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We have the responsibility to ensure
administrators see journalism’s values
In the spirit of Constitution Day, help administrators. know what journalism means to the continuation of America’s democracy:
School administrators can feel tremendous pressure to protect their schools’ reputations, so it’s understandable that they may be wary of supporting a scholastic press where students have final say over all content.
Educating administrators about the value of journalism at the high school level is a crucial step towards empowering student journalists and building a future with more engaged democratic citizens.
If we, as educators and school leaders, want to teach our students the importance of citizenship, we must empower them to be citizens within the school walls. [pullquote]
If we, as educators and school leaders, want to teach our students the importance of citizenship, we must empower them to be citizens within the school walls.
Administrators can do that by hiring a qualified journalism adviser to teach students the foundations of ethical, responsible journalism, and journalism advisers should encourage ongoing dialogue between student staffs and their school administrators.
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Administrators can do that by hiring a qualified journalism adviser to teach students the foundations of ethical, responsible journalism, and journalism advisers should encourage ongoing dialogue between student staffs and their school administrators.
Providing school leaders with a copy of Quill & Scroll’s Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism is a good start, but busy administrators may not find the time to read it.
Journalism advisers and publications staffs should reach out to administrators to engage in face-to-face dialogue about their publication process so school leaders can see the logistics behind selecting, pitching, reporting, editing and publishing content, including how editors handle controversial stories. Students can explain how abstract common core goals come to life in their work as journalists and make a strong case for supporting their publications.
Scholastic journalism provides students with 21st century skills, curiosity about their world and a concrete experience of citizenship. Journalism classes encompass more 21st century skills set out in the Framework for 21st Century Learning than any other high school class, including global awareness, civic literacy, media literacy, collaboration, initiative and self direction, leadership and many more.
Scholastic journalism also connects to a vast number of Common Core goals. Research suggests that students in journalism classes also get better grades in high school, earn higher scores on the ACT and get better grades as college freshmen.
In addition to these positive academic outcomes, scholastic journalism programs led by qualified journalism educators foster responsible civic engagement, as students learn about their First Amendment Rights and become engaged with their school, local, national and global communities.
Student journalists with final say on their own content embrace their roles as democratic citizens who take ownership and are accountable for their decisions. Administrators who support scholastic journalism programs are supporting a future with more engaged democratic citizens
Topic: Administration and scholastic journalism
Guideline:Publication staffs should reach out to school administrators to educate them about the benefits of scholastic journalism and to build trusting relationships.
Social media post/question:Why should administrators support scholastic journalism?
Stance: Administrators should support scholastic journalism as a tool for building collaborative, creative and civically engaged citizens.
Administrators who understand the process of responsible journalism and the 21st century skills inherent in becoming a student journalist are more likely to support publication programs and student press freedoms.
Reasoning/suggestions: Scholastic journalism is a crucial part of school culture, as it provides students with 21st century skills, curiosity about their world and a concrete experience of citizenship.
Journalism classes encompass more 21st century skills set out in the Framework for 21st Century Learningthan any other high school class, including global awareness, civic literacy, media literacy, collaboration, initiative and self-direction, leadership and many more.
Scholastic journalism also fulfills to a vast number of Common Core goals. Additionally, researchsuggests students in journalism classes also get better grades in high school, earn higher scores on the ACT and get better grades as college freshmen.
In addition to these positive academic outcomes, scholastic journalism programs led by qualified journalism educators foster responsible civic engagement, as students learn about their First Amendment rights and journalistic responsibility, and become engaged with their school, local, national and global communities. Student journalists with final say on their own content embrace their roles as democratic citizens who take ownership and are accountable for their decisions.
Administrators who support scholastic journalism programs are supporting a future with more engaged democratic citizens.
Resources:
Introductionand Civic engagement and journalism, Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism
The 2017 State of the First Amendment, Newseum
High School Journalism Matters, American Press Institute
Framework for 21st Century Learning, Partnership for 21st Century Learning
Civic Implications of Secondary School Journalism, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Principals, presidents and getting along, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission
Teaching grit for citizenship — why we must empower, not shield students, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission
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Censorship leads to fake news
Prior-review/censor guideline /policy
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.
This would be included in the policy portion.
Social media post/question:How does self-censorship impact what students cover?
Stance: Students should create a clear guideline for stemming the tide of self-censorship.
Reasoning/suggestions: Students are often self-censoring important content — especially if they have been censored previously.
When students self-censor topics journalistically ethical and legal to cover, they are in essence forwarding the concept of fake news. If students are afraid to cover topics of importance to them, they are not creating a true open forum for student discussion and are not functioning as a journalist.
Resources:
SPLC Active Voices
Lesson: Censorship=Fake news
Self Censorship links from SPLC
http://www.splc.org/article/2015/02/high-school-students-teachers-confront-student-media-censorship
JEA prior review definition
http://jeasprc.org/jea-board-defines-prior-review/
Self-censorship is scariest of all
Posted by JBowen Oct 30, 2009 in Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching| 0 comments
All week I’ve heard plans for creepy costume parties, haunted house visits and horror film marathons. But as Halloween weekend approaches, there’s something much scarier on my mind.
It’s scary how many media staffs and their advisers are under fire right now for doing exactly what they set out to do: report on issues of impact and interest to their students. The current situation at Timberland High School in Wentzville, Mo. is just one example of many. Stories of little consequence, such as the homecoming court or club happenings, rarely draw attention. But the ones that matter — the ones that have potential to help students — come under fire at an alarming rate, despite thorough research, credible sources and top-notch student reporting.
It’s scary when kids grapple with these big issues and how to cover them well. But it’s even scarier when they don’t. Good journalism — and the whole part about critical thinking, student leadership and free expression — stops when kids decide to censor themselves.
All too often I hear my kids during staff brainstorming sessions say things like, “People would freak out if we covered that,” or “[Insert administrator names] would give us a really hard time if we did that.” Despite frequent discussion of media law and a dissection of the ed code, I still hear, “We can’t do that, can we?”
In most cases, they can. And in many cases, they should. It’s easy to see why kids might be inclined to shy away from the good stories, the real stories. After all, many advisers share updates in class of programs facing censorship and use these as teachable moments. We read the controversial articles, discuss the situations and follow the stories over an extended period of time. Kids are interested and engage in meaningful discussion, but I realized lately that they might not be taking away the message we think we’re sending. Do our students come away inspired and empowered, or are they afraid of censorship, administrative retaliation or the risk of losing a beloved adviser?
Scary possibilities, to be sure.
We can combat self-censorship with a few simple strategies:
(1) Continue to expose students to outstanding journalism, both from students and from the pros. Read it, discuss it, analyze it. Nothing beats an important story done well.
(2) When students begin to talk themselves out of a sensitive story topic, encourage them to revisit your mission statement and/or editorial policies. Teach students to weigh the options: how many readers might be helped or touched by this story? What’s the potential for good here? How far might this story reach?
(3) Get outside your school bubble. You know your school community, yes, but have you looked at how other student media have covered similar stories? Are others in your city, state, region affected by the same topics? Is there an opportunity to learn from the experience of others? Collaborate?
(4) Point to a wide variety of resources so students have support. When students feel confident in their research and reporting skills, they’re confident tackling bigger stories. Establish a team-oriented staff culture so that students have peers willing to help with research and interviewing. Good student journalists know how much work is involved in getting a story right; they might talk themselves out of tackling the topic because they know a sensitive story often involves extra effort. Again, work together.
(5) Make sure students understand how to utilize expert assistance from the SPLCand feel comfortable doing so. Consider role-playing sample scenarios in class. Encourage student editors to create a plan in the event that a situation arises. It’s like a fire drill — we don’t expect to be in a fire but we practice the drill and know how to call 911 if we need to. Then we’re free to go about our daily lives and focus on what matters.
If staffers have a plan in place, covering a potentially controversial subject doesn’t seem so scary.
Sarah Nichols, MJE
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SPRC adds ‘one-stop shopping’
for law and ethics manual
Four concepts drive the creation of journalistic approaches: mission statement, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual procedure. Together, with forum material, the four comprise a package of complementary principles we call the Foundation of Journalism, often known as a staff manual.
These principles represent the key pillars of standards-based journalism and are the products of perhaps the most important journalistic decisions the student staff can make. Together, the concepts enhance the strengthen the process and product, the decision-making and critical thinking that can characterize student media.
Click the Law-Ethics Manual nav bar link for our one-stop’ shopping.
More are on the way.
Read MoreEditorial policy sets forum status,
decision-making standard and more
Editorial policy
What is it/definition: Designed to provide legal framework for student media, editorial policies come in two forms, school-board level and media-level. In case of conflicts, a school-board policy usually will take precedence. Absent a policy, practice can help determine freedom of expression status. Typical content of an editorial policy can include:
- Level of freedom of expression
- Responsibility for student media content
- Forum status
- Prior review and restraint
- References to guiding legal decisions and theories
- Language about journalistic responsibility, civic engagement and future of democracy
Choosing the right forum can be a make-or-break decision
Forums protect your expression, audience’s right to know
What is/definitions
Forums come in three types – closed, limited and public/open – and how they are interpreted can make the difference between being censored, reviewed and restrained or being a place of learning citizenship and free expression
Important items of note
The three types of forum and information about them are:
- Closed forum:
An example of closed is a PTA newsletter. The owner of the forum can control its content. Censorship is allowed. Little learning about the role of a free press in a democracy would take place. Little learning about the various roles of journalism would take place.
- Students have no expectation of freedom of expression.
- Students should have no expectation of learning news or objective journalism.
- Students should have no expectation of creating original pieces.
- Students should have no expectation of decision-making.
- Hazelwood applies.
- Limited public/open forum:
A limited forum can be limited to whatever the establisher of the forum wants it to be: a forum for sports coverage, for example. It can be reviewed, or not reviewed, by the originator’s designation. If reviewed, the owner of the forum has all the legal responsibility and control. If not reviewed, the students, for example, could be designated as being in charge and enjoy the freedoms and bear the responsibility. A good many student media fall into this category where school districts trust their students, their advisers and their curriculum. Students learn about the media’s role in a democracy, and about their own civic responsibility. If education about the media’s role in a democracy and learning critical-thinking and responsibility are the school’s mission, then the second type of limited forum is used.
Limited-closed:
- Students have no expectation of freedom of expression
- Students should have no expectation of learning news or objective journalism.
- Students should have no expectation of creating original pieces.
- Students should have no expectation of decision-making.
- Hazelwood applies.
Limited-open:
- Students have an expectation of freedom of expression.
- Students should expect to learn news or objective journalism.
- Students should expect to create original material.
- Students should expect to make decisions.
- Tinker applies if no prior review.
Public/open forum:
The third category is an open forum, much like speakers’ corner in the United Kingdom. Anyone can speak, and the school (government) bears no legal responsibility. Schools can designate student media as open forums by policy or practice. This is noted within the Hazelwood decision, as is a limited open forum with student decision-making control.
Within the open and limited forums, students would certainly not publish any materials they found to be unprotected speech — libel, obscenity, material disruption of the school process (Tinker guidelines), unwarranted invasion of privacy and copyright infringement. Students would be taught this through a journalism curriculum by a trained adviser or through workshops and seminars available to an extracurricular publication.
Open forums:
- Students have an expectation of freedom of expression.
- Students should expect to learn news or objective journalism.
- Students should expect to create original material.
- Students should expect to make decisions.
- Tinker applies if no prior review.
Importance of designated forum status
- There is no requirement that any government agency establish a forum of any kind.
- But once a government does establish a forum, it cannot dictate the content of that forum.
- Jurisprudence sees three types of forums: open, limited, closed.
- The closed forum is a place that traditionally has not been open to public expression. Examples, in schools, could be newsletters or other means of communication not open to public use. So long as restrictions are reasonable and not based on a desire to suppress certain viewpoints, the government may close public access to them.
- The open or traditional public forum is a place with a long history of expression, such as a public park or street corner. The government can only impose content-neutral time, place and manner restrictions on speech in this forum. To override the open, public forum status, the government would have to show a compelling interest.
- The limited forum has the most problematic history. It is a place with a limited history of expressive activity, usually only for certain topics or groups. A meeting hall or public-owned theater are examples. The government may limit access when setting up a forum but may still not restrict expression unless there is a compelling interest. Schools, as government institutions, may, by “policy or practice,” open student media for indiscriminate use by the public or some segment of the public.
- A designated public forum enables students to make decisions of content, thus empowering them to practice critical thinking and civic engagement roles.
- Educational value of the designated open forum is mirrored by the fact most schools have mission statements identifying these as essential life skills for students to learn while in school.
- Prior review and a lack of trust in the product (students) schools are expected to produce undermines the very missions school officials say are among their most important.
- Studies have clearly shown that students, and communities in general, do not understand the importance of the First Amendment. One reason may be that students are not allowed to practice what they are taught while in schools and thus do not believe the theories of the democratic system.
These definitions should help you understand public forums:
- Forums by policy:An official school policy exists that designates student editors as the ultimate authority regarding content. School officials actually practice this policy by exercising a “hands-off” role and empowering student editors to lead. Advisers teach and offer students advice, but they neither control nor make final decisions regarding content.
- Forums by practice:A school policy may or may not exist regarding student media, but administrators have a “hands-off” approach and have empowered students to control content decisions. Advisers teach and offer students advice, but they neither control nor make final decisions regarding content.
Guideline:
Students should choose the forum carefully and refer to it in the policy section of your Legal and Ethical manual. It might also play a role in the Mission statement.
Best student practices:
Ideally, after student discussion, student will choose and be able to practice the public/open forum model. That allows the greatest freedom of expression and educational growth because it allows students the most journalistic responsibility and school officials the most protection.
Questionsto ask those who oppose public forum status for student media:
- Collect all the documentation you can find to demonstrate why you believe your publication has been operating as a designated public forum.
- Ask administrators why they are objecting to/changing your public forum status (and try to get their response in writing). Try to keep the communication channels open so you and students know the reasoning and details.Pay special attention to any statements they make suggesting their actions were in response to something the publication published.
- Obtain a copy of the replacement language for the policy if whoever is making/suggesting a change has replacement language.
- Find out whether the changes come from the board of education or from administrators. If the board, did it make the changes in an open meeting? If it has not made the decision yet, when will it and can discussion occur?
- See if you can find out if and how administrators or the board is receiving legal assistance. Also find how, and if, these people have handled similar cases or incidents before. Being aware of their arguments might enable you to anticipate and counter them.
- Know your state’s education codes and state student free expression laws. It is possible you have language that can protect you.
- Call SPLC to report the move and ask for guidance.
- Seek and prepare individuals and groups (from students, parents, commercial journalists and possibly even a local attorney — preferably one who understands scholastic media law) to ask questions, voice concerns and to be observers of the process.
- Prepare a process to keep the discussion about change in the public’s eye
Quick Tip:
Forum status of student media If your students are revising or developing a new policy, the Scholastic Press Rights Committee recommends using language something like this:
[Name of publication] is a designated public forum for student expression. Student editors make all content decisions without prior review from school officials.
Quick Tips index A list of nearly 70 journalism processes showing the interaction between every day journalistic processes and actions and ethical principles.
SPRC blogs
When your publication is a public forum and when it is not,Written by Mark Goodman, Knight chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State university, this article focuses what makes student media public forums and what does not. Goodman writes, “School officials’ ability to legally censor school-sponsored student expression at public junior high and high schools is determined by whether they can meet the burden the First Amendment places on them to justify their actions. Often the most important question in that analysis is whichof two First Amendment standards they have to meet.” Those standards are Tinker or Hazelwood.
Choosing your forum status is like choosing the best medicine Establishing your student media as open forums for student expression – not closed or limited forums – can make a huge difference in developing a cure of Hazelwood. The best forum is like preventative medicine. The worst is like being exposed to active disease cultures.
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Rethinking your forum status – why the correct wording is essential With the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear appeals on the 2nd Circuit’s Ithaca decision, student media advisers and their journalists should be aware of a potential conflict over how they use the word “forum.” In short, if an editorial policy is going to say student media are forums, students and advisers must be able to explain what that means and why it is educationally important.
Re-establishing our belief in the right forum Just because the 2nd Circuit Federal Appeals Court recently handed down a decision inR.O. v. Ithaca City School Districtladen with shaky interpretations and references, it is not time to surrender or alter our beliefs.
Maybe #Firstonthefirst initiative can help move the needle Make a commitment to talk to strangers about the First Amendment. A few minutes of conversation can make a huge difference.
“Drawings of stick figures in sexual positions clearly qualify as ‘lewd,’ that is, ‘inciting to sensual desire or imagination,’” Second Circuit Judge Jose A. Cabranes wrote in the decision about why the school could censor an independent student publication and the school’s student paper, which had attempted unsuccessfully to run the drawing in the first place.
Muzzle Hazelwood with strong journalism, status as an open public forum This post looks at a circuit court decision that explains public forum possibilities and values. Also link to Why Dean v. Utica is important.
Letters and commentary can enhance public forum role Letters to the Editor are opportunities for your community to have a voice on the pages students host. They allow community members to interact with your staff and your readers by responding to stories students have written, topics covered, or issues in the school or their world concerning them. Also,accepting guest commentaries, offered randomly, reinforces student media’s role as a public forum for student expression. This would not include the creation of stranding guest columns for administrations, faculty or other school or city officials.
Don’t let ‘funny things’ happen on the way to your forum Many scholastic media outlets appear to come up short when developing and posting an editorial policy. It appears that common practices are to:
- Just call a publication “a forum.”
- Call it an open forum.
- Call it a limited-open forum.
Or if all else fails,
- Not have a policy at all
Hazelwood’s costs: Open forum status helps win court case, then striped, not returned Hazelwood stories: by Kevin Smyth “When I joined JagWirein September 2007 as a 51-year old adviser with no advising background, and limited experience as a student journalist, I had no idea I’d become a poster boy for “things that can go wrong your first year as adviser.’ It’s been a difficult story.”
Seattle School District seeks to remove forum policy for prior review Even though its current open forum policy helped it avoid a lawsuit earlier this year, the Seattle School District seems determined to change course and install prior review, making the adviser responsible for all content and the administrators able to review at will.
Podcast/RPM:
Eliminating prior review A conversation focused on learning rather than “press rights” may help administrators do away with prior review when students and teachers outline the benefits of student expression that come from critical thinking and problem solving.
SPLC resources:
Other resources:
JEA law/ethics curriculum:
Related Content | Mission | Policy | Staff manual | Prior review | Prior restraint | Censorship |
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