‘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 MoreA new school year, a new staff – make sure your staff is well informed
by Cyndi Hyatt
By now we all have fallen into the rhythm of another academic year. With the advent of new staffs, new ideas and maybe new procedures it’s also good to pause and reflect.
What have you done to make sure your staff, especially the rookies, is trained in more than how to write copy, conduct an interview or edit a package?
Student journalists are eager to cover what’s news but they need to be armed with the necessary tools, skills and knowledge BEFORE the story is filed.
Read MoreConstitution Day is right time
to apply for FAPFA recognition
by Lori Keekley, MJE
As advisers, we work to support student journalists on a daily basis.
Taking a moment today to apply for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award is a great way to symbolically show this support.
Read MoreFor your next editorial,
stand up for journalism
A graphic like the Boston Globe used with a collection of newspaper editorials from across the country is simple, clean and very attention-grabbing.
by Candace Bowen, MJE
It’s not too late.
Even if you weren’t back in school by mid-August or hadn’t started publishing yet, it’s not too late to follow the Boston Globe’s campaign to get publications everywhere to write editorials arguing against President Trump’s frequent assertion that journalists are the “enemy of the people.”
“We propose to publish an editorial on Aug. 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date,” The Globe announced. And more than 300 professional news outlets and organizations followed suit.
Read MoreWays to celebrate Constitution Day 2018
The Scholastic Press Rights Committee is again excited to provide lesson plans and activities to help you celebrate Constitution Day and the First Amendment. Constitution Day recognized Sept. 17 each year, and we have a trove of new and archived lessons and activities to help you raise awareness of the First Amendment’s rights and applications for students.
Take a look at the new lessons:
Read MoreFace, fight and educate
those who would limit media
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.
Read More