VGNews Guidelines

VGNews is the school newsroom. Student reporters cover Vista Grande with real bylines and sections, an editor approves what runs, and the whole school reads it. That last part is what makes this space different from anywhere else on the platform: a story here speaks for the paper, not just for you.

These rules are on top of the community guidelines, which apply everywhere on the platform. Read those first.

Your name is on it

Every story carries a byline. When you file, you are telling the school that you stand behind what it says. That is the deal, and most of what follows comes back to it.

A byline is not a costume. Do not file under someone else’s name, and do not put a name on a story who did not work on it. If a story had more than one reporter, say so.

Standing behind your work also means you can be asked about it. If a reader, a source, or the school questions something you wrote, your editor may come to you for how you know it. Be able to answer.

Getting it right

A newsroom lives or dies on whether people can trust it, so accuracy is the first rule, not a nice-to-have.

• Check it before you file. A name spelled wrong, a date that is off, a number you half-remember: each one costs the paper a little trust you do not get back easily.
• Say how you know. If you are reporting something as fact, you should be able to point to where it came from, whether that is a person you spoke to, a document, or something you saw yourself.
• Do not invent. Do not make up a quote, a source, or a detail to make a story read better. One fabricated quote is enough to pull a story and to end your place on the staff.
• Quote people as they actually spoke. You can trim for length, but you cannot change what someone meant or put words in their mouth.

When you get something wrong, the fix is a correction, not a quiet edit. See the last section.

Covering real people

Most stories here are about people at this school, and they will read what you wrote about them. That raises the bar.

• Be fair to the people in your story. If your reporting makes someone look bad, give them a real chance to respond and put their side in. A story that only tells one half of it is not finished.
• Report on what people do in a school role, not on who they are as a person. You can cover a coach’s decision, a class policy, or how student government spent its budget. You cannot use the paper to go after someone.
• Leave private students out of it. A student who did not choose to be in the news does not become fair game because you can write about them. Ordinary students are not subjects unless they agree to be.
• Some things are never a story here: a rumor about a person, someone’s private life, a screenshot from a group chat, anyone’s mental health or family situation.

Photos and video

The rules for images are stricter than for words, because a photo cannot be taken back.

• Get consent to photograph a person, especially a close shot of one student. A wide shot of a packed rally is one thing; a portrait of a named student is another, and that one needs a yes.
• Never post a photo or video of someone in a private, embarrassing, or vulnerable moment. Ask whether you would want it up if it were you.
• Use your own footage, or footage you have the right to use. Do not lift a photo off someone’s account, off the web, or out of a group chat and run it as if it were the paper’s.
• Attached video runs through a safety check before it can play, and it will not go live until that check clears. Plan for that when a story is time-sensitive.

News, opinion, and the line between them

An opinion piece argues for what you think. A news story tells readers what happened and lets them decide. Do not blur the two.

If you are writing opinion, it belongs in the section for it, and it should read like an argument, not a report dressed up as one. If you are writing news, keep yourself out of it: your job there is to be accurate and fair, not to win.

Either way, the rules above about real people still apply. An opinion piece is not a licence to attack a person.

How a story gets published

Nothing you write goes live on your say-so alone, and that is on purpose.

You draft and submit. An editor reads it and either sends it back with notes or approves it. Only then does the safety check run on the words, the photos, and any video, the same check every space on the platform uses. A story is public only once an editor approved it and that check cleared.

An editor sending your story back is not a knock on you. It is the part of a newsroom that keeps the paper worth reading. Fix what they flagged and send it back.

If review is on, even an editor cannot skip the approval step. That is the paper protecting itself, not red tape.

Public or school only

Every story is either school only or public, and it matters which you pick.

School only means a reader has to sign in with a Vista Grande account to see it. Public means anyone on the open web can read it, and search engines can find it and keep it. Marking a story public is a real decision, usually an editor’s, because once something is public it is effectively out there for good.

When in doubt, a story stays school only. Push it public only when you and your editor both mean to put it in front of the whole world.

Corrections and take-downs

When the paper gets something wrong, it says so. A correction is added to the story, not slipped in silently, because readers who saw the mistake deserve to see the fix.

If a story of yours is held or taken down, it works the way it does everywhere on the platform: you can still see your own held work, a person makes the call on anything removed for good, and you appeal by opening a ticket at /support. If you or a subject believes a published story is wrong or unfair, tell your editor first, and use /report if it needs to go to the platform.