This is a test page for the use of Kent State’s Writing Across Platforms students. It is just one approach you can do to link different platforms into one piece.
As you go on to develop yours, or at least see what it could do, remember with everything creative, there are pluses and minuses. Be creative, and remember content always comes first.
by John Bowen, MJE
Unbelievably, prior review seems to be spreading.
It occurred recently in Illinois, California, Ohio, Texas and numerous additional states. It shows no signs of slowing, despite efforts to pass state legislation to protect student expression.
To read about California review and restraint demands, go here. To read the articles in question go here.
Every scholastic journalism organization has opposed prior review and, hopefully, will continue to do so.
Legally, though, prior review is not unconstitutional although prior restraint – censorship – is in some states, Thus, the best way to fight it is with educational principles and the need for stronger civic engagement.
Arguable points against prior review include:
• It limits student intellectual and societal growth
• It delays or even extinguishes the development of journalistic responsibility
• It shackles critical thinking
• It leads historically to prior restraint which leads to mis- and disinformation
• It has no educational value
Yet, it still continues and spreads.
As journalism teachers we know our students learn more when they make content choices.
Prior review and restraint do not teach students to produce higher quality journalism or to become more journalistically responsible.
As journalism teachers we know the only way to teach students to take responsibility for their decisions is to train them for that responsibility.
As journalism teachers we know democracy depends on students who understand all voices have a right to be heard and have a voice in their school and community.
It is our responsibility to find and publicize ways to convince those who support prior review why the practice has no place in scholastic journalism.
For our democracy, our educational system and our individual abilities to separate credible information untruths.
To gain traction against prior review, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee will focus its efforts to provide educational and civic support for advisers, students, parents and administrators so they can best educate their communities.
The resources below represent our initial steps to extend the discussion about the dangers of a practice that historically only led to censorship.
Resources
Prior review
What to tell your principal about prior review?
Why avoiding prior review is educationally sound
Dealing with unwanted, forced prior review?
Definitions of prior review, prior restraint
Prior review vs prior restraint
Questions advisers should ask those who want to implement prior review
Why we keep harping about prior review
Understanding the perils of prior review and restraint
Talking points blog and talking points to counter prior review
And much, much more at Scholastic Press Rights Committee
]]>| by Jackie Mink, JEA Emeritus Member This past January, I saw television reports about members of the UnitedStates Congress being sworn in for this new year. I also saw this happening with the Missouri legislature, which is the state where I live. New sessions makes me think of the New Voices of Missouri legislation, a movement to guarantee student journalists in the state freedom to report without fear of consequence. Right now, there is no added protection against administrative censorship for high school or college journalists and their advisers, leaving them vulnerable to censorship for simply reporting the truth. According to the New Voices web site and Facebook: • For three years in a row, the Missouri Senate failed to call New Voices reform legislation for a final floor vote despite nearly unopposed approval in the House and in the Senate Education Committee. • Rep. Kevin Corlew introduced a new version of the Cronkite New Voices Act, HB 441, Jan. 5, 2017. The 2017 version addressed concerns raised during 2016, including clarifying that schools and colleges are immune from legal liability for the speech of their students in journalistic publications. • The bill in 2018 would have guaranteed freedom of the press in school-sponsored media for both public high schools and public colleges. Not all speech is protected under the bill. Exemptions include: speech that is libelous, incites violence, contains a threat, engages in illegal activity, violates the rights of others, advertises an illegal product, encourages breaking school policies. • This was the third straight year the bill (which would establish the Walter Cronkite New Voices Act) had passed the House with heavy support and passed a Senate committee, but it has never been brought before the full Senate. • Before the bill was brought up for the committee vote, there were concerns that groups representing school boards planned to propose “killer amendments” that would severely weaken the bill. The New Voices of Missouri Facebook page urged supporters to contact committee members and ask them to reject these changes. The Missouri Education Association, the Missouri Press Association and the Missouri College Media Association all support the 2019 legislation. Dr. Robert Bergland, a professor of journalism and digital media at Missouri Western University emailed me and said, “ In addition to individuals calling/writing, is teachers encouraging their students to write/call. If media advisers set aside 10 minutes to have their students write a quick e-mail or letter/postcard to their Senator (if they wish), that would be great for the bill and a good lesson in participatory democracy. We might want to do the same for the Governor if/when the bill passes the Senate, to have students and teachers and allies encouraging the governor to sign it. Also, encourage people to like/follow the Facebook page.” I emailed and called the office of Missouri State Senator Gina Walsh. She is my state senator, the minority floor leader, and her district encompasses Hazelwood East High School where the Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier case began over 30 years ago. I requested information about whether she supported this bill or not. I have not heard back as of April 12. The legislative session ends May 17. I hope the Show Me State, which is the state of the famous journalist Walter Cronkite, the renowned University of Missouri Journalism school, active and involved student journalists, also the location where the Hazelwood case took place, will be able to pass the New Voices bill this year. Check out the New Voices Missouri Facebook page to keep up on what happens in Missouri and other states where there is an effort to pass bills. New Voices legislation has passed in 14 states, with Washington passing a version of the bill in 2018. Student Press Law Center reporter Cory Dawson wrote Feb. 28, 2019, “Fourteen states already have New Voices laws on their books. So far in 2019, bills have been introduced in 11 states, although two have already failed to pass out of the committee stages. Arkansas (HB1231), Missouri (HB743), Nebraska (LB206), New York (A03079), Texas (SB514), Indiana (HB1213) and New Jersey (A238) already have bills moving through the legislature, whereas bills in Minnesota and Pennsylvania will be introduced in the coming days and weeks. Virginia and Hawaii’s bills have already been killed.” |
News literacy resources
Stance:
Informed citizens are a crucial part of a democracy. As both producers and consumers of news, student journalists must understand the principles of news literacy.
Social Media Post/Topic:
Your students produce news, but are they news literate? Here are some resources to teach them the basics.
Reasoning/suggestions:
Given the current controversy around fake news and concerning results from the 2016 Stanford research studyabout students’ inability to differentiate fake from real news, news literacy is a crucial skill for our students.
According to the Radio Television Digital News Foundation, “News literacy is the acquisition of 21st-century, critical-thinking skills for analyzing and judging the reliability of news and information, differentiating among facts, opinions and assertions in the media we consume, create and distribute. It can be taught most effectively in cross-curricular, inquiry-based formats at all grade levels. It is a necessary component for literacy in contemporary society.”
The foundation identifies six principlesbehind news literacy to help students evaluate their personal news consumption and their publication content.
Resources:
News Media Literacy PowerPoint, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission
Six principles behind news literacy, Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism
“Evaluation Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning” (executive summary of Stanford Education study)
Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds, NPR
News, Information and Media Literacy, SchoolJournalism.org
News and Media Literacy, Common Sense Media
Introducing news literacy, American Press Institute
]]>
by Stan Zoller, MJE
A Chicago TV station has the call letters WMAQ. Its origins go back to the 1922 when The Chicago Daily News started the station. Its call letters were known to mean “We Must Ask Questions,” which today would not only be known as solid journalism, but also fact checking.
The Daily News sold the station to NBC in 1931, but the legacy of the call letters continues. Whether it was the intention of William Quinn, publisher of The Chicago Daily News when it started WMAQ to promote good journalism or people just assigned those words to WMAQ, one thing remains constant — asking questions remains a vital part of journalism today.
When journalists – whether students or professional — have even the faintest inkling about something, they need to ask questions. This is true when covering a speech, doing an interview, attending a press conference or a school board meeting.
When the Evanston (Illinois) Township High School Board of Education debated the rationalization of confiscating The Evanstonian, the school’s award-winning newspaper, there appeared to be some holes in the discussion.
As I noted in a previous blog, I used Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to try and get some answers. After filing two FOI requests, I still wasn’t satisfied with the submitted materials and still had questions.
That was not, however, the end of the line. In Illinois, persons who file an FOI request, can ask for a review by a Public Access Counselor in the state Attorney General’s office will then conduct a review of contested FOI request and, if warranted, render a decision.
If your students plan to use the FOI laws in your state, it’s imperative they fully understand not only the procedures for filing a FOI request, but also an appeal process, if one exists. Like filing a FOI request, meeting deadlines and procedures are essential.
In the case of my appeal, it took more than six months, but I received a ruling with an exhaustive explanation. Quite simply, the AG’s office noted that ETHS School Board “improperly withheld certain records.” The 17-page opinion detailed each section of Illinois’ FOIA that ETHS claimed it adhered to.
So, what’s the lesson here? Public bodies need to be held accountable by all journalists. FOI laws are tools for journalists – and the public at large – to use in making sure public bodies – including school boards – are transparent and accountable.
When all is said and done it’s important remember four simple letters – WMAQ.
]]>by John Bowen, MJE
A Boston Globe article about its Aug. 16 campaign for media to speak out against President Donald Trump’s attacks on journalists called the president’s rhetoric ”alarming.”`
“Whatever happened to the free press? Whatever happened to honest reporting,” the reporter quotes the president in an Aug. 2 political rally in Pennsylvania. “They don’t report it. They only make it up.”
The Globe seeks editorial comment from other media to stress potential damage to our democracy from the intimidation, and the importance of an unfettered press.
In a way, the current round of attacks from the president and others have some roots in the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court’s Hazelwood decision. The court’s majority enabled public school officials to limit student expression – not just of student media but any expression in school – under certain conditions.
We now have a generation of teachers and administrators, let along their students, who have only seen media control in many of our schools.[pullquote]In a way, the current round of attacks from the president and others have some roots in the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court’s Hazelwood decision. The court’s majority enabled public school officials to limit student expression – not just of student media but any expression in school – under certain conditions.[/pullquote]
Hazelwood and other decisions essentially created an expectation student media in public schools could and should be controlled.
If school officials frowned upon criticism, demanded a positive image and prior reviewed and restrained where information did not match their their view of what student media should be, that became the norm. Challenge it and students faced censorship, suspension, withdrawal of school recommendations.
Why should the media be able to criticize school decisions, present controversial and unpleasant stories? It was not what some schools taught or practiced.
Facts changed to fit the views of those in charge created an early version of “fake news” and misinformation by omission.
During the years since ( and before) Hazelwood, scholarly research shows growing mistrust of the media.and growth of negative attitudes toward the First Amendment.
Perhaps, as voters aged, they expected to see a continuation of the chained version of scholastic media many schools did and continue to face.
Nat Hentoff, a First Amendment scholar and avid supporter, said controlled media created “parchment under glass,” referring to freedoms expressed in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Unused freedoms become even more brittle.
When voters and those still in school see limited, continuously denigrated guidelines of our democracy become more brittle.
When government leaders, who we want to be our moral faces of America, wage what the Globe calls “a dirty war against the free press” against the nation’s media or its school media, it’s time to take action, short and long term.
Scholastic media advisers and students can and should:take action to:
- Work as best we can to convince school officials and voters about the educational harm of review and censorship. Information restricted becomes“fake,” incomplete misinformation
- Work to educate school and local communities about the journalistic process, inviting them to join with students to produce credible news
- Work to create news literacy teaching and production units for each course of the school’s curricular areas
- Work to actively support state legislation to negate Hazelwood’s effects in all schools and/or nationally
- Work to empower student journalists in all schools to practice credible, accurate, verifiable and contextual journalism, reinforced by strong and effective ethical guidelines. Stressing this practice should begin to ease fears that spawned Hazelwood’s damage.
Far too many journalists at scholastic levels still must fight for their right to practice thorough and contextual reporting.
Some, like those at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, use their voices on a national level following a mass shooting last spring.
Others have a different story.
Journalists at Prosper High in Texas faced prior review, restraint and the inability to present opinions this year.
They and others fought the new restrictions.
They learned, just before school started, their policy of prior review and no opinion pieces would not be in effect as planned.
“I think [the administration] decided to change it because of all the press that we got,” said Assistant Editor Haley Stack. “… I mean, once it reached up to the New York Times, I think they realized that they really need to change something before they started getting a really bad name for themselves.”
This quote, reported by the Student Press Law Center, shows journalists can create change.
Face and fight – and educate – those who would control the media – at any level.
]]>
When students violate copyright, they are stealing from the original copyright holder.
This reference area provides information on what copyright and fair use are, provides guidelines and provides best practices and copyright free resources.
Guideline for staff manual
Students should first use their own work whenever possible. In instances in which is this not possible and the content is not covered under Fair Use, they should obtain copyright-free content or written permission from the copyright holder.
Fair use
In some instances, the work in question may fall under fair use.
To use those creations, others need to have permission of the copyright owner or b able to show “fair use.”
Fair use, according to the Law of the Student Press, is not always easy to determine.
“Fair use” according to the book, “ can include uses for such purposes as ‘criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…scholarship or research. Even if the use is for purposes of commentary or news reporting, courts will not automatically find that the use is fair.”
Fair use is an important guideline. Written permission from the creator must be obtained before students use others’ materials. If the use is challenged, according to Law of the Student Press, courts would look at four factors to determine fair use:
- The purpose and character of the use
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and portion of the portion use in relation to the whole of the work
- The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
If in doubt, get written permission from the copyright holder.
Guidelines from the Library of Congress found here.
Important items of note/application in student media:
If it’s not considered fair use, publication decision-makers could be sued for copyright infringement, receive notice demanding payment for use of the copyrighted work.
If it’s not considered fair use, student media could be sued for copyright infringement or receive a letter demanding payment for use of the copyrighted work.
And, if not done correctly, says Mark Goodman, Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism, a way to violate the owner’s copyright. A violation several owners pursued.
Student best practice
If your students are commenting on the subject of the story or reviewing an item, product or action itself, their use is probably going to be considered a fair use and it should be fine. Attribution is ethically appropriate but it’s not legally required.
On the other hand, if students are use a meme, lip sync, image or video and audio tracks because they illustrate
something they want to say and they’re not engaged in some commentary about the original copyright work, it wouldn’t be a fair use, even if you attribute it.
In either case, attribution isn’t really a factor. Attributing a work to its source doesn’t avoid a copyright infringement claim.
Another potential copyright concern is with video dubs. Although a common event in some schools, video dubs need to be handled with legal and ethical care. It is essential, if the product is to go on the web, to follow all copyright requirements.
Where to find copyright-free materials:
Need copyright-free materials? Here are some links:
Remember, though, this warning info from the Student Press Law Center: “If material is “too good to be true,” chances are that it is. It’s not difficult for a prankster to upload other people’s work to the web and claim that the material is ‘free.’
10 Resources for Copyright and Royalty Free Media | The Tech Savvy …
Public Domain Material: Images, Audio, Scores & Books
MILI Copyright Wiki / Links to Copyright-Free Materials
]]>
By John Bowen, MJE
Looking for end-of-year activities to rebuild or revisit how your student media operate, the range and effectiveness of content, no matter the platform?
Consider the following, either now at the end of the year or during summer staff retreats, to help students strengthen your program’s foundation.
The four parts of the foundation approach are a mission statement, an editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual procedures to carry them out.
Approaches to the four mentioned above and a fifth on content, recommended by the SPRC, include:
- Revisit your mission statement
Think of your student media this way: What do you stand for? What do students want to be known for? What principles drive your students?
Hopefully, this would be more inclusive and specific than inform and entertain. Mission statements should be the principles on which all other policies, guidelines and procedures are based.
–For a model mission statement and suggested concepts, see Careful preparation creates strong mission statements, Points to avoid in mission statements and From mission to manual: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation.
- Refine your editorial policy
Designing a strong editorial policy is one of the most important steps your students can take. Why? Simple – a sound editorial policy is like a constitution in that it establishes rules and corresponding responsibilities. These rules include having a designated public forum, avoiding prior review with students making all decisions of content and providing the framework for freedom of expression and related 2lst century skills.
The SPRC’s policy development tools are not designed to give students and advisers cut-out models but to provide choices of language that fit each school’s traditions and situations.
Resources:
—What should go into an editorial policy? What should not?
—Getting your editorial policy the right way
—Student media policy might be the most important decision you make
—The foundations of journalism: policies, ethics and staff manuals
- Recreate your ethical guidelines for student staff – and adviser
While policies provide rules, ethical statements provide guidelines. Since ethical development is primarily a right versus right decision, there are no yes and no directives.
Administrators have punished student journalists for not making an ethical decision the “correct” way. Not mixing policy and ethics statements can go a long way to avoid confusing ethics with policy.
As with policies, the SPRC resources do not provide specific answers or models, but rather pathways and choices. It is not a matter of dictating what reporters will do but what they should do and investigate.
Resources:
—How to use this guide for ethical use of staff manuals
—Policy and ethics sitemap
—Model for ethical guidelines, process
—The role of the adviser is multifold, but ethically, practically for a doer
—Yearbook ethical guidelines, Visual guidelines join online, yearbook ethics
We have the JEA Adviser Code of Ethics here.
- Reframe your approach to considering another view of newsworthy coverage: “what” is happening, “so what” it means and “now what” comes next
Use of this section would give students a chance to update or develop a process with which to apply mission, policy and ethical guides. It also would divide news into three stages:
–What is happening, the traditional newsthinking of the 5 Ws and inverted pyramid. Breaking news or quick, straight information for those in a hurry.
–The “so what” of news would refer to the context or significance of the news and how it affects information gathering.
–The “now what” that goes beyond the surface of news reflected in most scholastic media. This means preparing sources to think and investigate possible futures, solutions and how to get there.
Resources:
—Balance and objectivity are key to reporting
—Covering controversy
—Responsibility in scholastic media starts with ethics, accuracy, complete story
—Make it matter: Scholastic journalism must do more than give facts
- Rethink the range of stories your students chose.
Are there story ideas only students can do best or ideas students have wanted to report but did/could not? Story ideas that might involve working with other schools? Stories tied to national issues or concerns? Stories focused on issues but also on the of solutions and how others have treated similar problem? Stories using new-to you-media? Stories that give a voice to the voiceless?
–Issues like gun control and student safety. As a student from Santa Fe, the latest school shooting location, said, “I was thinking it was going to happen eventually:” What,toll, if any, are shootings taking on student attitudes and outlook on society.
–Facing on issue locally and working to report Solutions others have used to try to correct it. These are not opinion pieces but wide-ranging reporting, research and use of data. Have bad water in your school? How have others tried, succeeded or failed to solve it? Prior reviewed? Why? How have others lifted that practice or failed?
–Urge students to report using a medium they are not familiar with. Rethink existing approaches: What is the best medium to report school board meetings? Audio? Visual and interactive infographic? Combinations of platforms? Will it cause students to rethink their reporting approaches?
]]>
By Kristin Taylor
One of the highest callings of journalism is to “give voice to the voiceless.”
As scholastic journalism classes begin to wrap up, it’s a good time for staffs to look back at the year to evaluate their coverage and see how fully they’ve met that goal. Before starting the process, I suggest having students make predictions.
How many people do they think they covered? How balanced was their coverage of various areas? Can they think of any voices they didn’t cover as well as they could have? Did any voices dominate? Were the students they used as sources throughout the year representative of the school population?
These gut feelings are often wrong, and comparing what they think they covered to who actually covered can provide an important reality check.
The next step is data collection. This process can be tedious, but it’s invaluable in getting quantifiable data. Have students count the total number of articles in each section of the paper and begin to list how many articles they wrote about specific topics. This might reveal an imbalance in sports or academic coverage, for example.
I also suggest starting a master list of who got quoted in each article, much like the index in a yearbook. You might have students do this for their own articles to cut down on work. How many times did they quote the same people? Did their student sources correlate with the student body as a whole? While some imbalance is unavoidable — they will likely always have to talk to student leaders more often than most — this is a good time to assess when they missed opportunities to bring in more points of view.
It’s also important to look at representation of marginalized groups. Percentages of quotes should roughly match up to the school population statistics. For example, if 50 percent of the student body is male, only about 50 percent of the quotes should come from males. Similarly, if the student body is 60 percent Latino, students should be aiming for about that same percentage in their sources Additionally, if they are reporting in a 9-12 school, are they seeking perspectives from all four grades or always turning to juniors and seniors?
If students question why this is important, consider sharing this research report from the Global Media Monitoring Project or this New York Times piece. This conversation might also start a larger dialogue about why seeking diverse sources is so crucial to “giving voice to the voiceless” and making sure we aren’t missing important stories in the community.
After gathering the data, compare their expectations to their findings. This final step will allow them to draw conclusions about how well they did and set goals for the following year.
This process isn’t a panacea for equal representation, but it’s a concrete way for students to evaluate their coverage and work to give voice to more students in the following year.
]]>Guideline:
Journalists should present relevant information in context so the audience has adequate information on which to base decisions. Context is just as important as factual accuracy and can help readers fully understand an issue and its relevance to their daily lives.
Stance:
Clickbait has little relevance to what readers need to know. It provides a diversion.
Reasoning/suggestions:
Ben Frampton writes in Clickbait: The changing face of online journalism “Put simply, it is a headline which tempts the reader to click on the link to the story. But the name is used pejoratively to describe headlines which are sensationalised, turn out to be adverts or are simply misleading.”
The article sites Peter Preston, the former Guardian editor and Observer columnist “You certainly want your journalists to be thinking how they get the maximum level of interest … it seems on one hand it’s pretty stupid to not make sure your journalists are doing their best to serve their readers.”
Clickbait has little relevance to what readers need to know. It provides a diversion.
Resources:
Infotainment, JEA Curriculum
Clickbait: The changing face of online journalism, Ben Frampton, BBC
What is Clickbait?, Nieman Journalism Lab
]]>