co-reporters and I inevitably got emotionally attached to their experiences. We were appalled at the mistreatment intersex people recieve, to say the least. As such, although we tried to remain as unbiased as possible, we later discovered through our first copy editor that our story was highly one-sided and gave little opportunity for the medical industry to respond.
The issue with the paragraph highlighted orange is that we're making a generalization about the medical industry based on one hospital's claim. Furthermore, there is no chance here for even the hospital members to explain themselves, and saying that they have a general lack of awareness seems contradictory considering that they do at least have a policy in place. To remedy this error, my co-reporters and I called all the major Bay Area hospitals and contacted Stanford to no avail. Finally, I came to know of Dr. Wong through a friend's mother. Without Wong's perspective, the article would've been extremely biased and, quite frankly, not publishable.
This paragraph is rife with imagery but not all of the details are from the interview. When writing this paragraph, my co-reporters and I unknowingly placed biased adjectives and phrases such as "vile acts of humanity" and "conservative city," which painted an inaccurate image of the source's parents. To fix this, I went back and listened to all interview recordings and took note of all adjectives used, for we as journalists can't insert emotive words when our sources didn't use any.
Fact-checking: To ensure that we represented our sources in the most authentic way possible, my co-reporters and I went through each of the interview recordings and verified every fact mentioned in the story. Because our article dealt greatly with topics of biology and genetics, we also cross-checked all scientific facts with Lora Lerner, a biology teacher at Monta Vista HS and a source for the story, and with the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics' report on the management of "intersex disorders." Included below is a small snapshot of our research and interview transcriptions.
