The Latest

Ad Placement QT53

Newspapers used to keep in-depth, front page and opinion pages completely separated from advertising. The thinking was the advertising and promotion of products should not appear to influence a newspaper’s editorial choices. They wanted to keep their most important pages dedicated to the content they deemed most important. These self-imposed guidelines have relaxed significantly in…

Never doubt the reality and power
of the First Amendment

by Stan Zoller, MJE It’s a staple of any journalism curriculum. It’s on T-shirts. It’s on ties. It’s on posters and protestor’s signs. It’s on our minds. But is it in our hearts? It is the First Amendment. Attention to the First Amendment has escalated lately with the number of walkouts and demonstrations by students…

Celebration and grief: Parkland journalists embody importance of student voices during Scholastic Journalism Week

by Kristin Taylor Normally, Scholastic Journalism Week is about celebrating the hard work of student journalists around the country. JEA spotlights great student coverage, publications staffs wear journalism t-shirts and sweatshirts and show off their mastery of the First Amendment. We make videos to share the inner workings of student newsrooms and get our communities…

Handling sponsored content, native ads QT52  

Although it is quite possible scholastic media will never face making a decision to run material known as sponsored content or native ads, students and advisers should prepare guidelines just in case. Sponsored content and native advertising, two media terms for paid materials, are becoming a fact of life for media and consumers. That said,…

Handling controversial ads/content QT51

Student media should not discriminate against advertising based on students’ personal beliefs. For example, students should attempt to include advertisers from multiple perspectives. According to the federal court decision in Yeo v. Lexington, student editors have the right to reject advertisements and school administrators are not legally responsible for advertising decisions students make. A potential…

SJW-Foundations Friday

FRIDAY: Foundations Friday: Given current events, including the New Voices movement, students should work to ensure their voices are heard.  By adopting policies and guidelines that are student voice friendly in policy and practice, schools can further embrace empowerment of student voices and authority.

Promoting scholastic press rights legislation: A Blueprint for Success

Thursday, Feb 22 INTRODUCTION Educate, advocate, empower: The mission of JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee is clear, active and powerful – the same traits we look for in successful school journalism programs. As the committee looked to put its mission into action, it worked to honor requests from a number of advisers across the country…

Scholastic Journalism Week: A chance to showcase your voices. Updated daily

Scroll down to see today’s post Student voice, student choice. JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee works to promote this theme of the 2018 Scholastic Journalism Week. We’ll take the week to highlight some SPRC materials daily. Monday, teachers who are looking for some last-minute lesson plans to fit with the theme of embracing students’ First…

Keeping ads and content separate QT50

Student journalists should maintain a wall between promotional/paid content and journalistic content. That historical wall should remain intact to help reassure audiences the content they receive is as thorough and complete as possible. As Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel say in The Elements of Journalism, journalists’ first loyalty is to the truth while maintaining an…

Consider emotional impact as well as news values
when choosing images QT49

Censorship should not be an option by Kristin Taylor When the editors of the Panther Prowler, the student-run school newspaper for Newbury Park High School, decided to write a feature article about teenagers having sex in 2015, they knew it was going to be controversial. The controversy wasn’t just about the content of the article,…

Be relentless and read the fine print

by Stan Zoller, MJE Sometime in its advertising history, Hewlett-Packard, now known simply as H-P because people were in too much of a hurry to spell the entire name out, had a campaign that touted its corporate innovation. Quite simply, all it said was “At Hewlett-Packard, we never stop saying ‘What If. “ The concept…

Seeking visual truth is just as important
as written truth QT48

by Kristin Taylor A reporter working on a story pauses from her transcription. “Hm,” she thinks. “This is a good quote, but my source could have said it so much better. I’ll just change it around and add a bit …” By this point, responsible student journalists and their advisers are horrified. Of course you…