Covering controversy QT17
Journalism is not public relations.
Although some administrators would like for students to only publish “positive” stories, a journalist’s job is to watch and report on the school. This may involve students including stories that might make the school “look bad.” 
When students cover stories, such as a drastic dip in standardized test scores, the science lab catching on fire or the cost of a new stadium, it informs the public on topics of importance. If student journalists are not covering these topic, who will?
We must, as educators, help students navigate how to include potentially controversial coverage and how to handle the ethical and legal points that arise. We also need to help them find resources for their questions, such as the Student Press Law Center.
Also of importance, students who participate in high school journalism are more likely to be civically engages as adults. School mission statements often cite the importance of “creating future leaders,” “producing critical thinkers,” and even “empowering others to respond to the real issues of the nation and community.”
By students evaluating whether or not to cover a potentially controversial topic, like gun control and not standing for the pledge, they begin to see how they can educate, impact, evaluate and interact with the world around them.
Guideline:
Because journalism differs from public relations, student media should strive to cover real and relevant content importance to the school and community. When controversial issues arise, as they have lately, students should not self-censor.
Instead, they should evaluate the content journalistically and evaluate the importance the information is to the reader. During this evaluation, students should take into consideration journalism legal standards, availability of sources, verification information, timeliness, and the the ethical ramifications of including the controversial coverage.
Social media post/question: Including potentially controversial coverage like gun control and kneeling during the pledge can create challenges, but important topics are worth the risk.
Stance: Students should not shy away from potentially controversial coverage just because it might ruffle some feathers. They do, however, need to be journalistically responsible in their approach and coverage.
Reasoning/suggestions: Journalism is not public relations. Although some administrators would like for students to only publish “positive” stories, a journalist’s job is to watch and report on the school and on sensitive issues. While some of this content may be positive in nature, conflict will happen. We must, as educators, help students navigate how to include potentially controversial coverage and the ethical and legal points that arise. We also need to help them find resources, such as the Student Press Law Center, for their questions.
Resources:
SPLC.org
10 Ethical questions to ask The Pointer Institute
Covering controversy, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
News vs. Public Relations Lesson
Handling Controversy, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Practice Sensitivity in Your Reporting, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Sensitive Issues Guide, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Tips for Covering Controversial Subjects, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Reporting Controversy Requires Establishing a Sound Process, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Don’t Be a Fool, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
Verification Before Publication Prevents Many Issues, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
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The importance of staff editorials QT16
Student editors are busy. In addition to leading their staffs, making publication decisions and helping reporters, they are likely also still reporting and creating their own news content — not to mention carrying a full academic high school load.
Given all of these responsibilities, it’s easy to see why writing an unsigned staff editorial might seem a lower priority than getting the next edition to print or finishing that great feature on the new student body president.
But these editorials represent a unique and powerful opportunity for the board to be leaders in their school communities, and editors tempted to skip writing them should reconsider their priorities.
As overseers of all publication content, school news editors know more about what’s going on in their communities than just about anyone else in the school. As they read each article and listen with a journalist’s ear to what’s happening around them day-to-day, they can see patterns and problems most people cannot, adults included.
Coming together as a group, they can choose meaningful topics to address and think critically about what they want to say about those topics as a board. Once they reach a majority opinion on the topic, they can write collaboratively on a Google doc or take turns writing the first draft and then edit that draft into a clear, concise final piece.
Because staff editorials are unsigned, they carry more weight than a single writer’s opinion and may have greater impact. Well researched, authoritative editorials are powerful tools for change in a school community, and editorial boards should make them a priority.
Guideline:
Student journalists should act as candles lighting issues within their communities as well as mirrors reflecting current events. One way to enact this leadership is for the student editorial board to write regular unsigned editorials to advocate, solve a problem or commend. Editorial opinions should be clearly labeled and separate from the news section and should not affect objective news coverage.
Social Media Post/Topic:
Does your student editorial board write regular unsigned editorials? If not, they are missing an opportunity to lead.
Reasoning/suggestions: Student media show leadership in many ways, and one of the most traditional is through concise, focused and authoritative statements of well argued and supported opinion which represent the institutional voice of the student media.
These editorials are a unique opportunity for student leaders to give voice to student perspectives on important topics. Editorial board members who take this process seriously and write consistently can advocate for change, serve as calls to action or commend positive conditions.
Because staff editorials are unsigned, they carry more weight than a single writer’s opinion and may have greater impact.
Resources:
Quick Hit: Picking a topic for staff editorials, JEA Scholastic Press Committee
Quick Hit: Staff editorial process, JEA Scholastic Press Committee
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” JEA Scholastic Press Committee
“Where have the leaders gone?” JEA Scholastic Press Committee
Editorials under attack, Student Press Law Center
Explained: why newspapers endorse presidential candidates, Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle
“They need the freedom to make mistakes, too,” Lindsay Coppens, JEA Press Rights Committee
Reading newspapers: Editorial and opinion pieces, Learn NC
Video: How to write an editorial, New York Times
Writing an Editorial, Alan Weintraut
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Who should be on student media editorial boards, make decisions? QT15
Because student media are productions of student work, only students should be on editorial boards of student media. That would include the general manager and producers of broadcast media.
Generally, student editors make up editorial boards. Some may have student staffers attend and vote if so desired. Editorial board meetings can normally be open to the whole staff. Others can be invited to sit in and observe by invitation.
The process of deciding editorials should be outlined in ethical guidelines and detailed in staff manual procedures. Having only student editors make decisions reinforces the open forum status for your student media.
Guidelines/Key points/action:
Because student media are productions of student work, only students should be on editorial boards of student media. That would include the general manager and producers of broadcast media.
Only students should have voting or decision-making roles for such media, although some programs have the adviser sit in on board discussions ex officio. It is not recommended to have administrators, other non-journalism faculty or community members on student media boards.
Stance:
Generally, student editors make up editorial boards. Some may have student staffers attend and vote if so desired. Editorial board meetings can normally be open to the whole staff. Others can be invited to sit in and observe by invitation.
Generally, board members vote on staff editorials, controversial approaches and other items as decided locally. On editorial board votes, the majority generally rules. It is not a typical practice for the editor to have veto power.
Reasoning/suggestions:
This process should be outlined in ethical guidelines and detailed in staff manual procedures. Having only student editors make decisions reinforces the open forum status for your student media.
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.
Read MorePublishing memes also means
knowing copyright rules QT14
Memes.
Entertainment. Political statements. A way to comment on issues, events, people.
And, if not done correctly, says Mark Goodman, Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism, a way to violate the owner’s copyright. A violation several owners pursued.
If it’s not considered fair use, student media could be sued for copyright infringement or receive a letter demanding payment for use of the copyrighted work.
There is not much precedent about the use of memes and whether they are considered a fair use under copyright law.
That is the ultimate question.
If students comment on the meme itself, their use is probably going to be considered a fair use and it should be fine. Attribution is ethically appropriate but it’s not legally required.
On the other hand, if students use the meme because it illustrates something they want to say and they’re not engaged in some commentary about the original copyright work, it wouldn’t be a fair use, even if you attribute it. And in either case, attribution isn’t really a factor. Attributing a work to its source doesn’t avoid a copyright infringement claim.
Guideline and policy
Although most copyright owners might not complain about the use of their work in a meme, some have pursued payment from individuals who used their images without permission.
Being careful is wise.
Key points/action: There is not much precedent about the use of memes and whether they are considered a fair use under copyright law. That is the ultimate question.
If it’s not considered fair use, you could be sued for copyright infringement or receive a letter demanding payment for use of the copyrighted work.
Stance: If your students are commenting on the meme itself, their use is probably going to be considered a fair use and it should be fine. Attribution is ethically appropriate but it’s not legally required.
Reasoning/suggestions: On the other hand, if your students are using the meme because it illustrates something they want to say and they’re not engaged in some commentary about the original copyright work, it wouldn’t be a fair use, even if you attribute it. And in either case, attribution isn’t really a factor. Attributing a work to its source doesn’t avoid a copyright infringement claim.
Another potential copyright concern is with video dubs. Although a common event in some schools, video dubs need to be handled with legal and ethical care. It is essential, if the product is to go on the web, it is essential to follow all copyright requirements.
Guidelines for these may be found here.
Student media set a strong model for others to follow, so it is incumbent on them to follow copyright laws and ethical guidelines.
Resources: Mark Goodman, Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism, Kent State University, September 2017.
How copyright is killing your favorite memes
Read my lips: Students should exercise caution when producing lip sync videos
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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Takedown requests:
when the right to preserve history
conflicts with the desire to forget it QT13
Blog by Kristin Taylor
As more student newspapers move to digital platforms, editors and advisers are facing a new and insidious form of post-publication censorship: takedown requests.
The requests usually go something like this: “I was a student at [fill in name] high school [fill in number] years ago, and I was interviewed/wrote a story/was in a photo/made a comment that I regret now. I don’t want this showing up in Google searches. Please remove this story from your site.”
This hypothetical student may not know it, but her request is part of a much larger conversation about honoring individual privacy versus preserving the historical record. In 2014, Europe’s highest court ruled individuals have a “right to be forgotten” that may supersede the right to preserve and share information via search engines like Google. This court ruling is controversial and would probably not happen in the United States; the First Amendment has strong protections for free speech and press that would likely prevent this kind of revisionism, but that doesn’t stop individuals from wishing they could take back the past.
Lawyer Mike Godwin, creator of the tongue-in-cheek “Godwin’s law,” has “been thinking longer than just about anyone else about why people can sometimes behave awfully on the Internet,” according to the Washington Post. He is skeptical that we have more “right to be forgotten” online than we do in everyday life:
“There’s this fantasy that these people have that they have control over what they say or do online,” Godwin writes. “But if I say ‘I love you’ to someone, I can’t take it back. I have no control over what happens to it after that. Words have effect in the real world that you can’t take back. That’s language’s eerie power.”
[pullquote]“What you see underlying the ‘right to be forgotten’ is the idea that somehow there’s a sense of yourself out in the world that you can draw boundaries around,” Godwin continues. “That, I think, is fantasy. I sympathize with the fantasy. I think it’s a natural human impulse. But the fact is that we’re connected in ways that require us to think profoundly about how we present ourselves. And we’re never going to achieve the kind of control over that that one might want in an ideal world.”[/pullquote]
“What you see underlying the ‘right to be forgotten’ is the idea that somehow there’s a sense of yourself out in the world that you can draw boundaries around,” he continues. “That, I think, is fantasy. I sympathize with the fantasy. I think it’s a natural human impulse. But the fact is that we’re connected in ways that require us to think profoundly about how we present ourselves. And we’re never going to achieve the kind of control over that that one might want in an ideal world.”
On one level, I have sympathy for takedown requests. It’s true that we do a lot of growing in our high school years, and we do things we later regret. You only have to look at the growing number of articles and warnings about your “digital footprint” to realize this is a big issue in the Information Age. Unlike an op-ed published in a printed school paper, which is difficult to track down, an op-ed in an online paper is easily searchable. But so are a person’s social media posts and posts where others have tagged her. Our digital footprint isn’t going away, and part of being a successful 21st century citizen is learning to manage it.
I think we also need to help our students understand it’s all right to change our minds over time. Rather than insisting we have never held any other opinion or never made a mistake, we should embrace how our ideas and perspectives shift as we get older and have more experiences. Isn’t it healthier to acknowledge our past beliefs and mistakes rather than deny them? If a college admissions officer or future employer brings up an op-ed you wrote in high school, why not say, “Yes, I had a very different view back then than I do now. Let me tell you about how and why my viewpoint has changed since then.”
[pullquote]As sympathetic as I am to the impulse to “take it back,” I can’t support revisionist history. Part of the job of journalism is to provide a historical record — a true account of events and people from a point in time. Professional papers certainly won’t erase past articles, whether print or digital, and scholastic publications shouldn’t either except, perhaps, in extraordinary circumstances.[/pullquote]
As sympathetic as I am to the impulse to “take it back,” I can’t support revisionist history. Part of the job of journalism is to provide a historical record — a true account of events and people from a point in time. Professional papers certainly won’t erase past articles, whether print or digital, and scholastic publications shouldn’t either except, perhaps, in extraordinary circumstances.
So how should we deal with these requests when they arise? JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee outlines ethical guidelines, staff manual processes and a list of suggestions and resources, one of which is this list of three takedown models for your staff manual. Using these guidelines, I worked with my editors at The Archer School for Girls to craft a takedown policy for our manual that errs on the side of preserving the historical record unless the potential harm to the person making the request outweighs all other factors. This is one possible model staffs could use as they begin to develop their own policies.
Staff Manual Model: Takedown Requests
The Oracle is a digital news source, but it is still part of Archer’s historical record. The Oracle’s primary purpose is to publish the truth, as best we can determine it, and be an accurate record of events and issues from students’ perspectives. Writers and editors use the 11 “Put Up” steps before publication to ensure the validity, newsworthiness and ethics of each article. For these reasons, the editorial board will not take down or edit past articles except in extraordinary circumstances.
If someone requests a takedown, the board will consider the following questions and actions:
- Does the content contain libel, inaccurate information, unwarranted invasion of privacy, obscenity or copyright infringement? If so, the editor-in-chief will remove this unprotected speech and add a corrections statement at the end of the article, as per the “Regarding Errors” policy. If, after careful investigation and discussion, the editorial board determines that the article is too heavily saturated with this unprotected speech to maintain, the board may decide to take the article down entirely. The board must come to consensus to make this decision.
- Does the content harm the requester so significantly that it outweighs all other factors? The editorial board will investigate this claim and weigh it against the value of an unaltered historical record. The board must come to consensus before taking down an article for this reason.
- If the content does not meet either of these extraordinary circumstances, it will remain posted.
Regardless of the outcome, the Editor-in-Chief will respond in writing to the request explaining the board’s action(s) and rationale for the final decision.
Guideline: Journalists may be asked to remove online content for any number of reasons. Just because content is unpopular or controversial does not mean a media staff should comply with such requests. When journalists meet their goal of producing consistent, responsible journalism, they likely will choose to leave the content in question online even in the face of criticism.
All media – including student media – provide a historical record of issues, events and comments. As such, content should not be changed unless there are unusual circumstances.
Another alternative to takedown demands would be to create publishing standards we would call Put Up criteria. Train student editors and staffers in why and how something should be published so takedown requests are avoided.
Key point: Source’s remorse, writer’s second-thoughts or other rethinking of existing information accessible to employers, colleges or simply to friends sometimes causes uncomfortable questions for student staffs.
What guidelines should student media staffers adapt or create that fulfills the role of historical-record, forum and source of information?
Stance: We feel there are no quick and easy answers, but plenty of ethical room for discussion and implementation of workable guidelines (not policy) that can withstand the test of time.
Reasoning/suggestions
- In some cases, student editors may take down a story because they determine the content warrants a one-time exception (such as fabrication or to protect a source).
- Reporters may elect to do a follow-up story.
- If student editors choose to remove content, they should publish a note on the site explaining when and why the content was removed.
- Takedown criteria should be outlined and explained in the staff manual.
- Create guidelines and procedures to ensure students only post information and images they feel meet standards of responsible journalism: Put Up guidelines.
Resources: Takedown demands? A roadmap of choices Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Respond to Takedown Demands, Student Press Law Center
Setting Criteria Before the Requests Come, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
10 Steps to a Put-Up Policy, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: Takedown Requests, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
5 Ways News Organizations Respond to ‘Unpublishing’ Requests, The Poynter Institute
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.
Read MoreAllowing sources to preview content
is ethically questionable QT12
The newest reporter on staff chooses to cover the story about the Science Department’s new policy on studying animal life. To do so, she must interview the head about a new policy on studying animal life. It’s fairly controversial because People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is strongly opposed to dissection and the new curriculum for advanced biology includes that.
What to do if sources, including the expert, want to see the story ahead of time?
Showing media content to sources is really just another form of prior review — but one with some hidden challenges. Sometimes the source can make it sound like its his or her understood right to review, and an untrained reporter might just agree. Also, the adult often believes the student might “get it wrong” and publish misinformation that could create problems. However, both students and sources should build trust in the reporting process by demonstrating integrity in their information-gathering and fact-checking processes.
Guideline:
Sources do not have the right to review materials prior to publication. Allowing sources to preview content at any stage of production raises serious ethical and journalistic practice questions.
Stance:
Showing media content to sources is a topic that may come up unexpectedly. Often a school administrator, teacher or other “adult of power” makes the request, and student reporters are unsure if they can — or should — refuse. This creates confusion and misunderstanding.
Students should not show content to sources because it is another form of prior review with ethical and journalistic challenges. They should be aware such requests are possible and know what to do if they happen.
Reasoning/suggestions:
Showing media content to sources is really just another form of prior review — but one with some hidden challenges. Sometimes the source can make it sound like its his or her understood right to review, and an untrained reporter might just agree. Also, the adult often believes the student might “get it wrong” and publish misinformation that could create problems. However, both students and sources should build trust in the reporting process by demonstrating integrity in their information-gathering and fact-checking processes.
Students may opt to verify quotes by reading them back to sources. If sources indicate quotes are inaccurate, students should check their notes and act accordingly. This should not include changing the original quotes because sources want to revise their statements.
Another unintended consequence of seeing the entire story: If sources see others’ quotes or information in the story, they have an opportunity to refute them before anything is published, giving one source an advantage over the other.
Resources:
“Show and print,” American Journalism Review
“Ethical Case Study: A lesson on the rules of prior approval of quotes, content”
The Essentials of Sourcing, Reuters
Writing and Reporting the News, Carole Rich
Sharing Stories With Sources Before Publication Is Risky, But Can Improve Accuracy, Steve Buttry
Lesson: Crafting the Argument, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: A Lesson on the Rules of Prior Approval of Quotes, Content, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
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