The Latest

Accepting guest commentaries
enhances forum role QT 39

Accepting guest commentaries, offered randomly, reinforces student media’s role as a public forum for student expression. This would not include the creation of stranding guest columns for administrations, faculty or other school or city officials. Students should develop guidelines for accepting guest commentaries following the same legal and ethical guides they follow. Guideline: Guest commentaries…

Obstacles and criticism can inspire

by Lindsay Coppens, adviser of The Harbinger, Algonquin Regional High School, Northborough, MA Being a scholastic journalist or publication adviser isn’t always easy. Sure, there are days when everything falls into place and journalists are thanked and congratulated for their hard work. However, if each print issue or online post was easy to produce and…

Empowerment, making a difference,
is REAL news

Censored news is fake news by Candace Bowen, MJE Nearly half of U.S. voters think media fabricate news stories about President Donald Trump and his administration, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released this fall. Commercial media have been trying to drive that number down, but they’re going to need help from journalists too young…

The importance of staff edits:
critical thinking, leadership QT 38

Student editors are busy. In addition to leading their staffs, making publication decisions and helping reporters, they are likely also still reporting and creating their own news content — not to mention carrying a full academic high school load. Given all of these responsibilities, it’s easy to see why writing an unsigned staff editorial might…

Choosing topics for editorials QT37

The best and most effective staff editorials are those that tackle an important topic and then give audiences a reason and a way to address it. Staff editorials should concern local or localized issues for the student body and/or school community. They may advocate, solve a problem or commend. Guidelines Staff editorials should concern local…

FAPFA deadline Dec. 15

Five days. 120 hours. 45words. That’s the time left to submit your Round 1 application for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award and reaffirm your school’s support for the First Amendment. We have received several applications with only one entry (2 are required). Please check and submit your second entry. Even if we recognized your…

When sources don’t respond QT35

Guideline: The publication staff will provide every reasonable opportunity for sources to respond to a request for an interview. Students must first attempt to contact the source in person or through an administrative assistant. If the person is not available, they should attempt calling and leaving a message with a request for an in-person interview….

The perks of being a wallflower:
How a school district escaped a lawsuit
by fostering an independent student press QT36

Quick Tips: Student First Amendment Rights Yeo v. Town of Lexington (1997) in the First Circuit Court of Appeals   by Jan Ewell Because Lexington High School students made all the editorial, business and staffing decisions for both the LHS Yearbook and the school paper, a suit against the district failed. The school’s superintendent, principal, the…

Making a case for press freedom
in private schools

by Kristin Taylor, CJE Private school students do not have First Amendment protections, but that doesn’t mean they have no options. In fact, some private high school students enjoy robust press freedom. I am fortunate to advise a program at a school that has won the First Amendment Press Freedom Award the past two years….

Handling online comments QT34

Deciding whether to accept online comments can be a tough decision they can carry a lot of baggage. How to review and verify them? How does refusing to run them affect your forum status? And that’s only the first decision. Next come a choice of approving them before posting or posting the then reviewing, which…

Social media that works
in high school newsrooms QT33

Social media has had such a profound effect on journalism that it’s sometimes hard to remember how traditional news functioned before it. Reading this 2009 MediaShift article is a powerful reminder that Twitter wasn’t always the source of breaking news. In fact, as author Julie Posetti wrote just eight years ago, “Some employers are either…

Reflections on the Dallas convention

by Cyndi Hyatt Everything really is BIG in Texas. And the 2017 JEA/NSPA convention in Dallas was no exception. More than 5,000 attendees celebrated student journalism.  I was awed and inspired by the BIG voices of the student journalists whose passion and enthusiasm for what they do is more important than ever. The Dallas conference…