November 2009 Stet

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COVER PHOTO

MIPA Newspaper Individual Category Contest First Place, Sports Photo David Inwald Wylie E. Groves HS

Congress shall make no law respecting an Michigan Interscholastic Press Association establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free November 2009 exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people Vol. 37, No. 1 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. www.mipamsu.org

INSIDE Teacher Intern Wrap-Up

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Middle School Teacher: Journalism is Key

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Ken Winter Reviews “Losing the News”

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Stet The President’s Column

Stet going online

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Jeremy Van Hof DeWitt HS

f you are reading this, you represent all that is wrong with the journalism of today.

You are a tech-savvy, culturally aware consumer of the media, and you are beginning to rely more and more on the web for your information.

At the same time, MIPA wants to cut costs, so we’ve moved STET into an on-line only format. We couldn’t justify the printing and mailing costs, we felt the web was a faster distribution method, we presumed that enough media advisers in the state had Internet access to keep readership up.

Does all this sound familiar? It should, because it’s what’s happening in news rooms around the globe.

Readers are changing rapidly, becoming ever more connected both with each other and with a global media network that streams stories to them 24/7 for free. In response, newspapers and magazines are struggling to survive.

Institutions like “Gourmet Magazine” and the “Ann Arbor News” are no more—in part because subscription and advertising began to dry up, and in part because they could not figure out a way to make their online outlets viable.

These are the realities of the

MIPA OFFICERS 2009–2010

President, Jeremy Van Hof, DeWitt HS 1st Vice President, Lynn Strause, retired, East Lansing HS 2nd Vice President, C.E. Sikkenga, Grand Haven HS Secretary, Kim Kozian, L’Anse Creuse HS North Treasurer, Brian Wilson, Waterford Kettering HS Trustee, Tim Morley, Inland Lakes HS Trustee, Sue Spalding, Quincy HS Trustee, Pam Bunka, Fenton HS Newspaper Chair, Julie Price, Haslett HS Yearbook Chair, Lynn Strause, East Lansing HS Broadcast Chair, Diane Herder, Laingsburg HS Legislative Chair, Gloria Olman, retired, Utica HS Workshop Chair, Betsy Pollard Rau, retired, H.H. Dow HS Middle School Chair, Jenny Birmelin, Orchard Lake MS Hall of Fame Chair, Jeff Nardone, Grosse Pointe South HS Immediate Past President, Rod Satterthwaite, Dexter HS Executive Director, Cheryl Pell, Michigan State University MIPA Office, Jayna Salk, Christina Miteff, MSU students

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media world for which we are training our students. High school publication advisers—both for newspaper and yearbook alike—need to realize that in order to properly train our students for successful careers in the media we must train them to thrive in an on-line world.

We must understand multi-media news gathering, we must embrace the Internet and social media, and we must try to stay ahead of the curve regardless of the speed at which it seems to be advancing.

Rather than focusing on all the negative news surrounding the news, then, it might be worthwhile to start to examine carefully all that is good about these new and converging media. Here is just a short list that highlights some of the positive things about the new trends in media.

1) Online content is everywhere and it is easier than ever to get published. We are experts at getting our students to do the hard work of reporting and writing stories, but the audience that sees their work has historically been very small.

Finding online outlets that publish citizen journalists’ work or moving the school newspaper online are two easy ways to exponentially

ABOUT STET Stet is the official newsletter of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, an agency of the School of Journalism at Michigan State University.

Stet is published four times a year by the MIPA executive director and MSU students.

Send letters to the editor and advertising inquiries to mipa@msu. edu. The MIPA Web site is maintained

by Cheryl Pell.

Web site: www.mipamsu.org MIPA 305 Communication Arts Building Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1212

grow the number of people that read our students’ work and to add authenticity to their reporting.

2) Online media allows a platform to teach important content in a new a relevant setting. Hard to teach subjects such as copyright law, invasion of privacy law, media ethics, news judgment, and First Amendment theory are made immediately more relevant when presented in the context of the Internet.

Students are creatures of the online world now. They think in online terms and will be more able to understand the ethics of publishing a photo or the laws surrounding censorship when those topics are presented as central themes in the online age. Additionally design theory, typography, use of color, and photography are all imminently teachable in an online setting.

3) Online content is more satisfying to readers. Students no longer go to a single source to get information. A music buff follows dozens of online music magazines, downloads tracks from a variety of sites, buys concert tickets from whatever Web site offers the lowest transaction fee, watches music videos on YouTube, and does it all on her cell Please see PRESIDENT, page 6

MIPA CALENDAR Dec. 15, 2009 Late yearbook deadline Jan 25, 2010 Advisers courses begin Feb. 19, 2010 Individual newspaper, yearbook and video contest entries due Feb. 26, 2010 One-day workshop March 6, 2010 Judging Day April 30, 2010 Spring Conference at Lansing Center

TEACHER INTERNS The teacher internship program doubled its numbers in 2009

LORENA CRAIGHEAD n Journalism teacher,

Renaissance HS in Detroit.

n Interned at Metro Times n Any favorite stories? . . .

a review I pitched of Jamie Register & The Glendales performance/ new album at Cliff Bells. My editor hacked it up terribly and the final version was sanitized and shortened for the web. From that I learned what my students go through with me and I appreciate them so much more for it. My news staffers have really become my greatest teachers. n Best advice to students: Work at as many different publications as you can. There is something monumental to be learned from each one.

Be honest about things you do not know, but be kind and offer the things that you know well.

MARILYN HESS

HARRY KATOPODIS

n Journalism/English teacher, Plainwell HS

n Journalism/English teacher, Highland Park Community HS

n Interned at The Grand Rapids Press n Fifth

year teaching and second year as adviser of The Trojan Torch, student newspaper. n First day experience: I was excited. I wasn’t as nervous because I had been to the newsroom for an interview and had been required to do a ‘trial story’ before the internship actually began. n Best advice to students: I would tell students to take advantage of any opportunities like this that come their way.

Journalism gives you great life skills. I would also tell them that Journalism may be changing but it’s not dying. I think knowing that I had this experience makes my students a little more receptive to whatever writing or reporting advice I’m giving them.

Interned at Oakland Press n

n First day experience: My feelings could best be described as nervous excitement. I was excited because I would experience the life of a reporter at a daily newspaper for a month and I was nervous about whether I would do a good job. There wasn’t much time for me to think about being nervous because within moments of arriving at the paper a story about a drowning was assigned to me and within an hour I had my first story online. n Important thing learned: Observing how the paper operated and asking questions was very educational for me.

My editor was very easy to work with and my writing and especially my lead writing improved as I picked up tips from several editors and reporters.

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ix journalism teachers got to experience a four-week internship at a newsroom of their choice last summer, thanks to a program sponsored by the Michigan Press Association Foundation and the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association.

This was the second year of the program. Three teachers participated in 2008.

The skills teachers learned in the newsroom will be forwarded to their students, said Janet Mendler from the MPA Foundation and a key force behind the program.

“They become learners by being in a new environment, and it became a role reversal. And for some of them it was eye-opening,” Mendler said. By Juliet Wang

JENNIFER RICHARDSON n Teacher

at East Jordan HS for 13 years but journalism only for the last two n Interned

at the

Petoskey News-Review

n Journalism advice: Double check everything! n Best part of internship: I am continuing to freelance for the News-Review, and I’m really glad to have connections there to link my students to.

Plus, my students think it’s really cool when they see my work in print.

KATE SALVADORE

LAURA WRIGHT

n Teacher at South Lyon East HS

n Journalism teacher at West Senior HS in Traverse City for more than five years

n Interned at the South Lyon Herald and the Northville Record n This is her third year of teaching and all three years she has taught journalism. n During your internship, what was your favorite story to work on and why?

I had to write a feature about a group of Home Depot employees fixing up a school’s landscaping. During an interview, the subject started interviewing me! We ended up talking about a half hour about passion and people. He had to have been at least 65 years old, and he told me two of the greatest qualities in life are to be able to really listen to someone and to find passion in life. I had never really taken time to think about that much and it is some advice that will stick with me in my reporting and beyond.

n Interned at Traverse City Record-Eagle n First day experience: On my first day, I felt a little overwhelmed. I walked in, was shown to a desk. Then, I was “introduced”to a former student, who was going to be my “mentor.” Talk about rolereversal. Once I logged into the computer, and was shown the software, my editor walked over and handed me a press-release.

I was thrown into the water and had to swim from the first minute of day one. n Best advice to students: I’ve given my students tons of tid-bits since returning—always make sure you have photo information, has been the biggest one.

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The developmental gap between one student and another is huge. Some boys are six feet tall and shaving; others look like they still need their afternoon nap. Braces abound. Tears are a daily occurrence—and not just among girls. But in journalism class, all students—the dude guys and the misfits, the future homecoming court and the socially awkward—share a common goal. By Kathryn Messina

WHY JOURNALISM IN THE

MIDDLE SCHOOL ROCKS T

Kathryn Messina graduated from MSU with a degree in journalism in 1982 and worked in public relations in Dallas for 10 years.

After that, she was a freelance writer, specializing in ghost writing for engineers. In 2003, she began pursuing her teaching certification, and for the past three years, she has been teaching language arts at East Middle School in Traverse City. She is in her second year of newspaper advising and pursuing a master’s degree in journalism at MSU.

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hree students huddle over a layout, arguing over which story deserves the front page.

Another revises her article on state testing. Two others goof off in the corner. It’s a typical student newsroom, but this is middle school. The oldest student in the room is 13; the youngest is 11.

There were only 14 middle schools in MIPA compared with 178 high schools last year. In my town, there are two public middle schools, two charter middle schools and two private middle schools. Of these, mine is the only one that publishes a paper. But there are some big practical, social and academic advantages to developing a middle school journalism program.

Social divides are bridged.

High school is rough for some kids. Middle school’s even worse.

The developmental gap between one student and another is huge.

Some boys are six feet tall and shaving; others look like they still need their afternoon nap. Braces abound. Tears are a daily occurrence—and not just among girls.

But in journalism class, all

students—the dude guys and the misfits, the future homecoming court and the socially awkward— share a common goal. Athletic ability, skateboarding skills, and fashion sense don’t matter.

Though they may not sit together at lunch, in the newsroom the football quarterback and Napoleon Dynamite talk, laugh and consult each other on story angles.

They’re friends—at least for those 55 minutes. This happens in high school programs too, but the successful navigation of the middle school social scene builds confidence at a critical developmental stage.

Young writers have an authentic audience. Middle school students often fail to see value in taking writing beyond the first draft. With good reason. The only audience for most in-school writing is the English teacher who reads it, grades it and hands it back with a few comments in the margins.

But when students write for the newspaper, they know their peers, teachers and parents will read their stories. That puts their writing out there in a way that is impossible to simulate in a lan-

guage arts classroom. These young reporters listen to editor and teacher input with little, if any, argument. They take instruction in grammar, spelling and sentence structure seriously and are willing to write and rewrite as many times as necessary. For perhaps the first time in their lives, seventh and eighth graders see themselves not as students, but as writers. When they develop that identity so early, it just might stick.

Journalism develops middle schoolers’ life skills. Reporters of any age must be resourceful and assertive. They must find sources, look them in the eye, introduce themselves, shake hands and ask intelligent questions.

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or the average 12and 13-year-old, any one of those tasks is far outside his comfort zone. In December, I’m still telling kids they can’t take a friend with them to conduct an interview. The idea of approaching a relative stranger without a wingman is intimidating even after four months of training. But the maturity that develops over the year as

these young journalists learn they can develop a good line of questioning, approach interview subjects and take charge of the interview—without peer support— inspires me.

Listening skills are improved.

Every day, I tell my seventh grade language arts students to open their books to page 67 while I point to that same information written in large letters on the board. And every day at least one student raises his/her hand and asks what page to turn to. A minute later, another student requests the page number.

Listening is not a highly developed skill in the typical middle schooler. But a successful interviewer asks thoughtful follow-up questions, probes for more information and looks for the right quote—all of which require active, conscious listening. That single ability makes them better journalists. Even more importantly, it makes them better students, better friends and better people.

Middle schoolers become aware citizens. Any good journalism program requires students to be aware of current events. For the average middle schooler, the

world ceases to exist outside the walls of his or her school and home. They might follow a sports team or be aware of a pop star’s latest faux pas, but ask them the name of the vice president of the United States, and you’ll get a blank look. But when they begin to pay attention to national and international events, they become involved and aware citizens. That awareness, once raised, is hard to shut down. And that’s a beautiful thing.

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iddle school journalists have a head start in high school.

College is competitive and those who wait until their junior or even sophomore year in high school to take it seriously are already behind. But the middle schooler who graduates from eighth grade informed about the world around him/her and able to write a compelling, coherent sentence is far ahead of most of his or her peers.

Middle school journalists can find good story ideas and follow them through, meet and engage

interview subjects and listen to those around them. They know how to meet a deadline. Teenagers aside, there are many adults without those skills.

Good middle school journalism programs crank out well-prepared high school reporters. After a year or two of journalism class, students have a ready arsenal of interviewing techniques. They have a news sense and are able to localize stories. They have basic writing skills, understand the format of a news story and a feature story and know the difference between the two. If those skills are learned in middle school, the high school teacher has a trained staff from day one. Because they already possess basic journalism skills, who knows how much further students can go under the guidance of an enthusiastic high school journalism teacher who doesn’t have to spend September and October teaching fundamentals?

No other class matches journalism in terms of rigor and relevance, the two watchwords in education. Rigor is inherent in planning a publication, developing and writing stories on deadline

and living with the results of the published issue. And there is nothing more relevant than writing about events that directly impact students. Instead of analyzing literature written by “dead white guys” or solving simulated story problems in math—not that those activities are without value—journalism students write about life’s issues.

My students, whose ages range from 11 to 13, are working on stories about the effect of divorce, the increase in homeless students and the pros and cons of achieving high school credit in eighth grade. These topics are relevant to them in a way that estimating when two trains will cross paths while traveling at speeds of X and Y is not. Most importantly, a middle school journalism program molds identities and futures in a way that can’t be measured

by MEAP scores or district achievement tests. Middle school journalism teachers have the chance to influence and shape young people before they acquire the protective veneer necessary for high school. And isn’t that why we became teachers in the first place?

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BOOK CORNER

&NEWS

NOTES

By Ken Winter

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Students at the Oct. 19 Fall Conference get a chance to have their publications critiqued by advisers. Sue Spalding, MIPA board member from Quincy HS, coordinated the critiques.

Middle school students enjoy seeing what they captured on the Flip camera, thanks to speakers Jeremy Whiting and Jesse McLean. The Middle School Conference was held Nov. 5 at the MSU Union.

2009

A review of “Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy,” available at Amazon and Barnes & Nobel for under $18.

FALL CONFERENCES

Taking notes is a common scene at the MIPA Fall Conference. The program even contains a worksheet that some teachers have their students fill out. Nearly 80 sessions were offered, and students could attend four. More than 1,500 students and teachers attended the event.

PRESIDENT, continued from page 2

phone. The same is true of all other types of information. Good high school news sites could serve as aggregators and clearing houses for all these various points of information, providing the student body with more of everything they want. This will drive students to the site, where in addition to what they want to see, they will have easy access to all the school related news that they need to see.

4) Online content is current. A constant problem with high school media is that publication dates are infrequent. The most prolific high school journalists still only see their work in print once or twice a month at best.

The online environment allows students to be published immediately, and allows students to 6 ■ November 2009

print stories that are always timely. No longer do student journalists need to feature-ize breaking news. With a strong high school news site, students can break news just as the pros do.

5) Online news is cheaper to produce. What school district does not face daunting revenue cuts today? With a few computers, a small start-up cost, and a few cell phones students have the resources they need to create and maintain a high quality news Web site. Districts may be more willing to support a program that does not need to turn to the community for advertising revenue and that offers modern and diverse content at a manageable cost.

6) Online content is agile. In

an online world, we no longer need to limit our students to black and white only design, photographers can publish whole galleries rather than just a single still, videos can accompany and supplement written coverage, interviews can be made available in their entirety as audio files, and content is no longer limited by space considerations.

All of this points to the fact that rather than being fearful of the rapid changes in journalism, high school media advisers can and should embrace them and teach them to their students.

High school journalism programs face an uphill battle in this difficult economic climate, and without being willing to look to the future, we are bound to see a

drop off in the number of schools willing to subsidize media education. We need to stay educated on technical advances and we need to continue to shape our instruction to fully reflect the technical and connected world in which we live.

But you already know this.

You try hard every day to stay in touch with your students, and you care about the future of the media. You are a tech-savvy, culturally aware consumer of the media, and you are beginning to rely more and more on the web for your information.

I know this because you are reading this article. And because you are reading this, you represent all that is right with the journalism of tomorrow.

Ken Winter is a MSU J-School graduate and the former editor and publisher of the Petoskey NewsReview. He now teaches journalism and political science for North Central Michigan College and Michigan State’s Red Cedar National Writing Project satellite, “Top of the Mitt,” both in Petoskey.

f you haven’t read Alex Jones’s “Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy” (Oxford University Press, 2009), you should as it offers a good look at the future of journalism and our country.

The former New York Times Pulitzer Prize journalist makes a convincing argument that without solid and accurate news, investigative reporting and watchdog journalism over government and other organizations that affect our citizenry, we could very well lose our Democracy.

For the past eight years, Jones has been the Director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Policy and lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government.

His frankness and passion for preserving the “iron core” of journalism is very much appreciated. Smith started at his small family owned 15,000-daily circulation Greeneville Sun, in Greeneville, Tenn., which his family still owns and operates. It was there Smith learned about the basic values of journalism and took those with him when he became a reporter for one of the top newspapers in the country—The New York Times.

He later became host of National Public Radio’s “On the Media” and “Media Matters.”

“Losing the News” should be required reading in every journalism program across the country. It should be required reading for everyone in the journalism profession or who cares about our Democracy. He distills centuries of journalism into just over 200 pages. Well researched, well written and well presented.

His last chapter, “Saving the News Media,” is the most valuable contribution to the conversation of journalism’s future I have yet to read. For those who have not watched closely or need background on the industry, the early parts of the work are invaluable.

The final chapter should be ripped out of the book and used as the basis for further and new discussions on the future of journalism and Democracy in the United States.

Jones writes that the Web newspaper should not be viewed as a complementary or ancillary product, but something much different: a separate business and a separate news organization.

“The daunting question then becomes whether traditional news organizations should move so far outside their traditional culture that they have a real chance of capturing the attention of this new Web-centric audience.

And if they do, will they have to leave behind the standards of journalism that have been at the heart of their value system?”

In Jones’s mind, there is no way of getting away from what he identifies as the iron core of journalism—bearing witness, following-up, explanatory journalism and investigative journalism.

“One thing is certain: the revolution in news now taking place will be critical to defining what kind of a nation we become in the years ahead.”

Erin Hill, high school journalism coordinator at the Detroit Free Press, was named the John Field winner at the MIPA Fall Conference for her outstanding efforts in helping Detroit high school students to publish their newspapers. Surrounding Hill are teachers from the Detroit program: Ricardo Martin, Tiffany Cross, Corey Stokes, Lorena Craighead, Robbyn Williams, Monique Guest-Schuh and Sara Hennes.

Betsy Pollard Rau, retired adviser from H.H. Dow HS in Midland, was inducted into the CMU Journalism Hall of Fame on Nov. 7. Rau has been the director of the MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop since 1994 and teaches adviser courses through the MSU School of Journalism as well as courses through the CMU Department of Journalism.

Jesse McLean, an MSU teacher intern at Waterford Kettering HS, received a JEA Future Teacher Scholarship Award in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13. The scholarship comes with $1,000.

LOW-TECH TWEETS

We ask the teachers at the luncheon for comments on their door prize tickets. Here are some of them: We love MIPA. Go journalism!

My kids are having a great time—thanks!

Great!!!

We love the Fall Conference.

I love all of the sessions with online advising.

MIPA rocks Great help for new YB advisers I hate widows, orphans and trapped white space!

I love MIPA! Great day!

Great session topics Learning lots of great info today!

Enjoyed attending sessions and wish I could have attended more. Great well-rounded offerings.

Tom Campbell has the best ideas—my kids loved it.

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CLASSES FOR JOURNALISM TEACHERS ONLINE@MSU!

Writing and Editing for Student Media

Bobby Hawthorne, author of The Radical Write, will teach you most of what you’ll need to know about the fundamentals of news and feature writing, opinion writing, headlines, editing and proofing. Each week will focus on a specific area.

You’ll love this class.

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Student Media Law

Power Advising

It’s been said that no publication adviser should walk inside a publication classroom unless armed with a class in media law. That’s why we offer this course.

The course’s primary goal will be to help scholastic journalism teachers understand, identify and avoid legal “hotspots.” Important class for ALL advisers! Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate at the student Press Law Center, will teach the course.

Created for advisers who have had at least one year of advising, this course will help teachers feel more empowered. This is what’s cool: Power Advising will be tailored to those taking the course. Instructor Betsy Rau, former adviser of the H.H. Dow Update, contacts you before the semester starts to assess your needs. You’ll work on an independent project, participate in lots of discussion and find time and motivation to concentrate on issues of concern.

Each class begins Jan. 25 and ends May 7 and is three graduate credits. Register soon!

To register for a class, e-mail Cheryl Pell at pell@msu.edu, or go to the MIPA Web site at www.mipamsu.org/advisers for more information about each class.

Mark your calendars for the MIPA One-Day Workshop on Friday, Feb. 26. More information will come to you through your mail.

PARTING SHOT