Insights
Covering protests: Do’s and Don’ts of the biggest story this year
One of the biggest news stories this month is the protests on a growing number of college campuses. Not surprisingly, if these are near your school – or maybe even if they are not – your media staffs have considered covering them. They’re certainly newsworthy: timeliness, significance, in many cases proximity and maybe even some…
Ungagging your reporting is essential for transparency, accountability
Want to get your news consumers to read a story? Give them a good, no great, lede. A good lede will not only get them to read a story, but may very well captivate them as well. But this piece isn’t about lede writing. It’s from the Society of Professional Journalists’ update to its ongoing…
From the SPRC vaults
It’s that time of the year again. Potentially, a time for fools, wills and disasters instead of credibility. Issues raised often irk groups and individual alike. Others laugh and downplay the falsity. Created by the famous, everyday citizens and a few who want to be comedians, the spread of publishing such ideas and events challenge…
Tomorrow’s Nellie Bly may be working on student media today
Two high school students, participants in the Dow Jones News Fund workshop at Kent State University in 2001, interview each other for the first story they had to write. Getting an early start as a journalist was a big plus in for many women journalists, including Katie Couric, who interned at the all-news Washington, D.C. radio…
SJW: Celebrate & rejuvenate
Let the fireworks – figuratively or real – begin For now is the time of JEA’s Student Journalism Week and all it can do to further democratic ideals. For 100 years, JEA’s mission has been to support free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational opportunities for students and advisers across the country….
Scholastic Journalism as the Fourth Estate
Student Journalists can play the role of District and Community Watchdogs New Jersey has launched multiple legislative initiatives designed to strengthen our democratic institutions. Consider the following bills signed into law in the last few years: Civics Education Expansion to Middle Schools (7/23/21): “By deepening civics instruction in middle school and high school, we are…
Students win money, school board rejects it; Issues create story planning activity
When Lynchburg, Virginia’s public school board rejected a $10,000 grant students had applied for and won — and the board had already approved — more than one group was upset. An unnamed board member told news media board members have received death threats and hate mail because of their decision. Students were upset because they…