What is the purpose of your student publication?

Pie graphic with the elements of a student media mission statement. The graphic has a sand background. The pie sections are in shades of JEA purple and red. It contains the JEA logo in the lower right corner. The text headline reads "What is the purpose of your student publication?" The pie sections read, "Audience Engagement," "Journalistic Responsibility," "Reporting Basics," "Ethical Reporting & Editing," Student-determined Content," "Diversity of Ideas & Representation," "Platform Consistency," and "School Mission Connection."

Developing student-led mission statements and a culture covering stories that matter can serve both school and local communities. By Tom McHale Many years ago, I was confronted by an angry parent after a long production meeting. She felt her daughter, an editor, spent too much time working on the paper. “This isn’t the New York…

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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…

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JEA Curriculum Highlight: Introducing Students to Takedown Requests

Photo of a person holding an Ipad that has a newsreel on

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…

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Student journalists can tackle current, key issues

For 19 days now, Ohioans anywhere near East Palestine, a town with close to 4,700 residents near the Pennsylvania state line, tried to grasp the Norfolk Southern train’s derailment impact on their futures and those of their town. Today, Feb. 22, Northern Ohioans and others in the proximity of railroad tracks, might have reason to…

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Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School Policy Statement of Policy on Student Media

The Lion’s Tale – Press Rights Protocol I. Introduction/Statement of Policy Freedom of expression and press freedom are fundamental values in a democratic society. As an educational institution committed to preparing engaged and responsible citizens, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School believes in teaching students these values, both by lesson and by example.  CESJDS…

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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…

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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…

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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,…

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After 234 years, Hamilton’s words remain spot on

When Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers in 1787, odds are more than pretty good that scholastic journalism wasn’t on their minds.  Safe bet. In one of the 51 essays he wrote, Hamilton noted that “…A government continually at a distance and out of sight can hardly be expected to…

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January 6: Reporting on mobs, coup, insurrection, protest, riot, patriots

While JEA condemns attack on the Capitol Jan. 6, it also urged journalism teachers and advisers to continue facilitating fact-based journalism, especially of locally-related issues. To help students and advisers with that coverage, The SPRC highlights information and ideas that can assist in exploring current events or national issues. JEA commended journalism educators, president Sarah…

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