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Focusing our efforts

Posted by on Dec 28, 2010 in Blog, Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching | 0 comments

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JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission will meet Jan.5-7 at the Poynter Institute to work on and develop commission projects to  better serve members, their students and communities in terms of press rights and responsibilities.

Some of the topics commission members are considering are:

• Brainstorming and implementing a “blast outreach campaign” to students about their rights and responsibilities. Involves creating the materials and the delivery system. (Could be in parts for those involved in media and those not involved in media)

• Assembling a teaching module of questions to raise before censorship becomes an issue. (We already have ethical situations that can be worked into this)(Web/online-based)

• Seek input on 1-3 “ethical situations you wish you had answers to” using the listserv; Asking the question and compiling a way to make it available. Involves identifying the questions and creating the answers. Good resource could be Kelly McBride if she is to be there.

• A multimedia version of the wallet card concept: “Break Open in Case of Emergency” and develop and create it at Poynter.

• Create an outreach package to commercial journalists urging them to become involved with blog and/or information to scholastic journalists. Materials and package.

• Create a package to ask advisers “What questions do you ask when trying to get students to act ethically.” This could be commission produced and come from a listserv survey; compiled and prepared for distribution.

We would also like your input. What might you want us to develop that would best meet your needs?  Candace talked about sites to find lessons, activities and situations yesterday, but could we develop other projects to directly help you?

Let us know

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First Amendment Press Freedom Award

Posted by on Nov 17, 2010 in Blog, Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching | 0 comments

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If you and your students attended the JEA/NSPA convention this past week in KC, you are aware of the courageous fight some teachers and advisers wage against censorship. In some cases they kept their student media operating as designated forums for student expression or as practicing forums for student expression.

Others still continue to fight the good fight. We would like to increase recognition of such programs.

To achieve this, JEA, NSPA, CSPA and Quill & Scroll sponsor the First Amendment Press Freedom Award. Deadline for applying is Dec. 1. To find out more about the award and download an application go here.

If your student media are open forums by policy or practice, please apply. We would love to recognize more of you.

And, if you are forums for student expression, please let us know so we can list your student media as such on Kent State’s Center for Scholastic Journalism website. Recognition forms can be downloaded there.

For other news on current censorship issues:

• The student paper Minnesota Catholic school administrators don’t want seen

• School pulls op-ed pieces (includes links to the student media website)

• Catholic school administrators delete editorials from student media

• Parents challenge school’s ban of  “I heart boobies” bracelets

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Looking to meet your needs

Posted by on Oct 15, 2010 in Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching | 0 comments

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Concerns bounced around the JEA listserv this week:
• Who owns the copyright of student media work?
• How to best answer ethical concerns about controversial stories?
• What should a class in editorial leadership contain?
• How do student media handle requests not to picture some students?

Questions like these prompted JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission to address some of these questions and others by planning to create short information pieces on topics like these.

The Commission will begin work on these topics at a retreat in January. In the meantime, we would like to hear from you about what legal and ethical topics you want answers for, directions on or just information about.

As you can see from the examples, not all questions need address strictly legal or ethical concerns.

Help us prepare a set of one-page summaries on topics you feel are important. Post your topic suggestions here as comments.

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Meet the Press Rights student partners

Posted by on May 3, 2010 in Blog, News | 0 comments

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Thanks to JEA member Bryan Farley, you can see the kick-off of the Scholastic Press Rights Commission Student Partners project. His blog, “More Than Kids: Understanding People Through Photography,” includes links to photos of the group’s booth at the Portland convention.

Three of the high school students able to attend the convention were Ted Noelker (Central Focus, managing editor of multimedia) of Francis Howell Central High School, St. Charles, Mo.; Zoe Newcomb (The Broadview, news editor) of Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco; and Meghan Morris (The Spoke, assistant managing editor) of Conestoga High School, Berwyn, Pa.

These three spent time at the booth, talking to other students and letting them know about their 45words initiative, which is designed to support their peers when it comes to First Amendment issues. They also promoted their Editor’s Emergency Toolkit.

Other student partners are Morgan Brewster (The Mustang Express, multimedia editor) of Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, Ariz.; Christopher Kim (The Tiger Times and Kaleidoscope, copy editor) of Seoul International School, Seoul, Korea; Zachary Knudson (The Crier, managing editor) from St. Francis (Minn.) High School; Sara Rogers (The Hi-Lite, cover story editor) from Carmel (Ind.) High School; and Joseph Weber (The Kirkwood Call, features writer) Kirkwood (Mo.) High School.

Already members of the group have reached out to students at schools facing censorship and prior review situations, offering support and suggestions. They plan to host a booth at the JEA/NSPA Kansas City convention in November. In the meantime, follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

Also enjoy Farley’s blog post about the First Amendment. I don’t know how he does it, but he does. (And you’ll have to read the blog to understand what that means….)

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And the number keeps growing

Posted by on Oct 7, 2009 in Blog, Hazelwood, Law and Ethics, News, Scholastic Journalism, Teaching | 0 comments

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As much as we don’t want to see it or accept it, the number of student media being restrained grows rapidly.

For instance:

• In Boonville, Mo, the superintendent stopped distribution of The Pirate Press reportedly because the paper had not been reviewed as it was supposed to be. Coverage in the local paper did not report reasons for the stoppage in its first article. Look for an update soon.

• In Arizona, former student journalists are pursuing legal action in an attempt to continue fighting censorship of their high school’s newspaper.

• In Oregon, an student editorial on a community project so angered a former school board member he threatened the adviser and administrators now require all articles, including editorials, to be bylined.

If you are aware of more instance like these, please let us know using this blog’s comments or contact the SPLC or JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission.

The more we know about censorship and its ally prior review, the more we help each other to fight them.

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