Insufficient Sourcing to Report on EURweb 'Girl Code' Column

HTT News was assigned a data-journalism piece on an EURweb column titled "My Alternative Lifestyle: The Lesbian Girl Code," identified through a Google News aggregator link.

The only material supplied for this assignment is that aggregator link itself, which carries the headline and the label "Google News" with no article text, byline, quotes, statistics, or dataset attached to it.

Why This Piece Was Not Written

The assigned format requires a numeric headline built on a figure drawn from the source material, plus dataset names and dates for every claim. No such figures exist in the material provided. Writing them would mean inventing data, which HTT News policy prohibits.

What Would Be Needed to Report This

A usable version of this story would require the original EURweb article text, any survey or dataset the columnist cites on relationship norms, and attribution for direct quotes. None of that was supplied.

HTT News will revisit this topic if the underlying EURweb article or a comparable dataset on relationship dynamics becomes available for review.

How HTT News Verifies Aggregator Links

Google News aggregator links point to publisher pages rather than hosting article text directly, and the link supplied for this assignment resolves only to a redirect through news.google.com. HTT News editorial policy requires reporters to open and read the originating publisher's page before drafting, confirm a byline or outlet attribution, and capture any figures, survey results, or named sources cited in that piece. None of those steps could be completed here because the assignment brief contained the aggregator URL alone, with no accompanying fetch of the EURweb page itself.

Why the Data-Journalist Format Cannot Substitute Analysis for Sourcing

A dataset name and date is required for every figure in this format. Without the underlying article, there is no figure to attribute.

The assigned voice calls for the numbers to carry the piece: rates, counts, or survey shares that anchor a headline and inform each paragraph. That approach depends entirely on having the original reporting or a named dataset in hand. Substituting description of the aggregator link for that reporting would produce a piece that reads like data journalism without containing any data, which fails the same standard it claims to meet.

What Readers Searching for This Topic Should Know

Searchers looking for coverage of the EURweb column on lesbian relationship norms and "girl code" will not find sourced analysis in this piece, and HTT News is not the outlet to consult until the underlying article is available for review. Readers seeking the original column should look for it directly on EURweb rather than through the aggregator link alone, since the aggregator page does not carry article text.

How This Assignment Will Be Reprocessed

HTT News maintains a standing practice of returning to assignments once sourcing gaps are closed. If the EURweb article text becomes available, or if the columnist references a specific survey, poll, or study on relationship dynamics within LGBTQ communities, the Data Desk will reassess whether the piece meets the numeric-headline requirement for this format. Until then, this notice stands in place of a drafted analysis, consistent with HTT News policy against publishing claims that cannot be traced to a specific source and date.