Taking your student media online:
Will students follow online news media?
An ethics lesson
Taking your student media online: Will audiences follow online news media?
by John Bowen
Description
What should you consider before taking your student media online? This lesson will examine areas students should explore prior to transitioning to online.
Students will work through the following questions:
• Why should audiences follow you online?
• What are the benefits of online news?
• What are the downsides of online news?
• What approaches would you take to motivate potential audience to follow you online?
• What would you do to ensure those approaches follow legal and ethical standards?
• How would you create this process into guidelines for your ethics and staff manuals?
Objectives
• Students will read articles concerning taking a publication online.
• Students will work in groups to create a plan to move their media online.
• Students will create a guideline outlining why taking a publication online is important.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.C
Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
Length
100 minutes (two 50-minute classes)
Materials / resources
Online ethics guidelines for student media
Your students love social media…and so can you
Cyberlaw: Internet and online media
Living social: College newsrooms revisiting ethics policies for the Twitter generation
Ways to have a social media presence for your staff when your high school says ‘no’
5 reasons why an online newspaper is not the end of the world
High school journalists take a crash course in newspaper economics
College newspaper readership
Lesson step-by-step
Day 1
Have students read in four groups. Each group reads two different articles before class to help frame the next class discussion.
• Online ethics guidelines for student media
• Your students love social media…and so can you
• Cyberlaw: Internet and online media
• Ways to have a social media presence for your staff when your high school says ‘no’
• 5 reasons why an online newspaper is not the end of the world
• Living social: College newsrooms revisiting ethics policies for the Twitter generation
• High school journalists take a crash course in newspaper economics
• College newspaper readership
1. Student work time — 50 minutes
Using what they read for today, students will work in groups of 5 to plan the process of moving their student media online. Their work should ensure that the processes used are ethical. Remind students they will presented their group’s decision the following day.
Day 2
1. Presentation preparation — 5 minutes
Give students a few moments to review their notes.
2. Presentations — 25 minutes
Student groups should present their plans to each other, allowing time for clarification and alternatives.
3. Guideline creation — 20 minutes
The entire group will then create one or more approaches to inform others about why taking student media online is important. This should result in a workable Action Plan models and guidelines for ethical and staff manuals.
Differentiation
Use this section to provide teachers changes to the lesson plan to accommodate students at different skill levels or in different learning environments. If this involves different materials or resources, list those in the Materials/Resources section.
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Is print dead? An ethics lesson
Is print dead?
by john Bowen
Description
Can students read the Constitution in its original form (cursive)? What could this mean for paper consumption? The JEA listserv recently had an extended discussion about whether print student media was dead, or at least in its death throes.
Students will examine the following questions:
• What are student opinions on the future of print media, especially newspapers?
• Why do they feel this way?
• What credible and reliable sources can they find – and explain – to support their views?
• How do their views affect how they look at their student media?
• How do they think their peers feel?
• What would they create as the ideal scholastic publication program at their school and why?
• How does the discussion make them feel about a career in journalism?
Objectives
• Students will create an argument whether print is dead.
• Students will hypothesize on the future of print journalism as we know it.
• Students will create posters on their belief and evaluate the posters of others.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Length
150 minutes (three 50-minute classes)
Materials / resources
• Print is dead? Not so fast
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2012/06/28/print-is-dead-not-so-fast/
•Who says print is dead?
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/03/who-says-print-is-dead
•Newspapers dead within five years
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2011/12/14/newspapers-dead-within-five-years-usc-predicts
•Hot industry? Warren Buffet is betting on newspapers
http://www.inc.com/francesca-fenzi/warren-buffett-on-newspapers.html
•Are newspapers dead yet?
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/132842-are-newspapers-dead-yet/transcript/
•The end of the printed newspaper
https://medium.com/@cshirky/last-call-c682f6471c70
•Do spinoffs spell death of US newspapers? No and here’s why
http://www.thewrap.com/do-print-spinoffs-spell-death-of-u-s-newspapers-no-and-heres-why/computers
Lesson step-by-step
Day 1
1. Introduction — 5 minutes
Hand out several copies of a printed copy of the Constitution (handwritten). Ask them to read the first 20 lines of a hard-copy of the document.
Now, ask them to find an online copy and repeat the reading and discussion process.
2. Link to content — 5 minutes
What does the exercise say to them about reading cursive and reading print materials? About what they learn in school based on print texts versus online materials. Is it harder to read the cursive writing because schools now downplay it and nothing like it exists online? Work on comparisons between learning from print sources and online ones. (Link here and here for two articles on the impact of reading print versus online material.)
Gradually move the discussion into the future of print, particularly newspapers, and how that could affect education and citizen involvement.
3. Research — 40 minutes
Assign students to find online articles discussing the future of newspapers and print journalism for Day 2. Some sources could include:
• Print is dead? Not so fast
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2012/06/28/print-is-dead-not-so-fast/
•Who says print is dead?
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/03/who-says-print-is-dead
•Newspapers dead within five years
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2011/12/14/newspapers-dead-within-five-years-usc-predicts
•Hot industry? Warren Buffet is betting on newspapers
http://www.inc.com/francesca-fenzi/warren-buffett-on-newspapers.html
•Are newspapers dead yet?
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/132842-are-newspapers-dead-yet/transcript/
•The end of the printed newspaper
https://medium.com/@cshirky/last-call-c682f6471c70
•Do spinoffs spell death of US newspapers? No and here’s why
http://www.thewrap.com/do-print-spinoffs-spell-death-of-u-s-newspapers-no-and-heres-why/omputers
Additionally, ask them to also consider these points raised in a recent JEA listserv discussion on the topic:
• Studies show students don’t read for news online and prefer hard copy
• Journalism is about information gathering and presentation skills, not about just knowing the tools
• Is print better suited for certain kinds of information than other platforms?
• What do their various communities want and need?
• Are scholastic media bound by the same revenue-driven guidelines as commercial media? Should they be?
• Is the discussion fact or anecdotal driven? Does it make a difference?
• It’s the process of informing, not the product that matters
• If print still works in some cases and ways, how can we invent it?
Use some of these points to find other online or print resources on the topic. Here is a rubric you can use for this exercise.
Day 2
1. Review — 5 minutes
Ask students to go around and state the two most interesting snippets of information they learned from the previous class.
2. Group discussion — 10 minutes
Discuss in groups of four or five what others are saying in the readings about the future of print journalism. Do the students agree? Compare their views and the view of others. Which are more credible and reliable? The most supported by fact or logic?
3. Poster creation — 15 minutes
Narrow the discussion to several reoccurring points, pro and con, in each group. Ask students to combine each group’s findings into a poster or projectable image for the class.
4. Statement creation — 10 minutes
Ask them to create “we agree” statements with each of the most common points and post them in the class. Students should post these around the room.
Day 3
Teacher preparation:
Hang the “we agree” posters as well as a blank sheet of paper next to each.
1. Review — 10 minutes
Ask students to walk around the room looking at the “we agree” posters. While reading the posters, students should comment and provide feedback on the blank paper next to the statement
2. Group review of feedback — 15 minutes
Students should look at feedback given. Does the feedback alter their position? Ask groups to discuss this.
3. Assignments — 25 minutes
Students could decide between the following options:
• Students could create a position statement of their own using the platform of their choice on what they feel the future of print to be and why.
• Students could plan what they want student media at their school to be in five to 10 years, supporting their views with sources and factual statements. They would show how each platform cited for the future would meet student and community needs.
• Students could create a survey instrument for their students and communities on the topic and reported a reported piece using the platform of their choice.
• Combination of any of the above as individuals, teams. Or, create another assignment based on the exercise.
Read More
JEA listed among key ethics and media law resources
JEA has been listed as a part of key media law and ethics resources by journalism degree.org titled 100 Key Ethics & Media Law Resources for Journalists.
“Modern journalists, and anyone else working in the media, have thorny ethical issues to contend with,” Kara James wrote in a letter notifying JEA president Mark Newton of the compilation. “The sites,organizations and articles listed here are good places for journalists (or journalism students) to learn more about the legal and ethical landscape of their field.”
The site for the compilation is http://journalismdegree.org/media-law-ethics/ .
Among other organizations listed include:
• SPLC
• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
• Society of Professional journalists Ethics Handbook
• Nieman Journalism lab
JEA’s link is to the general website. Other JEA links would include the Press Rights Commission and the law and ethics curriculum for JEA members.
Read MoreWhen law and ethics and good journalism combine
PART 3 OF a 3-PART SERIES
An experienced Ohio newspaper adviser teams up with a former student — who now has a law degree — to teach the staff about using public records. An alleged rape on campus requires student editors to stand their ground accessing information about it. Once they have details about the incident, they have to decide just what they should – or maybe should not – use. It’s a tale that has all the makings of excellent reporting.
The discussion and next steps.
Editors of the Shakerite have class at 8 a.m., and they had a lot to discuss Sept. 11. Editor Shane McKeon and campus and city editor John Vodrey had the police report showing that what the principal, in his letter to parents, said was an assault had really been classified by the police as a rape.
Now what?
Read MoreWhen law and ethics and good journalism combine
PART 2 OF a 3-PART SERIES
An experienced Ohio newspaper adviser teams up with a former student — who now has a law degree — to teach the staff about using public records. An alleged rape on campus requires student editors to stand their ground accessing information about it. Once they have details about the incident, they have to decide just what they should – or maybe should not – use. It’s a tale that has all the makings of excellent reporting.
The incident
An unexpected faculty meeting 10th period in mid-September. Police in the halls earlier in the day. All the students at Shaker Heights High School were talking, but the journalism students were more than curious.
“When I came back (to the journalism room) after the meeting, I told them I was forbidden to talk about it,” adviser Natalie Sekicky said. “Yes, there was an incident. Yes, something happened. But we have to be sensitive.”
Read More