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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…