WDRB News Media Critique

You can read the full article here http://www.wdrb.com/story/33092641/drug-and-gun-cases-inside-jcps-schools

This article breaks 1 elements of journalism- inclusive and 1 yardstick- fairness

This article was about the investigations of drug and gun cases in JCPS schools. While the content is locally relevant the article was not in-depth enough to show the relevance.

In this article the reporter briefly covered each recent gun case, stating only where the incident happened and how the weapons were confiscated. "Then on Aug. 30 a Noe Middle School student was arrested for having 2 guns...one was loaded." This is not a description of the event, the reporter did not include any further detail on the event. If this is supposed to be an investigation shouldn't they include all of the important details?

Also the article barley cover the drug cases, only giving 3 schools that have a drug case and saying "Since the 2011-12 school year, there were 776 incidents. That number dropped to 726 the next year, then jumped to 935 for the last school year. There were 71 incidents so far this school year." If you are going to include drug cases the people should know when it happened, what kind of drug, and what happened to the students.

The article was unfair because it only gave ONE side of the story, Katy Zeitz, the JCPS Achievement Area Superintendent. While the superintendent is an important part of the story the article did not say anything about students, parents, or staff members of the school. 

Overall, the article left out major details and many sides of the story. The students perspective on the event should be one of the most important because they are the ones there when these events are occurring. This shows that WDRB's ability to get all sides of the story is not where it should be.