Journalism Merit Badge

Option A can be done virtually. Option B cannot.

Requirement 2 offers two options and both of them require a visit:

• Option A (2(A)(2)). Visit the office of a newspaper, magazine or internet news site, with a tour of the editorial, business and printing divisions. Then: *"Note: If there are no opportunities for in-person visits in your community, a virtual visit is acceptable with the news site of your choice, provided your counselor approves this option in advance."* The requirement even names one you can ask: Scout Life magazine.
• Option B (2(B)(2)). Visit a radio or television station. **No fallback of any kind is stated.** If you live where there is no newsroom and no station, that difference decides the option for you, and it is one sentence buried at the end of Option A's second part. Note the two conditions on it: there must be no opportunity locally, and the counselor must approve in advance.

Requirement 4: decide before you go

"Attend a public event and do ONE of the following:"

Read in order, that means: attend the event, then choose. But look at the three choices.

You cannot go back for the photographs. Pick the route before the event, then attend it knowing what you are gathering. Nothing on the badge says so: the plan draws the three routes behind the attendance because that is the order the sentence actually implies, and says the rest in a warning.

What needs permission, and when

The two routes in requirement 3 that need nothing (write about an event that interests you, or cover a Scouting event) are also the two that need no other person to agree to anything.

Requirement 3(d) has to be sent, not just written

3(d) is the only step on this badge that leaves your hands:

"Review the article with your counselor, then submit it to your community newspaper or Scouting America local council or district newsletter for consideration."

Submitted for consideration, not accepted, not printed. The requirement is the submission. But it is a real deadline against somebody else's publication schedule, so it is the one route in requirement 3 that cannot be finished the night before.

Two "same day" tasks that need planning

Both options open with a comparison that has to happen within one day:

• 2(A)(1): on the same day, read a local news source, a national one, a news magazine and a social media news feed, and compare their coverage of the **same event**.
• 2(B)(1), all on the same day, watch a local and a national network newscast, listen to a radio newscast, and view a national broadcast news source online. That is not hard, but it fails if it is attempted piecemeal across a week, and Option A additionally needs all four sources to have covered one event, which is a reason to pick the day rather than let it happen.

What this page is

The Journalism merit badge, drawn so the virtual-visit fallback and the decide-before-you-go problem in requirement 4 are visible up front. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.