Journalistic integrity guides student media QT28
As scholastic media advisers and students develop policies and guidelines to guide them with journalism standards, they should note these words: The only thing students have to lose as journalists is their credibility.
HL Hall, former JEA president, would tell ASNE High School Institute advisers this over a 14-year span. He would pair it with ethics, thorough reporting and leadership guidelines.
Credibility, ethics and practices boil down to one word, integrity.
Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility, The Radio Television Digital News Association states. Other media groups agree.
Students and advisers should anchor their mission statements, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual procedures within a framework that starts with integrity.
Quick Tips: Journalistic integrity guides journalism students and their media
Question: Why should scholastic media should frame their brands and practices with journalistic integrity?
Key points/action Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility states the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). The Society of Professional Journalists says it a little differently, “An ethical journalist acts with integrity.”
Both organizations would say in having integrity is basic to good journalism no matter how it is delivered.
Stance: The RTDNA and the SPJ both include the concept of media and individual integrity in their ethics guidelines and media practices.
So should scholastic news media.
Reasoning/suggestions:
Some traits and practices essential to developing integrity are the following:
- Create ethical guidelines and their practices to establish standards
- Operate to maintain the public trust
- Commit to accuracy in pursuit of journalistic activities
- Verify before publishing information
- Check source and information credibility
- Seek the truth
- Develop and practice superior methods of investigation, transparent to all involved
- Maintain independent and respectful relationships with sources, businesses and citizens
Ensure mission statement, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual practices include integrity built upon these concepts. Being transparent when integrity is compromised is also important as it shows how well students apply its principles.
Resources:
Public Media Code of Integrity
Why be transparent has replaced act independently as a guiding journalism principle
Related: These points and other decisions about mission statement, forum status and editorial policy should be part of a Foundations Package that protects journalistically responsible student expression.
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What, students have rights? Since 1943
(West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette)
Quick Tip27: Student First Amendment rights
by Jan Ewell
Before the Barnette decision, when students came into conflict with public schools, the courts decided their cases—often against the students—without mentioning students’ right. They considered if the punishment was excessive (beating with a rawhide strap was okay in 1859). They also debated if it was the parents’ right or the schools’ right to discipline the students. The First Amendment was never mentioned.
Gathie and Marie Barnett* were attending Slip Hill Grade School in Charleston, West Virginia, when America entered World War II in December, 1941. The school district installed flags in classrooms (replacing pictures of flags) and required all students to salute the flag. The West Virginia State Board of Education passed rules in January 1942 requiring the flag salute and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, which Congress would formally adopt June, 1942.
The Barnett family, as Jehovah’s Witnesses, felt the practice of saluting the flag was a form of idolatry and would be a violation of their religion. As Gathie said some 60 years after the case, “We were taught that bowing down to the flag, saluting it, was like a bowing down and giving reverence to it—it was like an idol. So we believe definitely not to worship idols.”
[pullquote]If there is a fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official high or petty shall prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by work or acts their faith therein.”––Justice Robert H. Jackson[/pullquote]
The Supreme Court released its decision in the students’ favor on Flag Day, June 14, 1943.
The decision: Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote these memorable words in favor of students’ rights: “If there is a fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official high or petty shall prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by work or acts their faith therein.”
Though the Supreme Court did not specifically address student press rights until 1988, the Barnette case is essential to student journalists. It limits the government’s ability to restrict religion, the first freedom in the Bill of Rights. It found public schools are the government. It established that students as young as elementary school are protected by the First Amendment .
Justice Jackson wrote, “That we are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.
*A court clerk misspelled their name as Barnette
Resources:
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Read MoreMuzzle Hazelwood with strong journalism,
status as an open public forum
Dean v. Utica Community Schools, 2004
Quick Tip 25: Student First Amendment Rights
by Jan Ewell
The principal of Utica High School told the student newspaper, the Arrow, to cut an article by student journalist Katy Dean, as well as an accompanying editorial and an editorial cartoon. The students had written about a couple, Rey and Joanne Frances, who were suing the school district. They claimed idling diesel buses in the school garage next to their home had caused the husband’s cancer.
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier allows administrators to censor for “legitimate pedagogical concerns.” The principal said that the articles were based on “unreliable” sources and that the article was “highly inaccurate.” Perhaps these reasons were given as his legitimate pedagogical concerns.
The students published a black box with the word “Censored” across it in white lettering, and an editorial on censorship. A local newspaper later published Dean’s censored article.
The case was decided in the United States District Court in Katy Dean’s favor because of the Arrow’s status as a limited public forum, and on the quality of the journalism.
Establishing a Public Forum in Practice and Policy
The judge ruled that the student paper was a public forum, even though it was produced by a class for school credit. He used the nine criteria established in Draudt v. Wooster.[link] Because it was a public forum and therefore under Tinker v. Des Moines not under Hazelwood, the principal had violated the students’ rights.
To determine if the paper was a public forum, the judge looked at the practice of the publication. In its 25 year history, the officials at the school had never intervened in the editorial process of the publication. The students had no practice of submitting content to school officials for prior review, nor did the faculty adviser regulate the topics the newspaper covered. In practice the paper was a public forum.
School policy also supported the “Arrow’s” status as a public forum. The curriculum guide and the course descriptions provided evidence that it should enjoy the protections of Tinker.
Clarifying When Censorship is Permissible Under Hazelwood
Though the judge ruled the paper was under the Tinker standard, he also closely examined the censored article by Katy Dean using the Hazelwood standards of fairness, research and writing. He found that, even under Hazelwood, “the suppression of the article was unconstitutional.” The school officials had claimed the work was “inaccurate” because they disagreed with the opinions of people quoted in the story. What the district called “inaccurate” was simply an attempt to disguise “what is, in substance, a difference of opinion with its content,” the judge wrote. Even under the Hazelwood standard, the officials had violated the students’ rights.
[pullquote]Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” –– Harry S. Truman [/pullquote]
In his decision, the judge quoted President Harry S. Truman: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
He also quoted President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”
Dean v. Utica shows two avenues for student journalists to free themselves from Hazelwood. The first is to be a public forum in either “policy or practice.” The second is to produce high quality journalism.
Resources:
Dean v. Utica Community Schools
http://jea.org/home/curriculum-resources/deancase/
Read MoreEmpowering student decision-making QT22
The role of the adviser in student-run media incorporates teacher, coach, counselor, listener and devil’s advocate but not doer. We like the JEA Adviser Code of Ethics as guides for advisers.
That role means letting students make all decisions including content, context and grammar.
One way advisers can help this process is by having a staff manual inclusive of the student media mission statement, policies, guidelines and procedures. The mission statement outlines the overall aim of the student media. Policies are either the board-level or media-level and state the functionality of the student press. Guidelines are the ethical components the student media will work with. The procedures and resources for students to learn how to do something.
Guideline:
As per the board-level or media-level policy, students should be empowered to make all content decisions for student media.
Social media post/question:
What do you do in the instance of who should make the content decisions?
Stance:
Students learn best when they are empowered to make their own decisions with support from the adviser on the sideline. A clear understanding of the adviser’s role helps students take ownership of their work and the program overall.
Reasoning/suggestions:
Students should be empowered to make all content decisions for student media. Instead of making the decisions, advisers should advise and ask questions to help the students examine the issue from multiple perspectives and concerns.
One way advisers can help this process is by having a staff manual inclusive of the student media mission statement, policies, guidelines and procedures. The mission statement outlines the overall aim of the student media. Policies are either the board-level or media-level and act as a constitution for the student press. Guidelines are the ethical components the student media will work with. The procedures and resources for students to learn how to do something.
If students know (or can look at what to do) what By already establishing these prior to a problem happening, it’s easier to see what to do when something does happen. (And, it will.) These policies, guidelines and procedures should function as a reference and be complete (preferably) prior to the problem happening. This helps the students (and adviser) work through issues if they do happen.
Resources:
Female High School Students Bear the Burden of Censorship, SPLC
Curing Hazelwood package, SPRC
The Role of Student Media: Foundations Package, SPRC
SPLC resources, SPLC
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How can my school get involved
in the New Voices campaign? QT21
Almost a quarter of all states have now passed legislation protecting voice in student media, and instilling the virtues of the First Amendment as state statute for student media. North Dakota’s success in 2015 seemed to spark the latest fire that has seen legislative recognition of student speech in Illinois, Maryland, Vermont and Rhode Island.
That still leaves 38 states without overt student press rights protections, which muddies the waters for students, advisers, and school administrators.
If you live in a state without clear student press protections, work with your state-level scholastic media organizations, professional news organizations and school administrators to show the benefits of doing so.
The most important element of student press protection is that it establishes, state by state, a practical First Amendment laboratory in the schools, where students are empowered to make decisions, develop civic efficacy and establish ethical decision-making guidelines.
It also benefits schools and administrators in that it establishes clear and specific guidelines for student press that would not be acceptable. In most cases, that means libel, invasion or privacy, obscenity, or language that materially disrupts the rights of others to learn.
Students in states that have clear student press protections can also help by sharing the success stories of their real-life practice of the First Amendment in their schools. How has your classroom experience helped you make ethical decisions? How have you become more of a leader because your state law empowered you to do so?
Guideline
Support free expression for others in local and larger communities
Stance:
Students in all schools should actively support student press rights legislation in their states and/or other states with active legislation.
Reasoning/suggestions:
The New Voices campaign has successfully created student press protection laws in several states in the last two years. Currently, 13 states explicitly protect student press rights.
Building student media programs by protecting student press laws is one of the most efficacious means of building civically minded students. In a time when the media is increasingly under fire for the accuracy of their reporting, it’s critical we foster an environment in high schools which promotes ethical, truthful and accurate storytelling while protecting students’ rights to tell those stories.
Teachers and students who would like to be active in this movement, should contact their JEA state directors or reach out to the Student Press Law Center.
Resources:
JEA updates its Adviser Code of Ethics
Center for Scholastic Journalism Legislative Conference videos
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Disturbing images: public’s right to know
vs. invasion of privacy QT18
A 9-year-old girl, burning from napalm, runs naked down a Vietnam road. A vulture watches a Sudanese child, emaciated from famine, crawl across the ground. Two yellow-clad health workers carry a limp 8-year-old boy who might be infected with Ebola to a treatment facility.
What do these images have in common? They are all extremely disturbing, and they all won Pulitzer Prizes.
While high school journalists are unlikely to encounter these extreme conditions of war, famine and disease, they do need to think about the ethics behind publishing disturbing images. When does the public’s right to know — and the potential benefit of exposing these tragedies — outweigh the emotional harm these images might have on the people in the photographs and those who love them?
If the images are taken in a public space, there’s no question the photographers have the legal right to publish. But, as we often tell our students, just because you can publish doesn’t mean you always should.
The highest ethical responsibility for a journalist is to seek truth and report it, but journalists must also consider the responsibility to minimize harm.
[pullquote]When does the public’s right to know — and the potential benefit of exposing these tragedies — outweigh the emotional harm these images might have on the people in the photographs and those who love them?[/pullquote]
The answer isn’t for editors to set up a set list of what kind of images should or should not be published, but rather to develop an ethical process to help them work through the benefits and drawbacks of publishing a disturbing photograph.
When constructing a process for determining whether to publish an image, students should consider many questions, including:
- Is this image important and relevant to the story? Is the image merely explotive/sensational, or does it have news value?
- What makes it meaningful?
- Will the audience understand the information conveyed without reading any accompanying text?
- What story does it tell?
- What story would others be able to get from that photo?
- What impact will publishing this photograph have on the people in the image or on those people’s loved ones?
- What impact will it have on the news consumer? Does the public’s right to know outweigh any emotional harm to the subject or the subject’s loved ones?
- What, if any, warnings should accompany online content?
- How would they defend the decision to run the image to others, including stakeholders and those directly impacted by the image?
- Is there an alternative, better, way to show the story?
Advisers may want to set up hypothetical situations to allow students to practice this ethical process. Here are some scenarios to spark debate:
- During a soccer game, a student falls and breaks her leg. The photographer gets a series of pictures of the accident, including one that shows graphically the severity of the break with bone protruding and another that shows a close up of her face, covered in dirt and tears, as paramedics rush onto the field. In an article about the injury, should the editors publish one of these images? If so, which one?
- A student comes to the Prom very drunk and ends up starting a fight. The photographer has a several pictures of the flight, including ones from when the police arrived. In an article about the fight, should the editors publish one of these images? Why or why not?
- The worst happens — a student brings a gun to school and opens fire. Though, no one is killed before the shooter is contained, two students are injured. One of the reporters had a camera nearby and got the following pictures: a picture of the campus police officer running toward the shooter, a picture of one of the victims bleeding on the ground, and a picture of the shooter being handcuffed. In an article about the event, should the editors publish one of these images? If so, which one?
Guideline: Students should consider not only the news value of an image but also the emotional effect of the image on the audience. They should balance the public’s right to know with the privacy of the people in the image and their loved ones when considering publication of disturbing photos.
Social Media Question: Disturbing photos give powerful insights into tragedy but can be exploitive. How can we balance public’s right to know with potential harm?
Reasoning/suggestions:
Determining whether or not a disturbing photograph should be published requires a deliberate, ethical conversation among student editors. Once editors determine the image is not a legal invasion of privacy — taken in a private space where the subject had a reasonable expectation of privacy — they need to consider the ethics of publishing the image.
When constructing a process for determining whether to publish an image, students should consider many questions, including:
- Is this image important and relevant to the story? Is the image merely explotive/sensational, or does it have news value?
- What makes it meaningful?
- Will the audience understand the information conveyed without reading any accompanying text?
- What story does it tell?
- What story would others be able to get from that photo?
- What impact will publishing this photograph have on the people in the image or on those people’s loved ones?
- What impact will it have on the news consumer? Does the public’s right to know outweigh any emotional harm to the subject or the subject’s loved ones?
- What, if any, warnings should accompany online content?
- How would they defend the decision to run the image to others, including stakeholders and those directly impacted by the image?
- Is there an alternative, better, way to show the story?
Resources:
Presentation Slideshow: Photo Ethics: Disturbing Images, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Ethics, Dignity and Responsibility in Visual Journalism, Jason Tanner, Human Rights for Journalism
Visual ethics guidelines, Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism
Visual Journalism, NPR Code of Ethics
Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, Newseum
Lesson: To Print or Not to Print, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: When Journalists Err Ethically, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: With Freedom of the Press Comes Great Responsibility, Journalism Education Association
SPJ Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists
NPPA Code of Ethics, National Press Photographers Association
Photojournalism ethics needs a reexamination, The Poynter Institute
Visual ethical guidelines join online, yearbook ethics, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: Using Images from Social Media, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee Press Rights Minute
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