Whether your school finds itself in the midst of a developing scandal or, more likely, just humming along as usual, be sure to always keep an eye out for investigative stories. And don’t worry if you can’t come up with anything right away—some of the best in-depth reporting owes the impact it makes on careful choice of subject matter (often on a topic that’s not much discussed) or on a detailed look at subtleties.
While we have no way of knowing what best to pursue in your situation, here are some broad topics that may adapt well to a story for your school are listed below.
- Academic integrity: in recent years, many high-profile cheating scandals affecting both colleges and high schools have surfaced. Amidst the fallout, consider your own school’s honor code (if it has one) or commonly accepted practices. Is cheating pervasive at your school? If not on tests, than what about on lower-pressure, less-regulated assignments or projects? Have school administrators addressed this?
- Bullying: several states have their own anti-bullying laws, some of which are recent—does yours? And consider any “culture” around bullying at your school. Is it out in the open or more subtle? And to what extent does it occur online?
- Drugs and alcohol: experimenting with drugs is nothing new to the high school population, so dig a little deeper: how prevalent is drug use, and are faculty aware? Are the drugs of choice the more traditional ones or are your peers choosing the drugs that have headlined recent news stories like bath salts and so-called “study drugs”?
- LGBTQ: this topic is constantly changing and featuring in the news, and there are many ways you can steer your investigation: homophobia in sports? Student acceptance of others coming out?
- Sexting: besides being illegal for minors, it’s also highly risky. Does this happen often in relationships at your school? And with Instagram’s overwhelming popularity, experts fear that students will feel more at ease sending sexts or photos of risky behavior because of the false impression that the pictures will just disappear—can you substantiate or dissuade their worries?
- Texting while driving: is this a common practice among your peers? Be sure to also check the laws about cell phone use while driving in your state.
Some tips for choosing topics:
- Be sure to refine your angle or find a more narrow application of the topic—experts can (and have) written entire books about these topics, but you should focus primarily on how the specific issue is relevant to your school.
- Try to tie your investigation to something newsworthy. Perhaps that’ll be a national incident or maybe an assembly or unusual event at school. The news hook will make the story more timely, relevant, and interesting.
Links for further reading:
- The Global Investigative Journalism Network has compiled a list of handbooks (some free and available online)
- GIJN also has a series of tipsheets
- Nestled within this Journalist’s Toolbox page contains dozens of helpful links for topical research are a couple resources on the reporting and/or writing process
- From Nieman Reports, here’s a list of suggestions for improving your data analysis and “precision journalism” skills