Diverse thinking, open eyes key
to pursuing Hazelwood legislation
by Stan Zoller, MJE
Ah, fall.
Football, the World Series, Homecoming, and Halloween are all traditions and events synonymous with autumn.
There seems, however, to be another occurrence that becomes front and enter as the leaves change color: Drives for legislation that gives scholastic journalists that opportunity to practice uninhibited free and responsible journalism.
Call it what you want — Freedom of Express Legislation, Student Press Right Legislation, Education Readiness or First Amendment Preservation – but the reality is the outcome is the same. Overturn Hazelwood.
[pullquote]The success in North Dakota has apparently infused other states with a surge of energy and interest in hitting the state house. SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte reports that efforts or interest in legislation are under way in New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Florida and Illinois.[/pullquote]
The success in North Dakota has apparently infused other states with a surge of energy and interest in hitting the state house. SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte reports that efforts or interest in legislation are under way in New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Florida and Illinois.
LoMonte notes that efforts to sway state lawmakers away from Hazelwood need to be carefully planned when it comes to substance and methodology. A key, he notes, is to make sure the game plan is diverse. While the effort puts scholastic journalism front and center, it’s important key to show how legislation benefits journalism as a whole.
Is there a magic formula that will guarantee passage? Of course not. The Illinois Journalism Education Association’s Legislation Committee, for example, will look at multiple parts to the equation that need to be put into place. While it’s essential, and this is not rocket science, to find supportive legislators, the best place to start is at home. For example, reaching out to your local legislators is a good idea because they should have a vested interest in working with their constituency.
And while there is comfort in working with peers that you are familiar with, such as other journalism educators, we’ll be looking to establish a broad and diverse base of support. In addition to soliciting the support of scholastic press associations (SPAs), organizers of legislative efforts should, LoMonte says, look at allied journalism groups as well. Collegiate press associations as well as professional media organizations should be included as well. Gaining support from stakeholders who will benefit from well-rounded scholastic journalists will hopefully show legislators that there is a long-term benefit to the bill and that the intent s pro-active and not merely s reaction to a specific issue, school or administrator.
When identifying the aforementioned organizations, the IJEA Legislation Committee will also consider the audiences they serve. Collegiate organizations should, for example, should include those that serve both two-year and four-year schools. Utilizing student chapters of associations like the Society of Professional Journalists, maintain a not only student connection, but a link to professional journalism as well.
[pullquote]Remember those parents who used to bring pizza to layout? They can be a resource as well.[/pullquote] Remember those parents who used to bring pizza to layout? They can be a resource as well. Don’t expect all of your former students to jump on board, because they won’t. Those who do, however, can be independent voices of support.
One thing we’ll be doing in Illinois is encouraging advisers to contact alumni — but not just those working in journalism. Former students who may work in other professions such as public relations, and law for example can not only provide support, but also resources and possibly pro-bono services to aid your efforts.
Sound like a daunting task? It is and it is one that will require you and your committee to keep your eyes wide open for diverse support, ideas, and perhaps most importantly — patience.
In the long run, however, it will be worth the effort.
Read MoreStudent journalists report on Genius Girl story that goes viral
The student journalists at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology knew the story that was going viral in the public media about a student from their school needed to be told from the inside by the people who knew the real story.
The story of the ‘Genius Girl’ from TJHSST moved through public media including the Washington Post, not far from their school. According to the Washington Post, the story was actually a hoax, perpetrated by the student. The student promoted that she had been accepted into all eight Ivy League schools, but in the end, the real story showed that the student had fabricated much of the hype herself. Her peers took on the challenge and reported the story. They interviewed the principal and also others about societal pressure to make the grade.
According to their adviser, Erinn Harris, ” My students didn’t even know where to start in telling this story. A senior forged college acceptances, creating an uproar that was covered in the local, national and international press; we didn’t know what to do, but we knew we needed to do something. In their continuing coverage that began in June, students don’t plan to focus on the “Genius Girl,” but rather the social, cultural and academic stress that drove her to deceive her entire community. The goal is to keep students from feeling the kind of pressure that would lead them to making such drastic and life-altering decisions.”
Their initial story appears here: “Genius Girl” should spark conversation about academic pressure
Check out their website for more coverage in the coming year.
Read MoreFrom mission to manual: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation
Part 4 of a series on pieces of the journalism puzzle: fitting the pieces into a strong foundation
The four pieces soft the journalistic puzzle – mission statement, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual – complement each other in a way to show student participants and community members what they can expect.
Taken together, they lead journalists to carry out their key roles, information gathering, thorough interviewing, observing, researching and leadership.
Mission statements outline values and role.
Policies – board- and media- levels – dictate what principles focus the student media.
Ethical guidelines establish guides to apply the principles.
Staff manual procedures frame daily steps necessary to complete the beliefs, attitudes and standards of each of the previous points.
In the end you truly can have a package.
To help evaluate and discuss student media roles now and in the future, examine this exercise.
Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 2: Careful preparation creates strong mission statements
Part 3: Points to avoid in mission statements
Points to avoid in mission statements
Part 3 of a series on pieces of the journalism puzzle: mission pieces to omit
by John Bowen
As with any guiding statement, unclear, undefineable or imprecise wording can lead to misinterpretation of intended principles.
Thus, we would suggest mission statements do not include these terms:
- Entertain(ment). To make this a major point of your mission in some ways limits expectations of what you can be. Engagement suggests audience involvement in more ways than just entertainment, as do other points, and is a much safer term to use.
- Responsible (without explanation to what). The question here is responsible to whom and for what. School officials historically have a different definition than journalists do for what is responsible. If you have to use it, specify what journalistic responsibilities you hold essential.
- Accountable (without explanation to what or who). This parallels responsible. Accountability can be and is important, but it also has to be paired with other points. For example, being accountable for the truth as best you can find it and for accuracy is different than just being accountable for mistakes.
- Excellence (without explanation to what). Excellence is a term we debated quite a bit. What excellence is and how it is determined, the committee decided, is included in other, more specific, principles.
Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 2: Careful preparation creates strong mission statements
Part 4: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation
Careful preparation creates
strong mission statements
Part 2 of a series on pieces of the journalism puzzle: Mission Statements
by Candace and John Bowen
A mission statement defines your student media, shows your audience what’s important to you and helps them see why you do what you do. It’s not easy to write an effective one.
When JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee set it out write a sample mission statement to share, the 10 of us didn’t realize what a challenge this would be. Sure, it would take some tweaking and some discussions when this many writers work together. But we came to find out it was more than that.
[pullquote]We think you need a mission statement, and we think ours is worth consideration.[/pullquote]
The following is the model we finally agreed was best – though not perfect. We knew, for instance, we didn’t want to post a mission statement and have schools everywhere think it’s the only option. Schools are different: the student staffs, the advisers and the audiences have variations that show not one size fits all.
So here is our contribution. We think you need a mission statement, and we think ours is worth consideration. But we also share some points to think about as you write your own from scratch or adapt what we offered you.
• Audience engagement. Think about the importance of getting your audience to think and hopefully to act. Your mission should be to create media to get and keep them involved.
• Journalistic responsibility. Point out the basis of solid journalism you want as the very heart of your media: truth, integrity, completeness and accuracy.
• Additional reporting basics. Make sure your audience knows it can trust you because you also offer context to put reporting in perspective, verification that shows you double-checked, coherence that ensures it makes sense and presents all relevant information.
• Ethical reporting and editing. To complete the reporting process, present your work ethically and to professional standards for your audiences.
• Student-determined content. It should make a difference to your audience that students are in charge and decide all content for your student media. It definitely makes a difference to courts, too.
• Diversity of ideas and representation. It’s not just one clique that runs your student media. All voices contribute ideas and have representation in your media.
• Platform consistency. It’s not a newspaper policy and a separate Web, yearbook or TV station policy. As all media providers realize they are connected and each telling a story in the best way possible, it’s important the school’s media share the same policies and ethical approaches.
• School mission statement connection. It shouldn’t be surprising that school mission statements often mention the same points student media do: building thinking citizens, preparing students for democracy, etc. Tie parts of your media mission statement to those as well.
Our model, then, would look like this:
_____________ (school name) student media provide complete and accurate coverage, journalistically responsible, ethically gathered, edited and reported. Student-determined expression promotes democratic citizenship through public engagement diverse in both ideas and representation.
Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 3: Points to avoid in mission statements
Part 4: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation
Read More
Build a strong foundation by locking in
pieces of the puzzle called journalism
Part 1 of a series on fitting the pieces of the journalism puzzle:
Knowing where to start
by Candace and John Bowen
Preparing student media for a new year often begins with design- and theme-planning. For a good number this includes summer workshops for training in reporting platforms, visual reporting approaches and the latest in apps and across-platform developments.
We hope such training also includes the basics of law and ethics. Often, we fear it does not.
Because we believe a basic understanding of legal and ethical issues is key to the puzzle of a successful year of sound journalistic media, we’d recommend the solid foundation of journalism basics to support the 2015-16 year and beyond.
Ensure students understand their legal rights and responsibilities before publication and provide them with activities and resources to prepare them for the rigors of publishing and decision-making.
Our training list to start the year and continue through it would be organized something like this:
• Outline the goals and mission of your student media
Like a road map, a goals and mission statement frames direction for student media. A mission statement presents the underlying principles student media adhere to. Goals suggest specific accomplishments used in following the mission. Both establish the how and why for students and communities alike. Like a road map, students may choose different paths from year to year but the outcome stays fixed: thorough, accurate and credible journalism.
Resources:
– New values (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
– April Fool’s Editions, “Don’t be a fool” (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
– Balance and objectivity (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
– The role of student media (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– The role of the adviser (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Mission statement development (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– JEA Model Mission statement (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
• Train staff and editors in legal principles across platforms
Even though students might embrace online media, legal and ethical basics provide a framework for digital media now and what is yet to come. While there might be some changes, the basics of unprotected speech and the importance of knowing legal background won’t change in the foreseeable future.
Resources:
– Law of Student Press, book from the Student Press Law Center, also available on Kindle
– Student Press Law Center
– JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
– Public forum overview (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism (Quill & Scroll and JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Legal Guides (Student Press Law Center)
• Ensure board- and/or publication-level policies are in place
Strong board of education level and publication editorial policies reinforce principles student media use to reach their mission. Strong and effective editorial policies, carefully worded, protect not only student media but also school systems if legal issues arise. Lack of careful wording is worse than no policy at all. Policies reflect the publication’s values and commitments. Ideally, the most effective policies establish student media as designated public forums, without prior review and where students make all content decisions.
Resources
– The Foundations of Journalism: policies, ethics and staff manuals (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Board of education- and publication level- models (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Board media policies (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
– Why avoiding prior review is educationally sound (Quill & Scroll Principal’s Guide)
– Eliminating prior review (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
• Train staff and editors in ethical principles across platforms
Even though students might embrace online media, ethical basics provide a compass for print and digital media now and for what is yet to come. Practice in and knowledge of ethical critical thinking provides principles for journalistically responsible reporting. Reinforcement of ethical practices builds student publications steeped in ethical fitness.
Resources:
– JEA Adviser Code of Ethics (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Online ethics guidelines for student media (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Questions student staffs should discuss before entering the social media environment (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– SPJ Code of ethics (Society of Professional Journalists)
– Critical thinking, ethics and knowledge-based practice in visual media (Journalist’s Resource)
• Establish, for online or print, a content verification process
While this might have been part of skills-oriented summer workshop training and practice, its importance goes without question. Verification, credibility, context and accuracy are the reporting cornerstones of journalism. Each is rooted in establishing a rigorous ethical process.
Resources:
– Planning and gathering information/producing content (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Getting it right (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
– Journalism as a discipline of verification (American Press Institute)
– Verification (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
• Clarify who owns content
To avoid issues if someone tries to sell your yearbook content online or you want to sell photos, determine ahead of time who owns the content of student work. It’s important to plan this ahead of incidents.
Resources:
– Who Owns Student Content? (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
– Back to School: Who Owns What? (Student Press Law Center)
– Contribution to Collective Work U.S. Copyright Office
• Develop guidelines for handing takedown demands if online
Fielding requests for takedown demands is increasingly a decision student media have to make, either from reporters after they have left school or from sources because they do not like the story. Choices are limited, and involve ethical thinking.
Resources:
–Takedown demands (JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee)
–Responding to takedown demands (Student Press Law Center)
–Takedown requests (JEA SPRC Press Rights Minute)
Without an understanding of rights and responsibilities – the “could we?” and “should we?” of producing media, staffs can have the most attractive layouts imaginable and captivating story-telling, but they could still make legal and ethical mistakes that would ruin their chance to produce anything else for their audience.
Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 2: Careful preparation creates strong mission statements
Part 3: Points to avoid
Part 4: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation
Read More