Max Arnold’s Portfolio
Law, Ethics, and News Literacy
Page one
During my junior year, our broadcast staff had an issue with the content we were putting out. We felt as though we had fallen into a routine, and our content had lost its edge and was lacking some substance we knew we could provide. As a result, our adviser suggested implementing Page One. This new segment served as a way for us to start our show each day with the day's top headline in world news. We were able to inform high school students each day on things happening in the world they should know. Today’s high schoolers consume less traditional news than ever before, and thus are often unaware of major world happenings. This was our chance to expand our role as video journalists. Below, I have attached some examples of our Page One segment.
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Stories displaying ethical questions
"Vape Nation"
“Vape Nation” was the first story I ever wrote as a part of our school's newspaper staff, the Mill Stream. This story was a four page spread tackling the issue of student addiction and the marketing tactics that were clearly targeting a youthful audience. In the reporting for this story, I worked with school resource officers, staff members at Noblesville, students at Noblesville, and addiction recovery specialists in order to find the whole truth of the story. In addition, I reached out to multiple state representatives who declined to comment. This story debuted as a four page spread and the cover story of the first issue of the 2023-2024 school year. Click here or on the image to the right to view the story.
"A Marathon Everyday"
“A Marathon Everyday” tells the heartwarming story of husband and wife marathoners Amy and Jamie Shinnemen. The story tells of the Shinnemen's quest to complete every world marathon to raise charity for an organization founded by the two, Humbly Courageous. Humbly Courageous is a blog and charity the Shinnemen's founded to raise money for a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy that leaves Amy unable to walk without support. This story was quite difficult to report on, as this story required the Shinnemens to talk about something deeply emotional and hard to talk about. During the interviewing process, I had to balance between being kind and light with my questions while still reporting on the real story, even if it was hard to talk about. Click here or on the image to learn more about the Shinnemens and their story.
"Running Out Of Time"
“Running Out Of Time” was a story that began as a simple game wrap on the Miller boys and girls cross country teams’ state championship races. When I woke up that Saturday morning, I expected this story to be easy to write. The teams were good, really good. They were both wrapping up one of the most dominant seasons in the state, and the girls went into this race as defending state champions. The Millers fell apart that day. Going into the race, I knew the teams were banged up. All conference junior Ronnie Neal was out with a punctured lung, and senior Caden Click, arguably one of the best runners in the state, was one of many on the team who had been battling sickness all week. Despite knowing about all these setbacks, the results were worse than even the most pessimistic predictions. Talking with the athletes, many of whom are friends of mine, was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a journalist. They were at an all-time low as shock and despair ran through team camp. Despite its difficulty, it is my job as a journalist to report the story as it truly happened. Click here to learn more about the Millers 2023 performance at the IHSAA State Finals.
