By Fiona Meagher, Year 12
Graciously having agreed to do a brief interview about her experience and perspective as current Editor-in-Chief of the LGB Express, Yuval Israel sat apprehensively before me on a lunch table above the cafeteria on the 29th of November 2024. A plate of cheese pasta sat between us. She refused upfront to let me title the upcoming article “Yuval Israel: The woman, the myth, the legend.” Despite this blatant censorship, I began the interview.
What does being Editor-in-Chief actually entail?
Basically, I supervise the editors who supervise the writers, as well as taking care of the website, making sure that the Express can continue this year and the next!
What surprised you most, or what didn’t you see coming about being Editor-in-Chief?
That a lot of people use ChatGPT. And that it’s super hard to get people to write.
What do you enjoy most?
I do enjoy well-researched articles or funny articles. I like when someone writes an interesting article focused on a specific area of research which fascinates them… or even just a well-conducted interview with a teacher is always interesting. And honestly, I just like the power.
What’s the most frustrating or annoying part?
When writers submit articles late, like if I say they need to be submitted by Saturday but then they’re not submitted until Sunday. I kind of expect people to hand them in a bit late, but then I have to worry that we won’t be able to upload them on time.
As the head of our school’s only newspaper, you control the spread of information. Have you considered using this power for evil?
Not really. Honestly, I just really want to get more people reading the Express – since my account got upgraded on the website I can see how many views articles get, and most of the time it’s probably around 14. And most of those are me. So I really want to find ways to get people more invested in it.
So you have ambitions, but they’re not sinister?
Yeah, basically.
Would you say the Express receives sufficient support from the school staff?
To be honest, no, I don’t think so. I like the teachers – I really like all my teachers this year – but I don’t think there’s enough support for the newspaper. I think there’s a lot more they could do.
If you were hypothetically going to war, shaping your devoted team of writers and editors into an army, which editor would you choose as your second-in-command?
I appreciate the team of editors this year. I think they’re really good, and I would trust – well, most of them–to take over if, God forbid, something fatal would happen to me.
Did you have a particular approach to taking on this role? If so, how has it changed since the start of the year?
I tried to sort of copy the last Editor-in-Chief, Sophia Lashmar – I think she was extremely successful in publishing editions and managing the website in general. I also try to work with the editors as I do believe this is a project that requires teamwork. I couldn’t do all this by myself. I don’t think my approach has changed much, but I’ve become more conscious of certain topics to write about, and more concerned with the use of ChatGPT.
On the subject, what’s your opinion on the use of AI for writing?
When writers use AI for the entirety of their work, they’re essentially just wasting the editor’s time. It is wasting my time, just wasting everybody’s time. Writers have to send in their articles by midday on Saturday, and the editors and I have to take the time to put it through multiple AI detector apps, and if it’s created by ChatGPT, that means the editors can’t send it in and they don’t have an article to submit for that week, making it seem like we don’t do any work. Using AI is unethical and it could get me and the other editors in trouble with our supervisors, which is not a position we want to be in.
I notice that a lot of articles use AI-generated images as the cover photo. Does your opinion differ when it comes to using AI tools for pictures?
I’ve used AI images myself on articles I submit. I don’t mind them because an article essentially is a piece of writing. When people read the articles, they see the images but it’s really the content of the article that matters. I think that… I don’t really mind the use of AI images, I’m not sure if the other editors mind it or not. I think sometimes they can express what the article says more deeply than if you try to find images off Google. The school doesn’t mind it, they haven’t told me or sent me anything against AI image use. You know, it’s the writing that counts, so I don’t really mind.
Have you considered attempting a coup against a school newsletter?
I’ve never thought of that. I do think we could win against “The Update” (La Chat’s newspaper) though, however, only if it is friendly competition.
What do you want readers, writers and editors alike of the Express to know, generally? Impart some wisdom.
I think that a lot of Year 11’s and Year 10’s should know that this is really the time to start writing. Or even Year 9’s, because I started writing in Year 9’s and a lot of the current editors started writing in Year 9. I think it’s really great if people in lower grades start writing now, because, y’know, somebody’s going to need to take over my position amongst all of the other editing positions next year. So the better you write, the more qualified your letter is going to sound and then the more trust I have in you. It shows that you have the loyalty to actually send in articles and that the time you put in is actually going to be put to use when you start editing. I prefer someone who has written even, like, two articles, than someone who hasn’t written any when considering editor applications for next year. I think it makes a huge difference if someone put in the time and effort to actually send in articles: it shows that they actually care… Well, at least it shows that they’re actually committed to writing articles.
