From managing club finances to organizing school events, ASB has an incredibly large set of responsibilities. However, apart from these tasks, ASB is also involved in event coverage, which requires much more representational consideration than its other duties do.

As a group meant to represent and engage with the entire student body, ASB needs to make a specific arrangement regarding how to cover their events with maximum accuracy and minimal bias.

An easy pitfall within event coverage is the misrepresentation of a population because of convenience sampling, a method of surveying individuals who are easiest for a reporter to access, according to Sage Research Methods. Without a more keen attention to diverse coverage, it is easy for ASB to fall victim to undercoverage of certain demographics.

As a journalist, I have seen bias present in all amateur or unstructured reporting. It is much easier to take photos of and interview people who a reporter knows personally or has interacted with before, especially when there is not an established guideline to prevent such shortcuts.

The only way to resolve this issue is to make a structured system that brings in multiple people to cover any event.

As a class, if ASB aims to take more responsibility in event coverage, they should properly train their staff to objectively and representatively source people.

Specifically, it could randomly assign individuals in the class to these core duties, cycling responsibility for all leadership members to participate in. This would ensure that within ASB, there are many voices contributing to a final product, instead of solely students whose titles mandate event coverage.

Alternatively, if ASB wants to outsource event coverage, they must find and coordinate with trustworthy independent reporters to reduce the homogeneity of sourcing. 

Relying on a single independent individual still carries the risk of turning personal, implicit biases into a representation of the school. Instead, combining multiple perspectives helps cancel out biases and offers a more complete view of the students attending school events.

Additionally, if ASB wanted to include a professional standard for impartial reporting, they should consider asking The Pegasus or The Epitaph for assistance. As student publications with formal editorial commitments to representative reporting, we have extensive experience in ensuring that all student voices are heard.

Regardless of whether rotating ASB members or multiple independent reporters handle event coverage, the need for fair representation and regulation is undeniable. Without a solid plan for how to minimize reporting biases, it will become increasingly difficult for ASB to present event recaps that engage and include the entire community.