Tweet23: Social media use requires legal, ethical guides
Social media can be daunting. Know how journalism standards, legal and ethical principles apply. #25HZLWD http://jeasprc.org/tweet23-social-media-use-requires-legal-ethical-guides
Social media are merely other tools in the arsenal of journalism. Social media offer student journalists much in the way of new approaches and coverage possibilities, but like all “new” communication tools of the past they also bring fear and unease. It is imperative that schools and their student media understand and rely on the “legacy” standards of professional journalism, legal and ethical. It is undeniable that new legal and ethical standards will develop, building on the old. Until they do, we can rely on what exists for essential guidance.
More and more scholastic journalism programs rush to join the social media landscape, adding Twitter, Facebook and all types of other quick and digital ways to reach audiences with their coverage.
Some have even gone so far to call media prepared by non-journalists the fifth estate, replacing the fourth estate (to be henceforth called legacy media).
One has to wonder, though, whether the fourth and fifth estates will be that different, indeed, whether they should be that different.
The point, we must argue, is to keep and embellish the basics, the good, from the legacy media and surround it and enhance it with the multimedia approaches of the fifth estate.
In fact, we must also build our programs so they can embrace change and expand as new media emerges.
Resources:
• Social Media Toolbox
http://hendricksproject.wordpress.com/
• Social Media, the classroom and the First Amendment
http://1forallnet.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/classroomguide-final-12-13-111.pdf
• JEA online ethical guidelines
http://jeasprc.org/online-ethics-guidelines-for-student-media/
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A Teacher’s Kit for curing Hazelwood
by Megan Fromm
January 13, 2013, we commemorate a bittersweet milestone in scholastic publications history: the 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. This decision institutionalized censorship in most public schools in America, and our students have been publishing in its shadow ever since.
This month, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission seeks to re-engage teachers, students, administrators and local media in a discussion about Hazelwood’s deleterious effects on civic education and scholastic journalism. Similarly, the Student Press Law Center’s “Cure Hazelwood” campaign is aimed at making the public aware of Hazelwood’s ill effects on our nation’s schools. Together, we hope to encourage administrators and policymakers to reconsider a stifling decision that has long plagued our education system.
We hope you will use, during the coming weeks, our Teacher Kit with resources, lesson plans, and calls to action to energize your students and staffs to learn more about—and ultimately take action against— Hazelwood.
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Foundations for Scholastic Journalism
Late last year, the Scholastic Press Rights Commission asked JEA members and others what clear statements about legal and ethical issues they would like to see compiled in one easy-to-access place.
From their responses the Commission created these 11 Foundations for Scholastic Journalism, in downloadable PDF form below, the first installment of our series. Foundations run from the general, including curriculum standards for law and ethics, to the precise, such as how and when to get consent when publishing articles. It’s a start, and the Commission welcomes suggestions for others we can add in the future.
Some of these incorporate and expand on JEA policies and statements the Board has passed and are available elsewhere on the Web, but here you will find them all in one place. They also offer links to resources that support each concept and can serve as handouts or posters.
1. Journalism as 21st Century skills
- 2. A Free and Responsible Student Press
3. Administrators Should Support Scholastic Journalism
4. Why advisers should oppose censorship
5. The Importance of Getting Consent
6. The Use of Anonymous Sources
7. Verification is important
8. Handling controversy
9. Foundations to meet Common Core standards for law and ethics
10. A road map: Getting to know the SPLC
11. Who owns the copyright?
We welcome your feedback and recommendations.
Read MoreMirror, mirror on the wall: leadership in the digital age
Expanding scholastic journalism into the digital environment is like delving into the world of fantasy, complete with magic mirrors that enlighten and show implications for the future and connections to the past.
Our dilemma is how to decide what traditional journalism standards are worthy of transfer to the magical world of digital media and, in particular, whether those standards include editorial leadership and extended reporting.
It’s still the mirror versus the candle debate — should journalists simply reflect reality to their audiences or should they shine light into the dark corners and make their world a better place? Our new tools — all those digital bells and whistles — offer leadership opportunities but also hold challenges to that leadership.
Even now, in digital media’s initial stages of growth, a quick check of school Web sites shows a number do not publish staff editorials. Some do not expand their reporting beyond that of showing what surrounds them. What is reported includes cafeteria menus, game scores and requests to get involved in school activities. In some cases it’s even hard to differentiate between fact and opinion writing. The I dominates the we of editorial leadership.
JEA president Jack Kennedy said possible causes for the disappearance of editorial leadership in scholastic journalism could include:
• students are scared.
• advisers are scared.
• everyone is turned off by the proliferation of ill-considered rhetoric in the media.
• we (students and advisers) are not very comfortable with persuasive essay style.
• readers simply do not look to their own student press for leadership.
How these sites and online media in general will perform a classic leadership role isn’t clear yet. But unless we take time to address leadership issues, including those above or ones similar, scholastic journalism’s potential will be thwarted. The future effectiveness of student media may well depend directly on how they employ today’s standards in creating content for new media.
Should those standards be like the traditional mirror or candle, or should we create some new blend? How will student media lead? Or will they?
Part 3 will examine possibilities and offer some direction.
Read MoreWhere have the leaders gone?
Judging newspaper entries this spring, I noticed a distinct lack of unsigned staff editorials. In some cases this seemed to be mirrored by a lack of depth or extended feature reporting.
If there were editorials, a significant number were not calls to action or statements of leadership on events or issues.
In other words, the leadership function seemed to be either distinctly limited or completely lacking.
Leadership can come from reporting or through editorial statements. When either seems to be missing, we have to ask why:
• Is it censorship or fear of censorship that limits substantive or thorough reporting and editorials?
• Is it because columns offer more “name” recognition? Are news and substantive reporting not in vogue?
• Is it the belief editorials are passé and have no real power to sway, that depth and extended reporting is not popular in a culture of affirmation?
• Is it inexperienced advisers who don’t fully understand the leadership role of student media?
• Is it some other reason?
• Is it worth our concern?
I hope someone can shed some light on what seems to be a lack of editorials and a lack of issues reporting.
In 1947 the Hutchins Commission report called for more investigative reporting (remember studying the media’s performance in the early McCarthy era) and more social responsibility, reporting that went beyond the surface.
Some journalists refer to reporting beyond the surface as the candle theory of journalism — bringing light. Surface reporting exhibited in the McCarthy era might be termed the mirror theory of journalism — reporting what we see in front of us.
Perhaps we need to find out why editorials and the resulting editorial leadership seem to be missing, why reporting beyond surface events seems to be absent or at least on the decline.
It might be time to reinvigorate the Hutchins movement and apply it to scholastic media. It’s a time of change in media as print seemingly fades and digital media explodes, especially at the scholastic levels. (See Part 2 for a look at the models we might be creating)
After all, even mirrors require some light to be effectively useful.
Read MoreAnd the definition for ‘responsible’ is…
The JEAHELP list had a post last week that included a statement the Scholastic Press Rights Commission has been ready to address from more than a year. It came in a message from Gloria Olman, retired adviser and former Dow Jones Newspaper Fund High School Journalism Teacher of the Year.
Olman was trying to help a retired math teacher who had been advising an after-school paper. The district superintendent objected to several letters to the editor complaining about cafeteria food. Olman wrote that the adviser was upset because she had been told “if we continued to print negative letters, then we just won’t be allowed to print any letters at all. Period!”
When the adviser questioned students not being able to express their opinions, she was told it was an “informational paper”‘ only and further that she “needed to teach ‘responsible journalism.'”
Responsible journalism. How that superintendent defines it and how a knowledgeable journalism teacher defines it appear to be two totally different things. “Happy talk” and only good news isn’t responsible, not unless this school is somewhere over the rainbow with nothing bad ever happening. What IS wrong with the cafeteria food? What were the letter-writers concerned about? And what else could be wrong in a district with an administrator who doesn’t value free speech?
Even though the adviser was pretty sure the superintendent wouldn’t read anything long or complicated explaining the value of letters with all sorts of opinions, it might be good if she read the Press Rights Commission definition of “responsible journalism.“ It contains six principles that should be the basis for dialogue necessary to help everyone in a school get on the same page about student media:
- Establish policies to aid in thorough, accurate and effective reporting.
- Apply critical thinking and decision-making skills so students become more productive future citizens.
- Empower advisers using professionally oriented and substantive curriculum.
- Maintain open lines of communication between students, teachers, administrators and community members.
- Report accurately and thoroughly, using a range of diverse and qualified sources.
- Operate media that report information in verbal and visual context, enhancing comprehension and the greater good for all communities.
Would that allow for letters about cafeteria food? Yes. Does it describe a program where students learn and grow as journalists? Yes.
That sounds pretty responsible to me. Do you think this Michigan superintendent would agree?
Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE
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