Most Recent Articles
Join the SPRC for sessions in Chicago
The Scholastic Press Rights Committee is presenting a number of sessions at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Chicago. We hope to see you at one or more of them.
More sessions are available on law and ethics – check out the convention program.
New Voices Summit
2- 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31
Randolph 1A-B, Concourse Level
Law and ethics press freedom in independent schools
9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Randolph 2, Concourse Level
Open forum for addressing censorship issues (1 of 2)
11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
State laws protecting student press freedom
1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1
Columbian, Concourse Level
No New Voices law? You still have rights!
2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1
San Francisco, Ballroom Level
Scholastic Press Rights Committee meeting
7:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3A, Concourse Level
Discussion of scholastic press rights
9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
Open forum for addressing censorship issues (2 of 2)
11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2
Roosevelt 3B, Concourse Level
Working together more than just a phrase
by Stan Zoller, MJE
More than a few years ago, I produced a corporate television show designed to inform the United States sales force of a major corporation about new sales, existing customer successes and general corporate information.
It was also quasi motivational and one of the anchors’ walk-off lines was “Working together, we make the difference.” Remember, I produced the show, I didn’t write the copy.
However, as trite as the walk-off for the show was, there is more than a fleeting truth about working together. Especially when it comes to scholastic press rights.
Read MoreNew Voices podcasts
and valuable information
Looking for information and ideas to challenge students and expand their journalistic experiences, try these first offerings. From challenging concepts to story ideas and approaches, we’ll bring you occasional packages like today’s.
• We’ve launched a new podcast resource from the Scholastic Press Rights Committee — Conversations at the Schoolhouse Gate: The New Voices Podcast!
Our first six episodes are posted. Direct links below; you can find the podcast anywhere you download podcasts, including Apple iTunes and Google Play.
Episode 1 – Neha Madhira – EiC, Eagle Nation Online (Prosper, Tex.) Neha’s staff faced three rounds of censorship and prior review last year at PHS, and now she’s active in New Voices Texas.
https://pinecast.com/listen/9e9971c1-64ee-4f60-993b-229d9ecc3a3e.mp3
Episode 2 – Steve Listopad – Henderson State Univ. – Steve’s students in North Dakota kicked off the New Voices movement with a successful bipartisan bill in one of the reddest states in the country.
https://pinecast.com/listen/176c0e0f-29ed-4b6c-8d34-24debedd765d.mp3
Episode 3 – Kathy Schrier – Exec. Director, WJEA
The team in Washington were in this fight back in the early 90s, and stuck with it through March 21, 2018, when Governor Jay Inslee signed the New Voices bill into law!
https://pinecast.com/listen/f40e9aaf-bb3d-4b35-b5cc-bccffd0d6ac4.mp3
Episode 4 – SPLC 101
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-at-the-schoolhouse-gate/id1437339628
Episode 6 – Real benefits without review and restraint
Interview with Archer School for Girls administrator Gretchen Warner and student editor Anna Brodsky.
Subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or Stitcher or listen directly from this website.
Articles
• Trump’s USA Today op-ed demonstrates why it’s time to unbundle news and opinion content: Brought to us by Eli Pariser, originator of the term “filter bubbles,” this piece raises this point: “Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the whole premise of bundling together hard news and opinion content under the same brand names and domains. If we believe there’s something special about the processes and norms that create journalism (and I do), publishers should draw a brighter line around it — a line that both people and algorithms can understand.
“Moving opinion content onto separately branded sites wouldn’t mean getting rid of it entirely. But the whole practice of op-edding deserves a shakeup anyway, in an era where anyone can self-publish and content is experienced in an atomized form.”
• Do journalists spend too much time on Twitter: “A new study attempts to get at whether journalists ascribe too much importance to Twitter. Shannon McGregor of The University of Utah and Logan Molyneux of Temple University performed an experiment involving about two hundred journalists—some who use Twitter heavily and some who use it only moderately,” writes Mathew Ingram.
The results are interesting, to say the least.
Read MoreTips for reporting the year’s toughest story
by Candace Bowen, MJE
It’s the story of the year, perhaps even the decade. The general topic is listed in the top 10 issues of concern for teens in almost every poll. Misunderstandings and misinformation play a big role, and adults so often don’t know how to talk about it either. This could and should be where student journalists step up, yet, sadly, it’s one of the hardest for them to write about.
Sex. And in particular, sexual assault, has been a female concern for a long time, getting more attention with Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo last year. And now with the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings, teen males see the impact it could have on them – rightly or wrongly.
So, can student journalists write about it? Of course, they can – and should. Some administrators – face it, ALL administrators – may squirm at the thought, but how a staff covers the topic will make a huge difference and might help determine their success.
Here are some things to think about if your students want to write about sexual assault and some helpful resources as well.
Read More‘Stupid teen stuff’ in student media
can alter history, shape future
by John Bowen, MJE
Private jokes, misleading and fabricated information have no place in yearbook journalism. In any journalism.
To simplify, in a Sept. 27 hearing about whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should become a justice on the U. S. Supreme Court, a yearbook sparked controversy years later about the meaning and truthfulness of some content.
People and events around that yearbook and some people noted in it led to an expanded FBI investigation and the attention of millions of people across the country.
In an email to JEA’s listserv, Steve O’Donoghue of California called what happened “an object lesson to every yearbook adviser.
Read More