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…

Best practices to shape AI, journalism union

Fifteen years ago Feb. 1, 2009, copyright education centered on online term papers. Back then, USA Today reported, as did SPRC’s blog, about a court case against a company accused selling term papers online without proving content ownership. A US district judge in Illinois ordered the owner of the web-based company to stop selling term papers…

Student expression shouldn’t be foreign to journalists

To appreciate our freedom of speech and freedom of expression, travel abroad. Unfortunately, there are those in this country who think freedoms of expression need to be controlled, especially when they are extolled by students.  When we recently visited Macao our tour guide pointed to a group handing out information about their religious beliefs. The…

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…

A four part blog: News deserts

Part 2 of 4 My original blog idea started as a simple little suggestion to encourage high school student journalists to cover school board meetings and educational topics in communities without commercial media – those rural and urban areas considered news deserts. But it’s grown much bigger than that. These will be the weekly installments…

JEA Curriculum Highlight: Introducing Students to Takedown Requests

If your staff has had a website for long, they’ve probably received a request to take down something that’s been published. It might have been something the team published last year or even five years ago. In this lesson 50-minute lesson in the JEA Curriculum, students will work to understand the basic considerations of a…

A four part blog: One student journalist attempts to reach a larger audience

Emma’s story Part 1 of 4 My original blog idea started as a simple little suggestion to encourage high school student journalists to cover school board meetings and educational topics in communities without commercial media – those rural and urban areas considered news deserts. But it’s grown much bigger than that. These will be the…

Localizing Book Banning, 2023 Constitution Day Activity

Created by Scholastic Press Rights Director Kristin Taylor, MJE Focus: One of the key skills of a good reporter is the ability to localize national news. This activity can be used on Constitution Day as part of a larger discussion of students’ access to information or another time as practice localizing news. The topic: Rising…

From Ai to book banning and news deserts, Constitution Day empowers journalistic thinking

JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee wants to help you and your students celebrate their free speech rights this year. Constitution Day, observed Sept. 17 yearly in commemoration of the signing of the United States Constitution, is an excellent time to explore and discuss the status of the Constitution in today’s USA.  Bringing help to news…

A message from Marion: Attacks on press freedom have no limits

The next time you’re grousing because an administrator wants to review a story or, worse yet, an entire issue of your student publication, think of Eric Meyer. And what the heck, think of Joan Meyer too. Do the names ring a bell? Hopefully, but sadly, they should. Eric Meyer is the editor and publisher of…