Policies of The Viking Voice

Editorial Policy for The Viking Voice 

The Viking Voice is updated weekly during the school year. The website is free to all members of the student body and the public. The publication is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Commentaries and opinion columns are the expressed opinion of the author, not of The Viking Voice, its advisor, or North Shore Middle School.

Digital Corrections Policy

Corrections will be printed when mistakes are found or brought to the attention of the staff. An editor’s note will be at the top of any corrected story telling readers about the corrections.

Online Comments Policy

We encourage readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regards to both the readers and writers of the publication. Comments will be pre-moderated, and may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy.

A comment will be deleted if:

• The comment attacks a named or identified person or group.
• The comment makes readers uncomfortable on the basis of one’s race, gender, religion, disability, ethnicity, or otherwise.
• The comment attacks personally any school employee.
• The comment contains obscenities.
• The comment is made under a false name or uses another person’s name or e-mail address.
• The comment threatens or encourages violence or illegal behavior.
• The comment violates copyright or privacy protections.

Social News Gathering Ethics Code: Traditional ethic rules still apply online. Assume everything you write online will become public. Use social media to engage with readers, but professionally. Break news on your website, not on Twitter.

Byline Policy

Original stories will carry bylines with the producer’s names. When more than one person has contributed creatively to a piece of work, any person who has contributed to the work must be bylined as a producer. All bylined writers will be held accountable for their work.

Anonymous Quote Policy

The Viking Voice has long held a strict policy on when its permissible to quote anonymous sources. Anonymous sources are only used as a last resort. Thus, The Viking Voice uses anonymous sources only when all four of these conditions are met:

1. The quote is critical to the story and the story is critical to the newspaper.
2. Information provided by anonymous sources cannot be attained in any other way.
3. Any facts presented by the interviewee have been verified by at least three other people.
4. Faculty adviser, Ms. Vestuto, knows the identities of the anonymous sources.

Updated June 7, 2024