Public records and public meetings
Ethical guidelines
Journalists have a right and responsibility to access public records and attending public meetings as part of the information-gathering process. Open records laws typically presume that records created or maintained or meetings held by a government agency are open to the public unless they fall within a few specific exemptions written into the law. That means the government typically has the burden of explaining why it does not have to provide access to a record or meeting.
Staff manual process
Students, like all citizens, have the right to request public records. Public records of special interest to student media include teacher and administrator salaries, crime reports and minutes of official meetings. The staff manual should provide information about what type of records students might choose to request and how to do so
To request public records, student media staff should:
• Determine what records contain the information they are looking for. Most open records laws do not require government agencies to create records to comply with a request. Their obligation is only to provide access to records that already exist.
• Determine who is the holder of those records.
• Make a verbal request, preferably in person. Students should be polite and not presume they will not get what they are requesting.
• Know at least the citation to the relevant open records law (typically the open records law in their state if they are requesting records from a public school). A list of these laws can be found from the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
• If denied, ask for the specific statutory exemption that justifies the denial.
• Be persistent, but professional.
• Make a written request, if the steps above do not result in obtaining the records. Sample letters are available from the Student Press Law Center or the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
Suggestions
• Public records can take a while to access after they have been requested, so staff manuals should provide information for seeking the most commonly requested information.
• Requesting public records at the start of the school year can make it easier to write on those issues without waiting for access.
• Sometimes, public offices charge a fee for releasing public records (usually related to copying and administrative costs). By law, this fee should not be overly burdensome. Students should be cautious if a public institution is charging exorbitant rates. Under most open records laws the right to inspect public records is free.
• Likewise, requested public records must be released within a certain time frame (which varies by state law), or the institution must explain in writing why the records cannot be released. Students should keep all documentation related to these requests and responses.
• Student editors should conduct staff training on how to generate a public records request.
Resources
Freedom-of-Information Records Request Letter Generator, Student Press Law Center
Sample State Request Letters, National Freedom of Information Coalition
Access to Records Meetings, Places, Student Press Law Center
Lesson: Freedom of Information, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: Using Public Documents, Journalism Education Association
Audio: Using the Freedom of Information Act, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
Audio: Open Meetings Act, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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Media-level editorial policies
Ethics guidelines
Media-level e
ditorial policies aren’t as much legal protection as the board-level policies, but they could show how students operate “in practice” and thus might be viewed as some protection. Thus they are a must for student media. JEA’s Model Editorial Policy is a good example because it adds discussion points such as letters to the editor, handling coverage of death and advertising.
Any of the board-level policy models can be adapted for use at the media level. All policies, including the JEA model, stress student media as designated public forums in which students make all content decisions without prior review by school officials.
The JEA model includes detailed language and provides direction for process and principles. It expands on the Student Press Law Center’s Model Guidelines for High School Media, with the kind of situations student media face, which makes it preferable at the level of the individual medium.
Ethical guidelines and staff manual procedures should be separate sections from either board-level or student media-level policies. This way student editors can update their staff manuals to meet changing needs and situations.
Staff manual process
A school without policies can cause confusion and misunderstanding for readers and participants. Media-level editorial policies should be direct, clear and understandable to people of all ages. These policies reinforce ethical guidelines, and a staff manual rooted in ethical approaches outlines their implementation on a daily basis.
Media-level editorial policies should be reviewed and endorsed yearly to keep them current as the active framework for student media. Any student media policy established without the input of its student practitioners is both a missed opportunity and a recipe for mistakes. By evaluating the inclusion of these policies, students will better understand their mission and expectations.
When finished, media-level policies should be shared with school and outside communities so all parties understand the principles and processes the journalism program follows.
Suggestions
Even if staffs incorporate the JEA model editorial policy as a framework, students should work to establish clear guidelines for their decision-making.
In creating the ideal forum statement, consistent for all student media at either media or board level, staffs should include: “[NAME OF STUDENT MEDIA] are designated public forums for student expression in which students make all final content decisions without prior review from school officials.”
Such a media-level policy, board-approved or in practice, would be designed to protect all parties in case of legal issues
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Read MoreThe role of student media
Ethical guidelines
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.
- Prior review occurs when school administrators – or anyone in a position of authority outside the editorial staff – demands to read, view or approve content prior to publication and/or distribution. JEA includes review, but not demanding change, as part of the adviser’s role.
- Prior restraint happens when anyone not on the student staff – often after they have read material (prior review) – requires pre-distribution changes to inhibit, ban or restrain content before release to the audience.
Free expression, supported by journalistic responsibility, empowers students to exercise their civic engagement and responsibility as they practice the principles of a free, open democracy.
Staff manual process
A media-level editorial policy/guideline should designate student media as public forums for student expression in which students make all final decisions of content without review from school officials.
Student journalists must be attuned to the institutions, people and issues that most affect their readers: students. By engaging with this community, actively looking for stories and becoming part of the institutional fabric of their schools, student journalists will be prepared to recognize which stories will reflect and challenge their community.
Students should define this distinct role in their school community and should highlight the difference between their role and that of the school’s public relations department.
Suggestions
• Persuade school officials to adopt or endorse a policy that designates student media as public forums for student expression in which students make all final decisions of content without prior review.
• Develop principles and procedures that uphold scholastic media as designated public forums practicing professional and ethical standards.
• Be the eyes and ears for readers. What information should they know but aren’t likely to seek on their own?
• Assign beats to represent the most important topics, institutions and people in the community. Keeping tabs on the same topic throughout the year will help students develop a keen nose for news and will help them understand the unique dynamics at play in their community.
• Include entrepreneurial assignments that allow students to explore key issues and events in the communities, expanding their eyes and ears for news.
• Address strategies that help reporters remain detached from stories they cover in their own communities. The staff manual should address strategies for situations when students are too entrenched in the community to cover it in an ethically sound manner.
• Elaborate the specific role of student media in the community and how this role differs from the school’s public relations functions.
• Encourage an open-door policy and open line of communication between editors and administrators, but don’t allow student media to serve as an extension of the district public relations department.
• Ensure coherent and complete coverage of events, issues and people provides evidence of the student media program’s commitment to professional standards.
How administrators can help
Strong strategies exist to help administrators support quality journalism programs. These include:
• Working with advisers and students to develop public forum policies
• Hiring qualified advisers and journalism teachers
• Working with students cooperatively to be good sources for stories
• Building trust in the learning and communication process in a way that also reduces liability concerns of the school system
• Offering constructive feedback after each publication or airing
• Increasing dialogue among school staff and students, thus encouraging outlets of expression that strengthen school safety( • Expanding school and community understanding and appreciation of the value of free, journalistically responsible, student media
• Providing necessary resources to support and maintain student media programs, including financial support, master schedule preferences, development opportunities and time.
JEA condemns prior review because it
• Contradicts the school’s responsibility to teach and maintain, through example, the principles of democracy
• Enables school administrators, who are government officials, to decide in advance what people will read or know. Such officials are potential newsmakers, and their involvement with the news-making process interferes with the public’s right to know
• Creates the possibility of viewpoint discrimination, undermining the marketplace of ideas and all pretext of responsible journalism
• Leads to self-censorship, the most chilling and pervasive form of censorship. Such fear eliminates any chance of critical thinking, decision-making or respect for the opinions of others
• Stifles growth so students do not mature into thinking, discerning, effective contributing citizens in the democracy
• Impairs the ability of a school’s communities to discern the truth about the school and the accuracy of information citizens need to make logical decisions and cast intelligent votes
• Negates the educational value of a trained, professionally active adviser and teacher working with students in a counseling, learning environment. Prior review simply makes the teacher an accessory, as if what is taught really doesn’t matter.
Instead, we believe
• Rights, not authority and discipline, prepare students for roles in a democracy as thinking, discerning, contributing citizens
• Student media best serves their communities when they are editorially independent and present truthful and accurate information
• Student media are safe and peaceful places a for dissemination of ideas, and with ideas there is no clear right or wrong
• Ultimate civic engagement and involvement only occur where students learn that they can practice constitutional guarantees
• Responsible journalism occurs when a qualified faculty adviser, clear publications policies and professionally oriented journalism curriculum exist
• Prior review interferes with the dynamic process of learning. Such review and censorship are the last resort of an educational system failing its present and future citizens.
Resources
Journalism Education Association Statement on Prior Review
Statements to Accompany JEA’s Definitions of Prior Review and Restraint, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Lesson: Crafting the Argument, Journalism Education Association
Questions for Those Who Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Building a Climate of Trust Can Ease Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Seeking a Cure for the Hazelwood Blues: A Call to Action, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: Positive Administrator Relations, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
Audio: 10 Tips for Dealing With Censorship, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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Adviser responsibilities
Ethical guidelines
The role of the adviser in student-run media incorporates teacher, coach, counselor, listener and devil’s advocate but not doer.
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.
Staff manual process
The adviser position should have a job description, just as staff members do. Outlining what the adviser will and won’t do makes all parties aware of the student-centered environment, helps students and parents understand the leadership structure of the editorial board and prevents tasks from going unassigned.
Suggestions
Possible considerations for advisers to address include:
• Making reporting assignments and setting deadlines
• Evaluating student work (editing and providing feedback versus grading)
• Providing work periods outside class time, such as deadline nights, and determining parameters for these sessions
• Teaching about financial considerations and offering guidance on budgetary matters
• Acting as a liaison with service professionals
• Handling disciplinary issues in accordance with school policies and contractual obligations
• Planning instruction and curriculum
• Selecting staff members
• Clarifying student responsibilities adviser will not complete (such as conducting interviews, finishing work in progress, shooting photos, selling ads, changing stories, correcting errors, making final content decisions).
Resources
JEA Standards for Journalism Educators, Journalism Education Association
JEA Adviser Code of Ethics JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: 10 Tips for Dealing With Censorship, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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Read MoreEditor-staff relationships
Ethical guidelines
Editors should conduct all relationships with staff members in a fair and professional manner. By considering the program’s best interests above matters of personality, students will be able to work together in a positive and productive environment.
Staff manual process
Editors should be aware of potential challenges that may arise as a result of both positive and negative relationships with peers. While it may be unrealistic for editors to define absolute policies, they should use the staff manual as an opportunity to address ethical considerations of relationships with suggested model behavior.
Suggestions
• Favoritism: When editors treat all staff members equally, it creates a positive atmosphere for collaboration. Editors should hold all staff members accountable following a consistent model regardless of personal relationships or friendships outside of the staff setting. All aspects of production, from assigning stories to recognizing excellent work, should be based on individual performance. If editors favor their friends or seem to pick on particular students, it can build resentment among the staff and weaken working relationships.
• Constructive feedback: Editors may find themselves having difficult conversations with staff members about their performance. These interactions are best done in person and privately. It may be inconvenient to arrange the ideal setting for this type of conference, but taking the time to keep criticism private is important for the health of the working relationship.
• Dating: Relationships among staff members may develop into something beyond the student media setting. Everyone involved should work to keep this separate from the experience in the newsroom. Students should enter into dating relationships with fellow staff members cautiously, knowing that regardless of outcome, they will be expected to work together in the future. All staff members should be expected to be respectful of relationships among staff members and not to take sides or let a romantic relationship interfere with their role in student media.
• Team building: Ongoing team-building exercises will help to develop positive staff relationships.
• Siblings: Editors with siblings on staff should make every effort to ensure that the sibling is treated as fairly as other staffers. Assigning the sibling to another editor provides the distance for the sibling’s growth as a journalist.
Resources
Lesson: Organizing Your Staff, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: Role Playing, Journalism Education Association
Lesson: Learning About Your Leadership Style, Journalism Education Association
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Read MorePrior review/restraint
Ethical guidelines
Students learn more when they make all publication choices. Prior review and restraint do not teach students to produce higher quality journalism.
The only way to teach students to take responsibility for their decisions is to give them the responsibility to make those decisions freely. No administrator has ever shown any educational value in prior review.
Continued democracy depends on students understanding all voices have a right to be heard and assuring all viewpoints have a say in their communities.
Staff manual process
The student editorial board should design an editorial policy that establishes student media as designated public forums for student expression where students make all final decisions of content.
The student editorial board should also study JEA and SPLC materials, statements and lessons to build educational arguments against prior review.
Resources
Prior review button on menu bar, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
JEA Board Statement on Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Building a Climate of Trust Can Ease Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Seeking a Cure for the Hazelwood Blues: A call to Action, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Audio: Panic Button, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
Audio: Eliminating Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee, Press Rights Minute
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