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Breaking news is daunting, chaotic; focusing on ‘A-game’ is right
To many journalists, the “rush” of a breaking news story is like no other feeling as journalistic instincts kick in at a moment’s notice. Whether it’s an international, national, regional or local story, covering breaking news requires journalists to resort back to those A-game skills they learned as a student journalist. It also entails an…
Whose values? Social media algorithms and readership
Which shall shape journalism’s future? Values established by algorithms? Clickbait? Media revitalized by required journalism in schools? Democracy may hinge on which society values “Everyone is so friggin’ crazy! I’m going to quit reading the news and unsubscribe from everything,” a friend said to me. I asked what caused her despair. She is an intelligent…
It is time for student watchdogs to go to work: Racism, sexism and what is taught in schools
It’s happening in Ohio – and 26 other states. Even if it’s not in yours yet, chances are it will be. And chances are it may also impact the kinds of stories your student journalists can write. Under the guise of ensuring what’s taught in schools isn’t “divisive” or wouldn’t “sow unrest,” more than half…
Transparency helps keep air in the balloon
Al McGuire, the late basketball coach at Marquette University, used to remind folks that championship basketball wasn’t all “seashells and balloons.” I suppose you could apply that to just about anything – life, final exams, losing a close game or even journalism. No matter how many laws are passed, policies adopted and awards won, getting…
Active censorship or community protection? An LGBTQ friendly play
Two Ohio high schools have now canceled fall productions of the same LGBTQ-themed play Two points. Two Ohio public school systems. The first point is about two student performances of ‘She Kills Monsters’ killed this fall. Students at Hillsboro High School in southwestern Ohio faced the news of the play’s cancellation after rehearsals had begun,…
Free Speech Week
Which journalistic change can best enhance free expression, ensure essential information and restore trust? The past two years brought concepts previously unfamiliar to scholastic journalism: asynchronous, hybrid and Covid. Students and advisers practiced new techniques: Zoom, safe distance, remote interviews and more created individually in schools nationwide. For some journalism programs it was a time…
Keep fighting Censorship: Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week doesn’t need to be over yet Free speech is free speech, whether it’s an article students want to publish about unsanitary bathrooms or a book for an English class that delves into a sensitive – but vital — topic. We need to support everyone’s right to access or publish sometimes unpopular subjects. It’s…
Celebrate roles student news media can bring to a democratic society; honor, envision and practice free speech
JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee hopes to help you and your students celebrate their free speech rights this year. Constitution Day, observed on Sept. 17 each year in commemoration of the signing of the United States Constitution, is an excellent time to do it. This year we provide lesson materials ranging from exploring impactful, recent…
Who made the cut? Start your school year with a voices audit
One of the highest callings of journalism is to “give voice to the voiceless.” Constitution Day is a great time for journalism staffs — digital, print or hybrid — to evaluate their coverage from the year before and see how fully they’ve met that goal. Before starting the process, I suggest having students make predictions,…
Mahanoy School District v. B.L. decision bolsters democracy’s roots, future
While words shared in anger in off-campus speech by an unhappy student might not seem to have lasting democratic value, they do. Expressing them and other views provides foundation for our marketplace of ideas, and reaffirms protection for unpopular and unpleasant ideas. In Mahanoy School District v. B.L., The U. S. Supreme Court decided 8-1…
The fight for First Amendment rights has escalated
Needless to say, a staple in any beginning journalism course is (or should be) understanding the First Amendment. Many educators go to great lengths, and rightfully so, to make sure their students know the five freedoms guaranteed (religion, speech, press, assembly, petition). The 45 words are engrained in our, and hopefully our student’s, heads from…
B.L. v. Mahanoy: A New Case in Scholastic Journalism Law
WATCH ORAL ARGUMENTS OF THIS CASE ON C-SPAN APRIL 28, 2021. In what may be the most pivotal case regarding student free expression in more than a decade, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided in B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District that administrators may not regulate off-campus speech by students if it does not cause disruption of…