Carver Journal Ethics and Policies

Who we are

The Carver Journal is an independent, volunteer-based, not-for-profit news organization based in Carver, Mass. and is dedicated to serving the interests of the town’s residents. The Carver Journal maintains a nonprofit structure, is free to readers and covers news, events, politics and more.

Mission

The Carver Journal strives to publish accurate information about news and events happening around our town. Our goal is to increase residents’ knowledge about what’s going on in Carver, promoting public engagement and awareness.

Editorial Independence

The Carver Journal maintains full independence over its editorial content. The Journal may accept outside support from donors. Acceptance of financial support is not an endorsement of any particular person, organization, product or other characteristic connected to the donor. The Carver Journal prohibits editorial oversight from outside donors and makes news judgments independently.

Donors

The Carver Journal accepts gifts, grants, donations and other funds to support our mission of informing the community and deepening our coverage. The Carver Journal does not accept contributions from political organizations or government bodies. The Carver Journal may accept donations from private residents. The views of those donors do not necessarily reflect those of the Carver Journal. Accepting a donation does not constitute the endorsement of any particular person, organization or point of view.

All donors who contribute more than $5,000 per year will be made public. The Carver Journal reserves the right to accept or deny any contribution at the discretion of the owner. If a contribution is rejected, the Carver Journal will return funds to the contributor.

Conflicts of Interest

In its editorial content, the Carver Journal seeks to limit all conflicts of interest. Reporters should not cover a story that involves a friend or family member, which would compromise the Carver Journal’s objectivity. Reporters must inform the editor-in-chief of all potential conflicts of interest prior to covering a story. The Carver Journal reserves the right to remove reporters and editors who violate this rule.

Should a situation arise where a reporter has a compelling reason to cover a topic on which they have a conflict of interest, they will disclose this conflict with an editor’s note at the beginning of the article.

The Carver Journal does not restrict its reporters’ rights to vote or participate in the democratic process. However, reporters may not be actively involved in non-journalistic political organizations, nor should they publicly announce their political beliefs. Reporters may not serve on any town boards or committees while part of the Carver Journal. Doing so compromises the reporter’s coverage, the impartiality of the Carver Journal and could harm the Journal’s reputation as a nonpartisan, independent news organization. Reporters may not publicly lobby, support, endorse or donate to any political campaign while serving in the role. Reporters should avoid signing petitions that could be deemed political.

Standards

Reporters may not plagiarize or falsify their work in any capacity. This includes substantially writing articles using artificial intelligence. All quotes in the Carver Journal are verbatim and should be properly attributed. Reporters and editors are expected to conduct deep research and check facts in their coverage.

Reporters are expected to remain impartial in their coverage of any story for the Carver Journal. They must strive for impartiality in both their writing and behavior while covering events or issues.

Photographs may not be manipulated or altered in any way that could meaningfully alter a viewer’s perception of an event or story. Photographers should not stage photographs or participate in the activities that they are photographing at an event.

Photographs and videos that include children require the permission of a parent or legal guardian prior to publication. Public events, like protests, are exempt from this rule.

When possible, photographers should get the full names of all people included in a photo.

Reporters, photographers and directors may not consume alcohol or non-prescription drugs while actively on assignment or acting on behalf of the Carver Journal.

Artificial Intelligence Policy

The use of artificial intelligence has become an increasingly powerful tool in journalism. However, the Carver Journal understands the importance of human reporters to have a credible and accurate source of information for the town. Our journalism will never be AI summaries, simple republications of AI-generated transcripts or AI news aggregation. It will always be human-centered.

The Carver Journal may use and build tools using artificial intelligence to aid in its coverage. Reporters may use AI as a tool, but will never use it to substantially write articles or rely on AI tools as a sole source of research or information. Humans will always verify all information and control what is ultimately published by the Carver Journal. Reporters are responsible for whatever appears under their byline. Should artificial intelligence produce any forward-facing content, it will be outwardly disclosed by the Carver Journal.

Accepted uses of artificial intelligence include, but are not limited to: interview transcription, custom webpage design, background research, translation, headline optimization and minor copyediting.

Reporters must also be sensitive with how they disclose personal information to artificial intelligence sources. Reporters may not input personally identifying information of sources into remote artificial intelligence models.

The Carver Journal prohibits the use of artificially generated images or the substantial AI-powered editing of any image used in its news coverage.

Sources

All interviews conducted by Carver Journal reporters are considered to be on the record unless otherwise agreed upon. During these interviews, everything that a source says may be used, attributed and published in the Carver Journal. A source may request to be on background, where they are only attributable by title (ex. “A town official said.”). Deep background sources may be used when a source’s title may reveal their identity, attributable by “sources said,” for example. Off the record conversations may not be used for publication in any way, but may guide reporters in looking for additional information elsewhere. The Carver Journal will use on the record sources whenever possible. Use of any other type of source, including anonymous sources, requires the advance approval from the editor-in-chief.

The Carver Journal avoids the use of anonymous sources unless absolutely necessary — usually, but not necessarily limited to situations where the source’s life or livelihood would be in danger if their name is used.

In the spirit of editorial independence, sources are not allowed to review stories before publication. Reporters will strive to convey all information from sources and their quotes in a fair and truthful manner.

The Carver Journal will not alter word choice, make clarifying edits, remove quotes or unpublish stories by request unless there is a factual inaccuracy in the story.

Corrections

The Carver Journal may occasionally make corrections and clarifications to its reporting. While the Carver Journal strives to report the most accurate information at the time of publication, errors do happen. When they do occur, errors will be resolved as soon as possible and an editor’s note will appear at the top of the story, stating the error and the fix. If you spot an error in one of our stories, please let us know at stories@carverjournal.com.