JEA board of directors endorses National News Engagement Day
The Journalism Education Association Board of Directors endorsed National News Engagement Day in a 6-0 vote Sept. 30.
The resolution encourages JEA members to participate in the inaugural event Oct. 7, 2014. National News Engagement Day is a program of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
“Being the largest association for scholastic journalism education in the world, it makes total sense for JEA to support news engagement,” said JEA President Mark Newton, MJE. “Every day JEA members teach students to engage in creating and consuming news. It’s what we do, and we should be active in any program that supports those efforts.”
According to its website, AEJMC established National News Engagement Day to lead efforts to make engaging with news a national priority again.
“We are proud to support the efforts of our sister organization,” Newton said. “We know our members will engage their students, colleagues and one another and celebrate the news in every medium. The new JEA curriculum is perfect for this.”
JEA will promote a common social media hashtag for its members and their students to share how they’re engaging with the news Oct. 7. JEA members are encouraged to add #JEA to the event’s official hashtag is #newsengagementday.
The resolution states:
Whereas, the Journalism Education Association (JEA) is the largest scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers, who work tirelessly to engage students in producing and consuming the news;
Whereas, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) promotes the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education;
Whereas, both JEA and AEJMC vigorously defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a more informed public;
Whereas, AEJMC is leading an effort to make engaging with news a national priority by sponsoring the first National News Engagement Day Tuesday, October 7;
Whereas, the JEA mission in general, and curriculum specifically, encourages students to read, watch, like, tweet, post, text, email, listen to or comment on news freely and responsibly to better understand how to create and consume news, a significant part of National News Engagement Day;
Be it resolved that JEA endorses the National News Engagement Day and encourages JEA members to participate.