In plain view from public places: Photojournalists and free speech
What can and cannot be photographed continues to fall under question, bringing attention to photojournalists and igniting important First Amendment conversations. As part of other Free Speech Week lessons and activities, teachers may use this opportunity to incorporate key readings and discussion geared toward visual storytellers.
For starters, journalism students paying attention to current events likely caught last week’s story of documentarian Deia Schlosberg arrested while filming an oil pipeline protest in North Dakota. If needed, teachers can engage students in a quick research activity to update each other. Key questions: What’s the story? How does this relate to the First Amendment? How does a photojournalist’s role compare to that of a documentarian?
Photojournalists use the phrase “in plain view from public spaces” to describe in broad terms their interpretation of access and privacy as related to their First Amendment rights. What does this mean? Teachers can consider this as a warm-up writing prompt or partner conversation between students before sharing as a larger group.
To read more about photojournalists and the First Amendment, teachers can assign small groups to read and report on any of these articles:
NYT Lens blog: Criminalizing photography
University of Missouri protest “muscle” incident
Pennsylvania student shooting routine traffic stop
First Amendment Center: Photographs as speech
ACLU: What to do if you’re detained
Police, cameras and the Constitution
To tie in a media literacy component, teachers may add “Photography and the Law: Know Your Rights” from Photojojo. How is this article more or less credible? How does the material compare to the other articles under discussion? What factor(s) affected your analysis?
It’s likely that most journalism classes already discussed this photo from Aleppo and a related article back in August, but the connection here is strong between the power of a photo and why the world depends on photojournalists to capture what audiences need to see, regardless of how terrifying, depressing or controversial those images may be.
The National Press Photographers Association offers this statement about its advocacy work protecting photojournalists’ rights.
After reading related articles and discussing efforts underway to protect those constitutional freedoms, teachers may want to present powerful storytelling images that may spark debate about free speech and/or the ethical considerations photojournalists face. One option is to assign students to find and share photos on their own.
Here is a simple list of possible photos and/or photographers to research and discuss:
- Yannis Behrakis, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography, on the refugee crisis in Greece
- “General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon” by Eddie Adams in 1968
- Pulitzer Prize-winning photos taken by photojournalist Paul Watson of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu
- Image galleries showing treatment of Iraq prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison complex
- “The vulture and the little girl” by South African photojournalist Kevin Carter in 1993
- “The Falling Man” by Richard Drew during 9/11 attacks
- “Fire on Marlborough Street” or “Fire escape collapse” by Stanley Forman
- “The Burning Monk” by Malcolm Browne
From celebrating Free Speech Week and First Amendment protection of what photojournalists can do legally to the ongoing considerations of what they should do ethically, the topic is one worth exploring on a regular basis.
by Sarah Nichols, MJE
Read MoreJEA endorses legislation
for New Voices in 8 states
The Journalism Education Association, at its spring convention in Los Angeles, endorsed eight states’ efforts to pass legislation ensuring protection for student expression.
The states are:
“JEA is spot-on to endorse these states’ efforts to pass New Voices legislation,” JEA president Mark Newton said. “Student voice is absolutely essential in all aspects of education. And, it is absolutely essential to participating in a democracy. It is a civic duty to empower — and defend — each freedom in the First Amendment. I am glad to see so many states see the plethora of values of responsible student freedom of expression.”
The eight are part of the New Voices movement, a project of the Student Press Law Center.
According to its website, New Voices hopes such legislation “will restore the Tinker standard of student expression in America’s high schools. That standard protects student speech unless it is libelous, an invasion of privacy or creates a ‘clear and present danger’ of a ‘material and substantial disruption’ of the school.”
[pullquote]When we teach responsible expression to students, and empower them to use it without fear of review or restraint, we will see positive benefits for decades and decades. It’s not only an educational sound best practice, but a civic one as well. – JEA President Mark Newton[/pullquote]
States already having state protection for student expression are:
- California
- Massachusetts
- Colorado
- Arkansas
- Kansas
- North Dakota
- Iowa
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania Code
- Washington Code
“When we teach responsible expression to students, and empower them to use it without fear of review or restraint,” Newton said, “we will see positive benefits for decades and decades. It’s not only an educational sound best practice, but a civic one as well.”
JEA is the largest scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers, educating teachers how to educate students. Among its programs and outreach, JEA provides training around the country at national conventions and institutes, offers national certification for teaching high school journalism and monitor and actively defend First Amendment and scholastic press rights issues across the country.
New Voices USA is a student-powered grassroots movement to give young people the legally protected right to gather information and share ideas about issues of public concern. New Voices works with advocates in law, education, journalism and civics to make schools and colleges more welcoming places for student voices.
JEA and the SPLC encourage other states to press for similar legislation, and would also endorse legislation that would do so.
Students and advisers interested for more information can contact the SPLC at 202-785-5450 or JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee.
For more information about starting state legislation, check this SPLC resource, this resource and this JEA resource.
Read MoreDon’t let ‘funny things’ happen
on the way to your forum
by Stan Zoller, MJE
I can’t help but wonder if Pseudolus and Marcus Lycus had been journalism educators if a funny thing would have happened on the way to the forum.
For you nonmovie buffs, Pseudolus, played by the late Zero Mostel and Marcus Lycus, played by the equally late Phil Silvers, were leads in the comedy play and movie, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” a slapstick comedy about Rome.
Had they been J teachers or advisers, it’s likely one of their daunting tasks would have been, aside from reserving hotel rooms for a JEA conference, determining what kind of forum they wanted to help students establish for their student media.
Sounds simple, yes? Actually, no.
Many scholastic media outlets appear to come up short when developing and posting an editorial policy. It appears that common practices are to:
- Just call a publication “a forum.”
- Call it an open forum.
- Call it a limited-open forum.
Or if all else fails,
- Not have a policy at all.
For the record, none are acceptable. So what’s the solution? Obviously, develop a policy that your readers can easily find and understand. A media level editorial policy generally includes a mission statement, a letters to the editor policy, guidelines for submitting guest essay and, of course, a pronunciation as to what kind of forum your media is.
It’s not a good idea to have your media be an ‘open forum’ because, technically, that would mean you’ll accept any and everything, which could make your media a wild west show. Besides, your building is not an open forum, so you cannot be something that your school is not.
The trend about 15 years ago was for school media to be considered ‘limited open forums,’ but it wasn’t clear as to how limited the forum would be and who would establish those limits.
In the fourth edition of the Student Press Law Center’s “Law of the Student Press,” the discussion regarding limited public forum says the interpretation in “recent court rulings” is that the term ‘limited public forum’ “…has become practically meaningless.”
The book explains that “…in the middle tier of forums – a “designated” public forum – the government’s ability to regulate the content of speech is extremely limited. The book further adds that “Only where a compelling justification exists, and the restriction is narrowly designed so as not to limit more speech than necessary, will a regulation is narrowly designed so not to limit more speech than necessary, will a regulation be upheld as constitutionality permissible.” The entire discussion about limited open forums can be found on pages 52-53 of the fourth edition.
[pullquote]While legal eagles are likely to continue refining the guidelines for establishing a specific forum for student media, it is safe to say designated forums are the best options for student expression and generally (a key word) give student journalists the support they need to produce free and journalistically responsible student media.[/pullquote]
The compromise, so it seems, is to have scholastic media be “designated forums of student expression.” The intent is to clearly establish that the media, print or digital, is not only the source of information for a student community, but also the place where students can voice their opinions.
While legal eagles are likely to continue refining the guidelines for establishing a specific forum for student media, it is safe to say designated forums are the best options for student expression and generally (a key word) give student journalists the support they need to produce free and journalistically responsible student media.
Examples of editorial policies can be found at SPLC.org or at the JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission’s web site, JEASPRC.org.
It’s essential that you and your student media staff research, establish, write and include a comprehensive editorial policy in every issue and on every student digital media site.
Because the last thing you want to end up with is comedy tonight.
Read More‘Law of the Student Press’ available at discount from JEA
Celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week by buying a class set
Here is your opportunity to save 50 percent on the Student Press Law Center’s book, “Law of the Student Press.” Recent court rulings, statutes and new media have drastically changed the legal landscape.
This book, by Frank D. LoMonte, Adam Goldstein and Michael Hiestand, explains what these changes mean and how they impact high school and college journalists, their advisers and others.
Useful in the classroom and as a practical reference guide for journalists who need quick answers to legal questions, this edition updates traditional issues such as libel, defamation, invasion of privacy and obscenity.
Sale price in the JEA Bookstore is $19.50. Regular retail price is $39. JEA members will save an additional 10 percent by using the member discount code at checkout. (Final price, before shipping, is $17.55.)
Buy a classroom set to give your students ready information about their legal rights. Just in time for Scholastic Journalism Week.
School purchase orders may be emailed to staff@jea.org or faxed to 785-532-5563.
What you don’t know COULD hurt you
by Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE
Recent applications for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award revealed some knowledge gaps. Perhaps it’s not surprising that school principals couldn’t define unprotected speech on the forms each school submitted. So often media advisers and student publication staff members have to do a little educating of their administrators.
But a sizable number of advisers and student editors, who also had to respond to the same question, didn’t know the answer either….
Read MoreIntroduction to Morse v Frederick lessons
Introduction
by Peter Barringer
Students’ First Amendment rights were explicitly established through the Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case in 1969, and those rights have only diminished since. The amount of literature relating to the courts’ applications of Morse is even more abundant, but cogent analysis and quality teaching resources related to these cases are difficult to find.This project, a set of unit plans and ancillary materials for journalism classes, is meant to help advisers and student journalists clarify how the courts have interpreted Morse v. Frederick, the most recent landmark Supreme Court case related to students’ freedom of expression.
[pullquote]Peter Barringer is a teacher from Evansville, Indiana. He holds a BS in English Education from the University of Evansville and an MJE from Kent State University. Peter enjoys reading, playing guitar, and playing board games in his spare time. You can contact him at phbarringer@gmail.com.[/pullquote]
Scope and sequence
Before you begin working through this document, I’d first like to thank you for trying this unit in your classroom. This unit’s main emphasis is on customization because every media program is different. You may find that all the activities in these units are applicable to your media program, or you may find them none of them are applicable. Above all, make sure each aspect of your lesson is relevant to your staff.
Just as importantly, this unit can only improve if I receive feedback from teachers who try it in their classrooms. Please email me at peter.barringer@evsc.k12.in.us with any feedback, including (but not limited to):
- Timing of the activities
- Relevance of the activities
- Suggestions for improvement regarding the topics
- Better videos, handouts, or other materials
You can also use the Feedback form
To continue with the Scope and Sequence, go here.
Instructor’s background info
The Morse Decision (2007)
In 2002, a high school in Juneau, Alaska, allowed its students to leave class to watch the Olympic Torch Relay as it proceeded in front of the school building (Kozlowski et al., 2009). Kozlowski et al. (2009) stated that during the ceremony, student Joseph Frederick displayed a large banner proclaiming, “BONG HiTS [sic] 4 JESUS” (pg. 140). The principal of the school forced Frederick to remove the banner, and later suspended him for ten days (Kozlowski et al., 2009). Frederick believed his First Amendment rights were being violated, so he sued the principal, winning at the Court of Appeals level before the Supreme Court reversed the decision (Kozlowski et al., 2009).
Some may read the words “Bong HiTS 4 JESUS” and fail to distinguish any real message promoting drug use, but the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling saw it differently. The scholarly literature has concluded that the Morse decision created a third exception to the Tinker ruling: speech encouraging illegal drug use (Kozlowski, 2011; Azriel, 2008; Kozlowski et al., 2009). The Morse case is certainly the fourth landmark Supreme Court ruling related to students’ free expression rights. However, interestingly, the Morse case itself is not quite as significant to the scholarly literature as the manner in which its precedent has been applied in the seven years since.
The teaching units
Five-day unit
Ancillary materials (contains all lesson pieces)
Read More