News v. public relations
by Kristin Taylor
Title
News vs. Public Relations
Description
The community gets information about what is happening at school through different publications, but not all of these publications are journalistic. In this lesson, students will differentiate between student reporting and school public relations by comparing and contrasting student publications with school public relations content such as newsletters, school-created magazines or school websites created and maintained by adults in the community.
Objectives
- Students will be able to explain the difference between public relations and student reporting.
- Students will reflect on the purpose and importance of both types of content.
- Students will analyze how they can maintain a relationship while remaining independent from school public relations content-creators.
Common Core State Standards
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.C | Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D
|
Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.8
|
Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses). |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.2
|
Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source. |
Length
60 minutes
Materials / Resources
Whiteboard and markers
Teacher laptop and digital projector
Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics
School generated website, publication or other content
Lesson step-by-step
- Warm Up (5 minutes)
Written on the board: “What is the difference between public relations and journalism?” After taking some initial responses to the prompt, teacher asks, “If our school newspaper and yearbook are student-run journalism, who runs its public relations, and what forms does this PR take?” (The school may have formal or informal public relations publications content, such as newsletters, a school website, etc.)
- Teacher-led discussion (5 minutes)
Teacher reads a definition of public relations: “the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person.”
Have students look at the “Be independent” section of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics (or their own, if they own it) and read through it. Ask, “How does this conflict with what you might do if you were a public relations professional?”
- Small group activity (15 minutes)
Teacher hands out a recent adult-created school publication or piece of content or has students access the school website’s news section. Students look through the content and consider what it has in common with their own student news publication (focus on the school, writing may be journalistic [depends on publication], may use infographics and strong images, shouldn’t include false information) and what might be different (no differentiation between news and opinion, no articles or photos that cast the school in a negative light, use of adjectives/adverbs or exclamation marks).
- Class Discussion (20 minutes)
Teacher draws a Venn diagram on the board with “School Public Relations” on one side and “Student Publication” on the other. The class fills in the circles to synthesize their conclusions about similarities and differences in small groups.
Discussion questions:
- What is the audience and purpose for public relations? Why is it important for a school to have a public relations team?
- What is the audience and purpose for scholastic journalism? Why is it important for a school to have a journalism program?
- Is journalism better than public relations? Worse? Just different?
- What should the student publication staff’s relationship be with the school’s publication relations staff? How can you remain independent? Should you ever collaborate with them?
- How does this give you insight into your own student publication policies to not use school staff’s photographs — even with permission — unless there is no other option?
- What would your response be if the school requests the use of student work created for your school publication? Do you have a policy in the staff manual for this situation?Assessment (15 minutes)
Students will go through a recent editing of a student publication and find two stories that probably wouldn’t be featured in school public relations publications and discuss why they are good journalism stories, but not good public relations stories. They can share these stories verbally or write about them.
Extension
Discuss how these same principles apply to professional media outlets as well. Can students identify when what they read takes a PR slant? What are the dangers of media outlets running a press release word for word
Read MoreWhat should go into an editorial policy?
What should not? QT3
Editorial policies are the foundations for your journalism program. Often short, these statements address forum status, who makes final decisions of content and prior review.
Think of it this way: a strong policy is prescriptive. It says what students will do. A policy is like a constitution and sets the legal framework for student media.
We strongly discourage the inclusion of ethical guidelines or procedures and process in policy documents because ethics and staff manual procedures are suggestive. That means topics like byline suggestions, font choices and how to handle unnamed sources should not be same document as policy. Topics, procedures and details do not have the same purpose as policy.
These points and other decisions about mission statement, forum status and editorial policy should be part of a Foundations Package that protects journalistically responsible student expression and anchors staff manuals.
Question: What should go into an editorial policy? What should not?
Editorial policies are the foundations for your journalism program. Often short, these statements address forum status, who makes final decisions of content and prior review.
We recommend this wording as a basic policy statement: “[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.”
Other models could include more material and wording to explain the value of student decision-making, historical or educational reasoning.
[pullquote]Quick Tips are small tidbits of information designed to address specific legal or ethical concerns advisers and media staffs may have or have raised. These include a possible guideline, stance, rationale and resources for more information. This is the third in the series[/pullquote]
A guideline is a stance on an ethical topic. A guideline is more open to change by student staff to staff.
Beyond that, SPRC suggested models could include editorial guidelines (although we recommend several as ethical process and procedures) like:
- Role of student media
- Ownership of student content
- Handling death
- Advertising decisions
- Handling letters/comments
- Policy consistently applied across all platforms
A procedure is a way to do something. These might include how students answer the phone in the room or how they check out a camera. Procedures are how students carry out the policy and implement ethical guidelines. All are part of the staff manual but are clearly separated from policy so their roles are clearly distinct.
Stance:
Think of it this way: a strong policy is prescriptive. It says what students will do. A policy is like a constitution and sets the legal framework for student media.
We strongly discourage the inclusion of ethical guidelines or procedures and process from policy documents because ethics and staff manual procedures are suggestive. That means topics like byline suggestions, font choices and how to handle unnamed sources should not be same document as policy. Topics, procedures and details do not have the same purpose as policy.
Resources: The foundations of journalism: policies, ethics and staff manuals
JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Related: These points and other decisions about mission statement, forum status and editorial policy should be part of a Foundations Package that protects journalistically responsible student expression.
Read MorePrior review v. prior restraint: Quick Tip2
In brief, the Journalism Education Association has found prior review has no educational value. Instead, JEA believes it is simply the first step toward censorship and fake news. Prior review also contributes to self-censorship and lack of trust between students, advisers and administrators. Prior review conflicts with JEA’s adviser code of ethics.
Prior review occurs when anyone not on the publication/media staff requires that he or she be allowed to read, view or approve student material before distribution, airing or publication.
Prior restraint occurs when someone not on the publication/media staff requires pre-distribution changes to or removal of student media content.
Prior review itself is a form of prior restraint. It inevitably leads the reviewer to censor and student journalists to self-censor in an effort to assure approval.
An officially designated adviser, when working with students and offering suggestions for improvement as part of the coaching and learning process, who reads or views student media before publication is not engaged in prior review.
Possible Guideline: Prior review and restraint
Question: What does prior review mean and how is it different from prior restraint?
Key points/action: In brief, the Journalism Education Association has found prior review has no educational value. Instead, JEA believes it is simply the first step toward censorship and fake news. Prior review also contributes to self-censorship and lack of trust between students, advisers and administrators. Prior review conflicts with JEA’s adviser code of ethics.
Stance: JEA would define prior review and restraint as follows:
• Prior review occurs when anyone not on the publication/media staff requires that he or she be allowed to read, view or approve student material before distribution, airing or publication.
[pullquote]Quick Tips are small tidbits of information designed to address specific legal or ethical concerns advisers and media staffs may have or have raised. These include a possible guideline, stance, rationale and resources for more information. This is the second in the series[/pullquote]
- Prior restraint occurs when someone not on the publication/media staff requires pre-distribution changes to or removal of student media content.
- Prior review itself is a form of prior restraint. It inevitably leads the reviewer to censor and student journalists to self-censor in an effort to assure approval.
- An officially designated adviser, when working with students and offering suggestions for improvement as part of the coaching and learning process, who reads or views student media before publication is not engaged in prior review.
When an adviser requires pre-distribution changes over the objections of student editors, his/her actions then become prior restraint
Reasoning/suggestions: 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.
Resources: Questions advisers should ask those who want to implement prior review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Prior Review, JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee
SPRC Talking points blog
SPRC Talking points
Definitions of prior review, prior restraint
Lesson: Understanding the perils of prior review and restraint
Why we keep harping about prior review
Related: These points and other decisions about mission statement, forum status and editorial policy should be part of a Foundations Package that protects journalistically responsible student expression.
How people interpret the news
and why it matters
by Maggie Cogar
Title
How people interpret the news and why it matters
Description
Why, and how, can two people be exposed to the exact same news story and interpret it differently? Why should this matter to journalists? People interpret the news differently depending on their cognitive schematic structure, or prior experiences. It’s important for journalists to understand this process so they can better understand how their audiences are interpreting the content they produce, and so they can ultimately use that information to help shape their content.
Objectives
- Students will explore how people process and interpret the news they consume.
- Students will interpret a news story (by examining it multiple media forms) and compare/contrast their interpretation to that of their peers.
- Students will discuss what individual differences in media interpretation means for journalistic practice.
Common Core State Standards
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1 | Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2 | Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.6 | Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. |
| 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. |
Length
50 minutes
Materials / resources
Slideshow: News Interpretation slideshow
Access to multiple forms of media (preferably print, tv, & online)
A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication by R.J. Harris (textbook suggested but not required)
New York Times: article on confirmation bias
New York Times article on: media, race and relationships
Lesson step-by-step
*Use News Interpretation slideshow to guide this lesson
Step 1 — Entrance Slip (5 minutes)
Students should complete the “motivating activity” on Slide 1 of the News Interpretation slideshow:
- Hold up an object (select something that might elicit both positive and negative responses … like a pencil. Some students may hate the sight because it reminds them of homework, while others who love to read and write might love the sight of a pencil, etc.)
- “What do you see?”
- Have students spend one-two minutes writing down anything they can think of in relation to the object (tell them to write adjectives for how the object makes them feel, as well as any memories or connections the object brings to mind)
- Discuss that each student will have a different reaction to that object based on their own personal experiences with it (diagram schemas/connections)
Step 2 — Lecture & Class Discussion (20 minutes)
Use the News Interpretation slideshow (se below) and notes provided to lecture on how people interpret the news using their own personal schematic structure. Suggestion: for the class discussion, do a think-pair-share in small groups before going to whole class discussion.
Step 3 — News Interpretation Activity (20 minutes)
Using a trending news story, have students create a Venn Diagram (use three circles — print, tv, online). Students should compare/contrast how the media outlets cover the same news story.
Focus points and questions to consider during this activity:
- How do headlines or points of emphasis in coverage differ?
- Are there any points in the story that could be misinterpreted?
- Are there any apparent biases in coverage?
- How would different people interpret how this story was covered?
Step 4 — Exit Slip (5 minutes)
In your own words, summarize why people can interpret the same news story differently.
Step 5 — Think About It (homework)
Before our next class, think about … ”which type of media do you think has the biggest cognitive effects on audience and why? (print, radio, broadcast, web)”
Read MoreFirst Amendment school dialogue
by Jeff Kocur
Title:
First Amendment school dialogue
Description
Constitution Day, for journalists, may need to start simply with recognition of the First Amendment and the five freedoms of the First Amendment. This activity will allow your school or individual classes to have a quick discussion of the First Amendment and how your students see their lives impacted by it.
Objectives:
- Students will recognize the five freedoms of the First Amendment
- Students will see the impact of the First Amendment on others
- Students will show the First Amendment’s impact on their own life.
Common Core State Standards
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.9 | Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features. |
| 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. |
| CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.8 | Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses). |
Length:
One lunch period (or extend the time over the course of a week during lunches)
Materials/Resources
Five Freedoms poster (make your own or print off the attached version and make it a poster)
Five Freedoms handout
Post-it Notes in five different colors (red, blue, green, yellow and purple)
Sharpie pens
Candy
Activity/lesson Step by Step
Step 1 — Preparation
Print off the Five Freedoms poster and blow it up so that you can hang it on a wall in your lunch or commons area.
Step 2 — Student input
Have your editors sit at a table during lunches with the poster, Post-it Notes, markers and a bowl of candy. Use the Google Presentation slideshow if you have a projector available or print off the five slides and laminate them for student reference.
Invite students to see the five different freedoms of the First Amendment and to choose the freedom they use the most often. Make sure they see the example sheets for the five different freedoms.
Have them choose the color of the Post-it Note that corresponds with their selection and write their name on the Post-it Note.
Post the note on the poster you’ve hung up and offer the students a piece of candy once they’ve completed the task.
Extension
Have an interview booth set up and offer the students the opportunity to share the impact one of the freedoms of the First Amendment has had on them. Here, they could go more in depth and discuss their own story and what the protections of the First Amendment mean to them.
Student media staffs also could put together a story or video that includes the results and some of the quotes from students who provided them.
Read More