The Aragon Outlook is dedicated to fairly and accurately representing the student body of Aragon High School through truthful reporting and diverse sourcing. To achieve this goal, self-reflection is necessary to evaluate our past and current shortcomings, as well as to hold ourselves accountable. The editors of The Outlook recently performed a diversity audit on sources interviewed during the 2020-21 school year to determine how representative our sourcing has been and to set goals for the current academic school year.
During the 2020-21 school year, The Outlook interviewed 281 members of the Aragon community as well as other communities in the area. In terms of racial and ethnical demographics, 45.2% of sources were white, 24.9% were Asian, 16% declined to state, 6.4% were Latinx or Hispanic, 5% were of two or more races, 1.1% were Black or African American, 0.7% were Middle Eastern and 0.7% were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. With regard to gender identity, 54.1% of our sources interviewed identified as female, 39.5% identified as male and 6.4% declined to state. Additionally, 44.48% of sources were adults while 55.52% were students. As for the actual demographics of our student body in the 2020-21 school year, 27.56% were white, 25.9% were Hispanic or Latinx, 22.24% were Asian, 3.37% were Filipino, 2.42% were Pacific Islander, 0.41% were Black, 0.12% were American Indian or Alaskan Native and 17.98% were of two or more races. In terms of gender identity, 50.33% of the school identified as female, 49.62% identified as male and 0.05% identified as non-binary.
The Outlook recognizes that the gender, racial and ethnic breakdowns of our sources in the 2020-21 school year were not representative of the student body, which is extremely disappointing. Additionally, the ratio of student sources to adult sources has not met the standard expected of a publication that focuses on the student body. This year, The Outlook editors are working closely with staffers to emphasize the importance of diversity and representation in interviewing and researching. We hope to have a source list that is more representative of the students on campus by the end of the year.
During department meetings and throughout each production cycle, editors will continuously emphasize the importance of reaching out to a variety of people with a multiplicity of backgrounds. If an individual department or reporter’s sources are evidently lacking diversity, their editor will hold one-on-one meetings with staffers to encourage them to reach out to people of differing groups and give tips to be more approachable themselves. The sources that editors suggest to staffers will be held to a representative standard of diversity and assignment sheets will include reminders about the importance of diversity. Additionally, monthly diversity audits will be sent to staffers regarding current source demographics to stay on track with our goal of equity in reporting and encourage staffers to be aware of their efforts.
The Outlook values all students and perspectives and aims to better reflect this in our reporting. Ensuring diversity in our publication is a step in the right direction towards more accurate storytelling that is more personal and resonates better with our community. We want to amplify voices in our community that have previously been underrepresented, hear all perspectives and opinions on subjects and improve on representing our audience. We are committed to becoming a more equitable publication that covers our community with honesty, sensitivity, empathy, fairness and respect.
The Outlook encourages the student body to hold us accountable. If you feel that we are missing angles or perspectives in our story or have ideas on how to increase community outreach, please contact us through the email aragonoutlook@gmail.com, direct message us through our Instagram account @aragonoutlook or talk to editors and reporters directly. Continue to express your opinions about our publication and inform us about topics and people in the community you feel are being overlooked. We are dedicated to you and the community and hope to continue improving our publication based on your feedback.
