1. What went worn with the story?
A lot went wrong with this story. Although well written and cleanly reported from Jackie’s point of view, that is the only view of the story readers receive. And thats the problem. This story should have never been reported and put out into a magazine like Rolling Stones without talking to everyone involved with the case. It is understandable and believable that Jackie would want to protect herself in not turning over the names of the mens she accuses if rape but without this information, a story like this loses it credibility. There are hundreds apron thousands of rape cases a year, many of which happen at schools like UVA. So if Jackie was not willing to turn in more facts about her alleged rape, there are many other stories and girls that probably would have. This was the tough decision that was made wrongfully in this case in choosing to run a story completely from one angle.
2. Where does the fault lie?
Journalistically, the fault lies within the reporter and the editor of Rolling Stones for both reporting a story that is allegedly not all the way true. I feel as though Jackie is also at fault for allegedly giving false information to Rolling stones and/or elaborating her story.
3. What journalistic challenges were presented in the reporting and writing?
The challenges here were the excitement of breaking a huge story that could potentially change this reporters career and holding off on reporting the story because all the facts of the case weren’t surfaced. As far as the actual writing of the story, it does go into great detail regarding the actual rape which is captivating in ways but also can propose bias. From a completely independent party that has no tie to rape or UVA, this story can make you hate UVA, when in reality, rape happens at all campuses. The challenge in writing a story like this is to keep it non-biased through objective writing in order to not share an opinion but rather facts of the story and have readers form their own opinion.
4. What would you have done differently?
I can’t promise that if I were in this reporters shoes that I wouldn’t report this story as a career move. However, after reading it and thinking about it critically, I believe that the best thing to do in this situation is to not report this story due to lack of facts and sources from all parties.