Apply for First Amendment recognition
Applications are now available for this year’s First Amendment Press Freedom Award (FAPFA).
Careful preparation creates
strong mission statements
Part 2 of a series on pieces of the journalism puzzle: Mission Statements
by Candace and John Bowen
A mission statement defines your student media, shows your audience what’s important to you and helps them see why you do what you do. It’s not easy to write an effective one.
When JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee set it out write a sample mission statement to share, the 10 of us didn’t realize what a challenge this would be. Sure, it would take some tweaking and some discussions when this many writers work together. But we came to find out it was more than that.
[pullquote]We think you need a mission statement, and we think ours is worth consideration.[/pullquote]
The following is the model we finally agreed was best – though not perfect. We knew, for instance, we didn’t want to post a mission statement and have schools everywhere think it’s the only option. Schools are different: the student staffs, the advisers and the audiences have variations that show not one size fits all.
So here is our contribution. We think you need a mission statement, and we think ours is worth consideration. But we also share some points to think about as you write your own from scratch or adapt what we offered you.
• Audience engagement. Think about the importance of getting your audience to think and hopefully to act. Your mission should be to create media to get and keep them involved.
• Journalistic responsibility. Point out the basis of solid journalism you want as the very heart of your media: truth, integrity, completeness and accuracy.
• Additional reporting basics. Make sure your audience knows it can trust you because you also offer context to put reporting in perspective, verification that shows you double-checked, coherence that ensures it makes sense and presents all relevant information.
• Ethical reporting and editing. To complete the reporting process, present your work ethically and to professional standards for your audiences.
• Student-determined content. It should make a difference to your audience that students are in charge and decide all content for your student media. It definitely makes a difference to courts, too.
• Diversity of ideas and representation. It’s not just one clique that runs your student media. All voices contribute ideas and have representation in your media.
• Platform consistency. It’s not a newspaper policy and a separate Web, yearbook or TV station policy. As all media providers realize they are connected and each telling a story in the best way possible, it’s important the school’s media share the same policies and ethical approaches.
• School mission statement connection. It shouldn’t be surprising that school mission statements often mention the same points student media do: building thinking citizens, preparing students for democracy, etc. Tie parts of your media mission statement to those as well.
Our model, then, would look like this:
_____________ (school name) student media provide complete and accurate coverage, journalistically responsible, ethically gathered, edited and reported. Student-determined expression promotes democratic citizenship through public engagement diverse in both ideas and representation.
Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 3: Points to avoid in mission statements
Part 4: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation
Read More
Join us Aug. 31 to learn more about Constitution Day
Need Constitution Day celebration ideas? Join us Aug. 31 at 7 CDT as we highlight several ways to celebrate.
Here’s where it will take place: http://bit.ly/1fX9OHd
Members of JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee will lead the session. So far, we have Lori Keekley, Jeff Kocur, Chris Waugaman and John Bowen.
That’s 7 p.m. CDT, Aug. 31, at http://bit.ly/1fX9OHd.
Read MoreWhat ‘s banned in your neighborhood?
Banned Websites Awareness Week brings
chance to examine extent of Internet filtering
According to a new report from the American Library Association, Internet-filtering software blocks more content than required and deprives students of access to information and collaborative tools
Titled Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) 10 Years Later, the report also argues those children most affected are the poor, who might not otherwise have unfiltered Internet Access if they cannot access it at school.
JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee would like to see how journalism programs currently fare in today’s filtered high schools.
We urge you to complete the linked survey to see what your schools filters block, either for your students or for other classes in your school.
Students surfing the Web themselves or interviewing others who do can provide students with a worthwhile experience in news literacy as they become informed about information availability and how that affects society’s knowledge and ability to act on that knowledge.
We hope this survey will gather enough representative information to allow JEA and others to design strategies to help journalism programs work in a less filtered environment.
This lesson plan by Lori Keekley can add structure to your searching.
Survey instructions:
- Click here to go to the survey.
- Each student or adviser should complete a separate form.
- Each form allows the student or adviser to identify multiple blocked sites
- Submit the results of your surveys from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3
- Submit all forms by Oct. 3
- If you gathered any of your information using audio or video or have any visual reporting, please feel free to share that with us here
- Use links on the accompanying graphic to access Internet filtering
- JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee will post information about the results in the near future
- Publish results of your own surveys to show the local impact of filtering and share with us
- If you have questions or run into problems, contact us here
Tweet15: Know how to use public records
You have the right to information. Know how to use public records. #25HZLWD http://jeasprc.org/tweet15-know-how-to-use-public-records
Open records—in other words, the government information that is accessible to the public— vary by state. Sometimes, finding exactly what is public in your state is simply a matter of knowing what state statute details this information. Use the links below to find out which statute in your state gives more information:
http://www.splc.org/legalassistance/foiletter.asp
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=15
Then, once you’ve identified a record you would like access to, make a verbal request first. If the record isn’t forthcoming, use the Student Press Law Center’s Freedom of Information letter generator to request your record:
http://www.splc.org/legalassistance/foiletter.asp
Sometimes, school officials will not release information because they claim it violates FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). Use the link below to better understand what records are closed under FERPA, and what records you legally should have the right to access:
http://www.splc.org/pdf/ferpa_wp.pdf