Censorship leads to fake news
Prior-review/censor guideline /policy
Journalists often are considered mirrors on society. As such, journalism should reflect the community in which it is produced. In order to also maintain their watchdog function, journalists must also be able to act as candles that illuminate and challenge a community’s values and preconceptions.
Monitoring the status quo and the powers that be is one way journalists can both reflect and challenge their communities. This journalistic practice helps maintain the free and accurate flow of information.
Additionally, student media should be independent from their school’s public relations arm. The purpose of student media is to report school and community issues and events. Consequently, the purpose of student media is not to protect the image of the school or district.
These roles are premised on the idea that student media can operate in an independent manner.
JEA strongly rejects both prior review and restraint as tools in the education process and agrees with other national journalism education groups that no valid educational justification exists for prior review of scholastic media.
Prior review and prior restraint of student media content by school officials are weapons in the arsenal of censorship. Not only do they limit student learning and application, but they also restrict student critical thinking and analysis.
This would be included in the policy portion.
Social media post/question:How does self-censorship impact what students cover?
Stance: Students should create a clear guideline for stemming the tide of self-censorship.
Reasoning/suggestions: Students are often self-censoring important content — especially if they have been censored previously.
When students self-censor topics journalistically ethical and legal to cover, they are in essence forwarding the concept of fake news. If students are afraid to cover topics of importance to them, they are not creating a true open forum for student discussion and are not functioning as a journalist.
Resources:
SPLC Active Voices
Lesson: Censorship=Fake news
Self Censorship links from SPLC
http://www.splc.org/article/2015/02/high-school-students-teachers-confront-student-media-censorship
JEA prior review definition
http://jeasprc.org/jea-board-defines-prior-review/
Self-censorship is scariest of all
Posted by JBowen Oct 30, 2009 in Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching| 0 comments
All week I’ve heard plans for creepy costume parties, haunted house visits and horror film marathons. But as Halloween weekend approaches, there’s something much scarier on my mind.
It’s scary how many media staffs and their advisers are under fire right now for doing exactly what they set out to do: report on issues of impact and interest to their students. The current situation at Timberland High School in Wentzville, Mo. is just one example of many. Stories of little consequence, such as the homecoming court or club happenings, rarely draw attention. But the ones that matter — the ones that have potential to help students — come under fire at an alarming rate, despite thorough research, credible sources and top-notch student reporting.
It’s scary when kids grapple with these big issues and how to cover them well. But it’s even scarier when they don’t. Good journalism — and the whole part about critical thinking, student leadership and free expression — stops when kids decide to censor themselves.
All too often I hear my kids during staff brainstorming sessions say things like, “People would freak out if we covered that,” or “[Insert administrator names] would give us a really hard time if we did that.” Despite frequent discussion of media law and a dissection of the ed code, I still hear, “We can’t do that, can we?”
In most cases, they can. And in many cases, they should. It’s easy to see why kids might be inclined to shy away from the good stories, the real stories. After all, many advisers share updates in class of programs facing censorship and use these as teachable moments. We read the controversial articles, discuss the situations and follow the stories over an extended period of time. Kids are interested and engage in meaningful discussion, but I realized lately that they might not be taking away the message we think we’re sending. Do our students come away inspired and empowered, or are they afraid of censorship, administrative retaliation or the risk of losing a beloved adviser?
Scary possibilities, to be sure.
We can combat self-censorship with a few simple strategies:
(1) Continue to expose students to outstanding journalism, both from students and from the pros. Read it, discuss it, analyze it. Nothing beats an important story done well.
(2) When students begin to talk themselves out of a sensitive story topic, encourage them to revisit your mission statement and/or editorial policies. Teach students to weigh the options: how many readers might be helped or touched by this story? What’s the potential for good here? How far might this story reach?
(3) Get outside your school bubble. You know your school community, yes, but have you looked at how other student media have covered similar stories? Are others in your city, state, region affected by the same topics? Is there an opportunity to learn from the experience of others? Collaborate?
(4) Point to a wide variety of resources so students have support. When students feel confident in their research and reporting skills, they’re confident tackling bigger stories. Establish a team-oriented staff culture so that students have peers willing to help with research and interviewing. Good student journalists know how much work is involved in getting a story right; they might talk themselves out of tackling the topic because they know a sensitive story often involves extra effort. Again, work together.
(5) Make sure students understand how to utilize expert assistance from the SPLCand feel comfortable doing so. Consider role-playing sample scenarios in class. Encourage student editors to create a plan in the event that a situation arises. It’s like a fire drill — we don’t expect to be in a fire but we practice the drill and know how to call 911 if we need to. Then we’re free to go about our daily lives and focus on what matters.
If staffers have a plan in place, covering a potentially controversial subject doesn’t seem so scary.
Sarah Nichols, MJE
Read More
SPRC adds ‘one-stop shopping’
for law and ethics manual
Four concepts drive the creation of journalistic approaches: mission statement, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual procedure. Together, with forum material, the four comprise a package of complementary principles we call the Foundation of Journalism, often known as a staff manual.
These principles represent the key pillars of standards-based journalism and are the products of perhaps the most important journalistic decisions the student staff can make. Together, the concepts enhance the strengthen the process and product, the decision-making and critical thinking that can characterize student media.
Click the Law-Ethics Manual nav bar link for our one-stop’ shopping.
More are on the way.
Read MoreHave students learn from history
as student journalists today
by Jackie Mink
As a high school student in 1968, I had friends and family members fighting in the Vietnam War. There were many protests across the country by young people against the war, but one in particular influenced student expression for the future and up to today.
That protest was when a group of students in Iowa decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. They were suspended, and legal challenges regarding the suspension led to the famous Tinker vs. Des Moines Supreme Court decision in 1969.
In 1983, as a young journalism teacher, I took a job at Hazelwood East High School. I was told by a school official that there was a “small problem in the journalism classes”. I learned that legal action had been started over an issue with the previous school newspapers printing something the principal found unacceptable and that I had two of the students in class who were involved.
Read MoreJoin the SPRC for sessions in Chicago
The Scholastic Press Rights Committee is presenting a number of sessions at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Chicago. We hope to see you at one or more of them.
More sessions are available on law and ethics – check out the convention program.
New Voices Summit
2- 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31
Randolph 1A-B, Concourse Level
Law and ethics press freedom in independent schools
9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Randolph 2, Concourse Level
Open forum for addressing censorship issues (1 of 2)
11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
State laws protecting student press freedom
1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Columbian, Concourse Level
No New Voices law? You still have rights!
2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1
San Francisco, Ballroom Level
Scholastic Press Rights Committee meeting
7:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3A, Concourse Level
Discussion of scholastic press rights
9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
Open forum for addressing censorship issues (2 of 2)
11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
Working together more than just a phrase
by Stan Zoller, MJE
More than a few years ago, I produced a corporate television show designed to inform the United States sales force of a major corporation about new sales, existing customer successes and general corporate information.
It was also quasi motivational and one of the anchors’ walk-off lines was “Working together, we make the difference.” Remember, I produced the show, I didn’t write the copy.
However, as trite as the walk-off for the show was, there is more than a fleeting truth about working together. Especially when it comes to scholastic press rights.
Read More‘Stupid teen stuff’ in student media
can alter history, shape future
by John Bowen, MJE
Private jokes, misleading and fabricated information have no place in yearbook journalism. In any journalism.
To simplify, in a Sept. 27 hearing about whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should become a justice on the U. S. Supreme Court, a yearbook sparked controversy years later about the meaning and truthfulness of some content.
People and events around that yearbook and some people noted in it led to an expanded FBI investigation and the attention of millions of people across the country.
In an email to JEA’s listserv, Steve O’Donoghue of California called what happened “an object lesson to every yearbook adviser.
Read More