Quill & Scroll Spring 2011
Tensions in School: Social Media Administrators, teachers and students tackle social media in the classroom
Going Paperless
E-pubs and other ways to read textbooks
Some things may surprise you about
Summer Workshops Quill & Scroll
Spring 2011
Quill & Scroll Vo l u m e 8 5 • I s s u e 2
Editor and Business Manager Vanessa Shelton
Executive Director, Quill and Scroll Society
Assistant Editor Jessica Jenkins
Sophomore, University of Iowa
Contributing Editors Julie E. Dodd
Professor, College of Journalism and Mass Communication The University of Florida, Gainesville
Spring 2 0 1 1
I n th i s issue...
Bruce E. Konkle
Professor, College of Journalism University of South Carolina, Columbia
Book Editor Barbara Bealor Hines
Professor, Mass Communication and Media Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Features TENSIONS IN SCHOOL: SOCIAL MEDIA See how teachers, students and administrators are negotiating the use of social media in classrooms
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FEATURE WRITING Learn useful tips and resources to write better feature stories
Jumping to Online journalism A journalism adviser shares her staff’s transition to online publishing
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Journalism workshops surprise uninitiated attendees
Columns A b o u t O u r Co v e r Journalismstudentsareincreasinglyusing onlinepublicationsandsocialmediatocommunicatewiththeiraudiences.Atthesame time,teachersareemployingtheseformats ininstruction.Thetransformationsrequire students, such as at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and their teachers to negotiate the technology as well as applicableschoolpolicies.JeffersonHighSchool teacher,StacyHaynes-Moore,writesabout theclimateforusingsocialmediaininstruction on page 4. Photo by Megan Bauer.
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Newest Books in Journalism By Barbara Bealor Hines
JEA Notes By Jack Kennedy
SPLC Notes By Frank D. LoMonte
ournalism & Technology
By Julie E. Dodd and Judy Robinson
Spring 2011
:S o c i a l
Stacy Haynes-Moore Newspaper Adviser Jefferson High School Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Media
Each morning as students arrive to first hour journalism class, I listen to them chat about online Facebook posts, share the latenight messages received, and dish the news about their friends. Whether they acknowledge their interactions as storytelling, they use social media as part of a reporting process -- connecting with others in their community to receive and send information. It needs little explaining to most teachers that social media are integral to how our students communicate, and so it is inevitable that we should wonder how to leverage the technology to benefit their learning and enhance our teaching practices. In a series of interviews with Iowa language arts and journalism teachers, responses illustrated a number of teaching methods that used social media within an existing writing curriculum. The interview data also pointed to emerging tensions between teachers’ new practices and school policies. Data from three classroom teachers, in particular, underscore some of the challenges faced in the classroom application of social media. (Their situations, described in the case studies, use pseudonyms as required per the research project guidelines.) These are only three examples of teachers’ methods to involve social media in class, but several implications reveal themselves in these cases. Each illustrates a teacher’s intention to provide relevant and creative experiences for student learning. The cases
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Jane advises the high school student newspaper. This school year her staff established a Facebook page, purchased a website URL, began blogging, and set up a YouTube account. Students publish their writing, photos, and videos via these methods. The staff thinks that their choice to use social media is one reason they made gains in readership. The choice to use social media also created conflict with their school administration. Within the newspaper’s first few weeks of reporting on Facebook, administrators cited concerns about the format. They wanted the site disabled. Jane argued that social media offers students ownership of their work, engages frequent reading and writing, creates a collaborative space, elicits timely feedback, and cultivates a sense of community. This explanation of teaching goals and methods won the site a reprieve. However, as a condition of the newspaper using Facebook, the administration required that the principal join as a manager of the site. The right to content change now belongs to the principal, adviser, and the student newspaper staff.
Darrin advises the high school’s student literary magazine. As adviser, his goal this year is to learn to use tools like Facebook and Twitter. He jokingly refers to himself as Luddite. However, he recognizes that most students spend time with Facebook, most own a cell phone, some write blogs, and an increasing number use Twitter. He decided that, as a class project, the literary magazine staff should establish a Facebook site. Students created the pages at their homes, after school hours, because Facebook technology is blocked at school. Students’ creative writing, artwork and photos are showcased on the site. Darrin does not monitor the site, but expresses confidence in the choices and decision-making of student staffers. He hypothesizes that the school principal is not aware of the class site and describes the administration having a hands-off approach to the literary magazine publication. His guess is that the administrative response would be the same for the class Facebook site.
Alyssa initiated a Facebook page for her middle school students so they could ask questions about homework; however, she quickly discovered that the site was handy in its ability to communicate with parents, and as a student community to publish writing. The site was a hit. Students used Facebook write and share feedback with one another. Parents said they enjoyed the site because of immediate access to their students’ work and because of an online class calendar that tracked assignment progress. Alyssa was an active member of the Facebook site, interacting with students and parents. In Fall 2010, a new school principal expressed hesitation about using Facebook as a class project. This raised the superintendent’s attention. After considerable debate among district administrators, they made a policy decision. Alyssa was instructed to disband the site.
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also demonstrate emerging tensions with administrators in the practice of incorporating social media within existing curriculum. For example, while Darrin holds an optimistic view of the literary magazine site, the school is unaware of its existence. Additionally, because Darrin is not yet comfortable using social media and because the technology is not available at school, it could be a difficult position for him as adviser to intervene during the class process of posting writing. Alternately, in Alyssa’s case, the school administration was hypersensitive to the site, despite positive feedback from students, parents, and teacher. The politics of school reform nurture doubts about the benefits of social media. Although Alyssa invested considerable energy to establish the Facebook class site, and it could have served as a prototype for innovation in progressive classroom literacy experiences, there existed a general uneasiness with social media and administrators lacked the platform to justify how social media benefit student learning.
And finally, in the case of Jane and her students’ newspaper, the tensions reflect ongoing questions of control of content - who has it and who should not when it comes to school publications. This case should raise the eyebrows of advisers in Iowa, which has a student free expression law. Discussions about prior review and questions of censorship in student media should continue to take place in building, district, and state journalism meetings. Use of social media may be considered an extension of scholastic journalism, but teachers and advisers will likely feel challenged earning support for the use of social media, as “we’re in the wild west” when it comes to decisions about its worth in schools, according to Evan Abby, a state technology director. Abby works with Iowa schools in their implementation of technology and writes about social media in his blog, “Changing Iowa.” Abby advocates for social media. As a former school principal and language arts teacher, he pushed for this technology in classrooms. He believes that a few Iowa districts currently promote teaching with
social media, “but with this comes such new, unsure ways of doing class, of teaching in new ways, and we stumble into issues.” Abby says it would be wise for the state to establish a policy to guide school administrators and teachers about social media uses in curriculum, providing creative and innovative models for practices. Such a policy could emphasize the possibilities, outlining benefits and learning outcomes, connecting the models to state standards for literacy and technology. As I listen to my journalism students begin to brainstorm for the next issue, their pitches reflect connections to online stories, Facebook posts, and Twitter messages received. Journalism students already use social media as a tool for writing. They use it to connect with their communities and share in practices of reading, writing, discussing, and thinking. As school journalism advisers, we are positioned, perhaps more than any other person in our school building, to see social media in action and connect the dots for our colleagues and districts in the potential impact social media will have on our students’ literacy.
EngagE REpoRt ConnECt. StUdEnt WoRKSHopS
Newspaper, Yearbook, Digital Photography, Television News, Business/Advertising, Desktop Design, Multimedia & Online Journalism July 11-15, July 17-21 and July 23-27
tEaCHER/advISER WoRKSHopS
Digital Photography for Advisers | June 20-24 Management of Student Media | June 27-July 1 Taking Student Media Online | June 27-July 1 Independent Study for Journalism Educators | June 20-July 29
HIgH SCHool JoURnalISm InStItUtE IndIana UnIvERSIty | SUmmER 2011
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WoRKSHop InFo Teresa A. White (terwhite@indiana.edu) REgIStRatIon InFo Linda J. Johnson (ljjohnso@indiana.edu) ConnECt WItH US 812.855.0895 / 812.855.1311 (FAX) http://journalism.indiana.edu/hsji
Spring 2011
ti ri ng ti E F E n AgW T R A ng U U R E WE W r i T F t W r i t i n g F u r e r T tR r A eA a i E it it ng U R E in in F AT U g g T E F A E F Ro b e r t G u ts c h e J r.
Writing a feature story can be the most fun. But they can be the most challenging, too. More than “just the facts,” features are about storytelling. They are about getting to the root of a person, place or thing. Here are some tips to improve your feature stories.
Show, but don’t tell. Focus on telling a story. Work facts into anecdotes about people and places. Scents, smells and color tell stories better than a list of details. If the show choir is preparing for a regional competition, what goes into the preparation? Do members stay up late? Do they practice on their own? Do they order pizza and drink lemon water? Going behind the scenes and showing the details, the facts, rather than just telling the reader what’s happening will keep them interested and make your story’s focus more clear.
Put the story in context. People should know why they are reading your story. Is this topic happening anywhere else? Has it happened before? Ask your sources? A Google News search or a quick review of other databases can also give you new sources and a context to help your story make more sense. How the issues in your story relate (or don’t) to other schools and other areas of the country and world gives your story more life. Pick quotes carefully. Sometimes quotes are the hardest part. Thinking of interviews more like conversations, rather than a question and answer time, helps set your source – and yourself – at ease. Using a few questions as a guidepost for your interview is not a bad idea. Just don’t lean on them too much. Follow-up questions and discussions during the interview can yield more details and new, unexpected information. When you’re ready to write, make sure your quotes act as evidence for your story, backing up the statements you make. In most cases, quotes shouldn’t be just about the facts; they should bring color, emotion and insight to your story. Ask the right questions. Asking “What do you think?” may get you an answer for your story, but will it reveal the most interesting ideas, including quotes? Probably not. Such questions help a person create what I call a survey story – nothing more than a piece that lists what different people think about the same topic. Instead,
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try to ask questions by making a statement. To the superintendent: “These budget cuts seem to influence students a lot.” To the student council member: “Didn’t the dance on a Saturday night work better last year, rather than a Friday?” OK, maybe not the best examples. The point is, without being antagonizing, asking more pointed questions or making more direct statements can yield more thoughtful and specific answers.
Read books. Read newspapers, magazines and online news sites. The more you read, the better you will write. Read about things that you wouldn’t normally think about. Broaden your perspectives and you’ll be able to tell better stories.
Use subheads. Even in shorter features, subheads help break up your stories into bite-sized sections that can organize your story and help the readers pick the sections they want to read. Short sections, defined by subheads of a few words, also make stories easier to be placed online. This very article is an example. Each of these sections relates to the subhead. They move the reader along faster and let them know what’s deeper in a story so they keep reading.
Resources
Think visually. Wondering “How might my story look in the paper or online” may help you decide how you will write. Will it be a long story with no images? Maybe, then you want lots of subheads and quotes to keep the reader going. Is the story too long? Maybe you want to break it up into a bunch of sidebars, or suggest an infographic to tell part of the story. Are there illustrations or photographs to advance the story – share those ideas with editors, photographers or designers, as appropriate. Thinking about how your story will be read can lead to a change in how you write it. Edit. Each time you write something, print it out. Several times. Reading on the screen may lead to overlooking mistakes or misuses. Printing out your story after every major alteration will help you find sloppy writing, weak or missing transitions, and will help you see whether your story makes sense. Everyone needs an edit. And everyone needs to edit their own stories better. Take the time to read your stories on paper and even read them out loud. You’ll be surprised how fast your stories will get better. Read. Do you read your school paper after it’s published? Some journalists don’t; they only read their own stories. Be sure to read what others have written.
Robert Gutsche Jr., an instructor and doctoral student at The University of Iowa, is also co-founder of The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, IowaWatch.org.
B OO K S :
Somebody Told Me Rick Bragg Somewhere in America: Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others Mark Singer At Home in the World Daniel Pearl and Helene Cooper Devil in the White City Erik Larson Floating Off the Page: The Best Stories from the Wall Street Journal’s Middle Column Michael Lewis and Ken Wells
Quill and Scroll Updates NEWS MEDIA EVALUATION CHANGES: The Quill and Scroll NewsMediaEvaluationservicehas beenrevisedtobetterservenewspaper and news magazine studentsandtheirteachers/advisers. Quill and Scroll has streamlined the entry process in conjunction with the use of a new evaluation toolPDF.ItisavailableontheQuill andScrollhomepage,www.uiowa. edu/~quill-sc/undertheANNUAL DEADLINES column. See completeinstructionsontheevaluation form and on the NME Web page. Here’s an overview: It’s not too late to enter. The standard deadline of May 1 ensuresevaluationswillbereturned by early September for use as the newschoolyearbegins.However, schoolswishingtoenterafterthe deadline-perhapstheirlastpublicationarrives afterthedeadline - may delay their submissions. Late submissions may delay the returnofevaluations;however,we will evaluate them as quickly as possible. Just send all the issues together. Completeentrieswillinclude fourissuesofeachschool’snewspaper or news magazine and the newevaluationtool.Theevaluation form was designed as a savable PDF,whichallowsself-evaluation responsestobeenteredviacom-
puter,thensubmittedtoQuilland Scroll as an e-mail attachment. SavethePDFwiththeschoolname asthetitle,andincludetheschool nameandcityinthee-mailsubject line. The completed evaluation PDF is e-mailed to a special NME account - quillscroll@gmail.com - and the publications are mailed to News Media Evaluation, Quill andScroll,E346AdlerJournalism Bldg.,IowaCity,IA52242.Printthe firstpage(registrationinformation) oftheevaluationPDFtomailwith thepublications,alongwithacheck orpurchaseorderforthe$75registrationfee.Creditcardpayments canbemadethroughareputable processingservice,whichislinked totheNewsMediaEvaluationform and the Web page. Responses from judges will bereturnedviae-mailonthePDF evaluationformallowingeasyreference and use as a flexible instructionaltool;itcanbeprojectedona screenordistributedviae-mailfor class review and discussions. In addition to the new form, NewsMediaEvaluationcategories andresponseshavebeenupdated and revamped to reflect today’s scholasticjournalismgoals,practicesandenvironment.Thenumber of issues (4) required for the evaluation has been reduced in
responsetojudgeswhoindicated thisisanumberthatcanreliablyreflectstaffaccomplishments.Staffs shouldsubmitissuestogetspecific feedback.Forinstance,howwella specialeditionorchallengingcoveragewashandled,orincludingan early issue along with those producedthroughtheendoftheyear todemonstrategrowth.Indicate special requests for feedback in theexpandablecommentsboxes ineachsectionandattheend(final remarks) of the PDF evaluation. Also newly instituted, all entriesareeligibleforconsideration toreceivethetoprating,theGallup Award.Requests,lettersofsupport andevidencetoreceivetherating are no longer required. We hope you will find the revised News Media Evaluation informativeandthenewtooluseful. Pleaseletusknowwhatyouthink; itwillhelpustorefinethisprocess. SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE MAY 10 Graduating seniors who plan to studyjournalismorcommunicationsincollegeareeligibletoapply for Quill and Scroll scholarships. Applicationsshouldbepostmarked no later than May 10. Entry forms areavailableonourwebsite:www. uiowa.edu/~quill-sc/undertheANNUAL DEADLINES column. Winners of Quill and Scroll
contestsareeligibletoapplyforthe EdwardJ.NellandtheGeorgeand OpheliaGallupscholarships.Last year, two students received Nell scholarships at $500 each; and twostudentseachreceivedGallup scholarships of $1,500 each. Inaddition,allQuillandScroll graduatingmembersmayapplyfor the Richard P. Johns Scholarship, whichwasawardedin2010forthe firsttime.Thescholarshipamounted to $500. UPCOMING EVENTS As the 2010-11 school year winds down, Quill and Scroll is already planning for next year. Here’s a preview of events and postmark deadlines: Nov. 1 – Yearbook Excellence Contest Feb. 5 – International Writing, Photo Contest April 15 – Benz Scholarship for Teachers Visitourwebsitewww.uiowa. edu/~quill-sc for more information, membership and entry forms,programs,newsandother resources.
Join us as a friend of the Official Quill and Scroll group on Facebook.
MAGAZINES: Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker
EXERCISES TO DO: Sit someplace you have never been. Write about what you see. How do you describe people, interactions, conversations you overhear? Find a balance between description and over-doing it. Take a news story. Find three or four angles that the reporter didn’t touch. For each story, dozens aren’t told. What are the perspectives that are missing? Is there a profile of someone that could move the story forward? How would you approach the story? Write it. Try something new. Write with another person. Try to write on a shorter deadline. Just switch things up and see what you can learn about how you interview, write and think.
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Jumping to Online Journalism Casey runs out to the media center, snaps photos of end-of-the year senior projects, and returns to the classroom to publish the photos. He gives the SD card to Lauren, who edits the pictures in Picasa, uploads them to the newspaper website and hits “Publish.” These two students captured and published news within 20 minutes, months faster than the process of creating a print newspaper. This is the fast-paced, real-life world of online journalism. In 2008, I was hired to teach English and start a journalism program at the very young Brashier Middle College Charter High School. Wielding my degree in broadcast journalism and zero experience in publishing a newspaper, I chose to experiment with online journalism as opposed to working with a traditional print format. The decision to go with an online newspaper only (no print edition at all) was mainly influenced by cost. My K a t i e Yo n principal said we could publish three editions of a print paper a year or we could purchase an online site and publish as often as we wished. That, plus the fact that so many real world newspapers (locally and nationally) are Journalism Adviser turning to an online format helped me choose to follow the trend and hopefully prepare my students for the real Brashier Middle College world with hands-on experience producing an online newspaper. Publishing online requires a complete reorganization of the newsroom and deadlines. The first year, we Charter High School published monthly editions of the paper online. Everyone had the same deadline, and we quickly discovered our Simpsonville, S.C. news was outdated by the time it ran. We weren’t utilizing the best aspect of online publishing, which is timeliness. People expect extremely timely news online, and our student readers/viewers are no different. To publish online, the newspaper adviser must be flexible and understand that one student may be publishing a story, while another is starting to get interviews, and yet another is creating a video. This makes it very difficult for the teacher to determine grades and keep a neat grade book! While our class still has a story idea meeting, and students still have deadlines, sometimes I have to adjust because not everyone can be on the same schedule and publish timely articles. When a student is done with a story, it is published immediately. This keeps our website changing daily, hopefully. Timeliness can also be an enemy. While a student can go to the basketball game, get the score, get pictures, and publish a story within an hour of the game ending; it doesn’t mean they will or will want to. We have a small staff of nine, and we have found it difficult to publish stories as they happen. We still try to “featurize” news stories to keep them timeless. But, for the eager student who desires to publish within the hour of events, he/she has the outlet. My goal is to publish news as it happens and still have students writing feature stories during class time. Because students have access to publishing online at anytime, it is sometimes difficult to monitor content before it is published. Online journalism requires trust among the student staffers. I can take away access to the publish button, and I do require students to submit a final draft before publishing, but I have found I have to trust my students to make ethical journalistic decisions and to consult me when they don’t know what to do. We spend at least two weeks on ethics before ever writing or publishing. This is hard for people who like to have control, but giving up some control has the greatest reward of seeing students internalize responsibility and ethics. My students write for a world-wide audience, which is inspiring. When people from the community leave comments on students’ stories, students beam and are encouraged to write again. Plus, this opens a dialogue between the student writer and the community, or other students at school, about their work and ideas. We encourage teachers to give extra credit when their students leave thoughtful comments on the newspaper site. We use www.schoolnewspapersonline.com to publish the student newspaper, which has a start-up fee and annual maintenance fee. However, it comes with technical support that will answer questions and fix problems ASAP. The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) hosts www.hsj.org, which offers free web space and software to student newspapers. They say on their website, “No special computer skills are needed.” Feel free to visit the BMCCHS website at www.brashiermiddlecollegenews.org. To see award-winning online newspapers, visit: Clarion of Riverside-Brookfield High School http://rbclarion.com; Knight Errant of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School http://bsmknighterrant.org; and The Uproar of Mansfield High School http://mhsuproar.com.
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BenEfits
Drawbacks
Of online publishing • • • • • • • •
Real-world writing with a real-world audience Learning a skill that is currently useful in society Online newspapers are the present and future of journalism Community and student comments on writing Publishing in a timely manner Ability to put video and slideshows online, as well as polls and calendars Money-saving Endless space for the verbose
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• • • • • •
Learning the program you choose for your online publishing (the students learn it faster than I do – providing them with an opportunity to teach me) Teacher loss of control – although, it keeps the paper student-run and student-focused No nostalgic paper-in-your-hands feeling Getting people/students to take the time to go online to read the paper (limited by access to computers or Internet) Access to computers, Internet, digital cameras, video cameras, video editing software, etc. Can be chaotic, but never dull Story reprinted with permission of SCSPA.
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Journalism workshops surprise uninitiated attendees First-time journalism workshop attendees are in for some unexpected treats this summer. Sure, students expect to attend classes in their chosen skill set: writing, photojournalism, website design, graphic design, yearbook production, editing, broadcast news, and so forth. They may even realize much of their day will be spent in the classes, which may make them groan and be a little apprehensive. What they may not realize is the workshops format typically makes learning enjoyable. Workshops planners design the sessions to be more laid back and hands on. The curriculum is designed to be engaging - up close and personal, according to workshop directors who shared a glimpse of what to expect with Quill & Scroll. For instance, students and teachers attending journalism workshops meet media professionals, who provide everything from small group sessions and tutorials on journalistic skills to lectures about issues facing journalists. “One thing that our students and teachers are surprised to find is that some of the professionals in the media industry they meet here become lifelong contacts and friends,” Alabama Scholastic Press Association Director Meredith Cummings said of the workshops at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. “We have students who have come to our summer camps and, down the road, have gone on to work with the professionals who presented at the camp.” Professional journalists interact with teachers attending workshops as well as the high school students. “We have teachers who know, after meeting industry professionals, that they can contact them at any time for help in the classroom,” Cummings said. The sessions by media professionals coupled with those of workshops instructors, provide attendees with several perspectives to add to their knowledge base. “Most of the students have probably already had some education in journalistic areas, such as writing, editing, design and leadership, but they are always surprised what more they learn when they take content-specific courses, such as in student leadership, visual presentation, multimedia journalism and in-depth writing and reporting,” said Ball State Summer Journalism Workshops Director Brian Hayes. “You can almost see the light bulb turn on inside their head!” When workshop attendees return to their schools the following fall, they further realize the impact of the knowledge gained in the summer programs.
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“They won’t realize until the school year begins how smoothly their publication production goes because of what they learned, and the pre-planning they did at the summer workshops,” Carolina Journalism Institute Director Karen Flowers said. “They won’t realize the benefits of meeting people from other places who work on other staffs until they find they need to bounce an idea off another adviser, editor or staff member they met at the summer workshop. And they won’t realize how much better their publication will be until they put into practice all the ideas and skills they picked up.” Indiana High School Journalism Institute Director Teresa White also emphasizes the value of interaction with fellow students and instructors. “While workshops provide a structured approach for learning about journalism and improving journalistic skills, many teachers and students don’t realize how much they will learn from other workshop participants during ‘down times,’” White said. “So many ideas and deep discussions about journalism are exchanged over meals, on coffee breaks and in the residence halls. Those opportunities to network and discuss journalism are invaluable.” Lasting friendships also are formed during the workshops when attendees meet in class, by sharing rooms or participating in extracurricular activities. Journalism workshops are not all work - there is time for play. Program directors organize entertaining events to break the ice for newbies, and help attendees wind down in the midst of their busy schedule of instructional sessions. The Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Summer Journalism Workshops plan events such as a talent show, dance, movie night and a visit from the Michigan State University (that’s where the workshops are held) mascot, Sparty. Students even win “goofy prizes” during meal times, according to workshops Director Cheryl Pell. The concept of having fun while learning is probably the most unexpected aspect of summer journalism workshops participation. “We always find that students are surprised how much fun they have,” University of Iowa Summer Journalism Workshops Director David Schwartz said. “I attribute that to one of our key philosophies: It’s summer break! Summer should be fun. “So while our students work hard and get great instruction, we also take every opportunity to make their experience enjoyable,” Schwartz said.
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The Newest
in b o o k s Journalism
With spring and the end of the school year near, students are making decisions about how to spend their summer wisely. Whether it’s planning for college or determining leadership issues that will affect the news media staff, there are plenty of book titles to help. With a renewed emphasis on entrepreneurship, some may find ways to further develop their technology expertise. - By Barbara Bealor Hines
O’Brien,SoledadwithRoseMarie Arce. The Next Big Story:
My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities. Celebra. 2010. $24.95.
The Next Big Story is an inspirational, yet realistic, story about one person’s fight for acceptance in a male-dominated industry that has problems with its record on diversity. Soledad O’Brien simply, yet eloquently tells the story of what it was like leaving college at Harvard and beginning her broadcast career covering health issues at WBZ-Boston. While she was expected to join others in her family as they studied to enter the fields of medicine and law, she knew she had other goals. Leaving Harvard short of her degree, O’Brien talks about her role models and how she was able to keep pushing for acceptance in an industry that was not welcoming to people of color. However, she felt she could make a difference and took producing and reporting jobs in cities on both the East and West coasts. O’Brien shares her stories: from HIV-AIDS to 9/11 to Katrina and the pioneering series she did for CNN on “America in Black and White.” She talks of the challenges she had because of her own mixed race and coming to grips with how it would play out in her life. With a supportive family, she’s able to be a mother of four and anchor/reporter to the world. Her book provides good historical context as well as a reality check for those students who wish to enter the electronic news industry.
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The Silent Season of a Hero: The Sports Writing of Gay Talese.
Talese, Gay.
Walker Publishing Company. 2010. $16. The best teachers do what they teach. Writer Gay Talese, the former high school journalist from Ocean City (N.J.) High School, became the sports editor of the University of Alabama’s Crimson-White and later established what writer Tom Wolfe called “the new journalism,” an inventive form of nonfiction. Silent Season is an anthology of many of Talese’s classics, from an Esquire magazine piece on boxer Joe Louis to a profile of baseball star Joe DiMaggio. The beauty of this book is the background provided about each piece. Talese cites the writers who’ve impacted his style and work, giving us a more precise understanding of the value of mentoring. It’s an important lesson for leaders in and out of the classroom.
Linkner, Josh. Disciplined
Elliot, Jay and William Simon.
Jossey-Bass. 2011. $26.95.
Vanguard Press. 2011. $25.99.
Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. Leave it to an advertising graduate from the University of Florida to get one’s creative juices flowing. Josh Linkner is the founder and chairman of ePrize, a major promotions company serving threefourths of the major brands today. Linkner is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has won awards in business, technology and design. He has written Disciplined Dreaming not just for the business community. This is a book for editors and advisers alike. It gives the case for creativity and provides a
Yate, Martin. Knock Em’ Dead: The
Ultimate Job Search Guide 2011
Adams Media Corporation. 2010. $15.95. Adams Media has long been a leader in career counseling and resources. And when better to begin preparing for the world of work than the summer months? This is the 25th edition of the ultimate job search guide. It provides sample letters and resumes; questions to ask in the interview and tips to handle unusual situations during the interview. Knock ‘em Dead provides an introductory chapter to help the reader prioritize assets and desires. It also provides a section on where the jobs can be found. Many people are reluctant negotiators; Yate prepares the job seeker to understand this process. Required to have a psychological test? He tells you how to prepare for both psychological and pre-employment content exams. From listening skills to writing skills, from body language to social graces, the author provides the support and the resources to conduct an effective job search.
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system to help staffs understand its importance for achieving success. As a leader, the editor is often called upon to challenge staff members (students) as well as their teachers to better understand their culture. Three questions: why? what if? and why not? challenge editors and reporters as none have been challenged before. He devotes a lot of time discussing how to fuel passion – something that often is missing with some staff members. And he has a strategy for nurturing the creative culture – from fueling passion to encouraging courage; from failing forward to maximizing diversity. In Disciplined Dreaming there are dozens of activities from practical exercises to thought-starters; this is a self-help book for the entire staff. It should be on everyone’s reading list.
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The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a new Generation.
As the creator of everything Mac, Steve Jobs has been a technology visionary who has shaped a new generation of entrepreneurs. This book is written by two of the men who worked most closely with him: Jay Elliott and William Simon. Elliott worked as senior vice president of Apple Computer, responsible for corporate operations, including human resources, facilities, real estate, instructional
technology, education and Pacific Rim sales. Simon wrote iCon, the biography of Steve Jobs and The Art of Deception (with Kevin Mitnick). While Jobs the private citizen remains a mystery in many ways, his management style has become legend in the arena of pop culture. He was responsible for the Apple II to the Macintosh; then he left only to return to bring out the Mac operating system, Mac OSX, the iPod, iPhone and iPad. While Elliot (with senior work experience) knew the breadth of the industry, Jobs had the clarity to communicate with the developers to move products forward. There’s lots to find in this book – for both the picture it paints of Jobs to the reality of the status of the Mac industry today.
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21st Century Skills and Media Education producing inferential questions that statements from interview subjects prompt.
Jack Kennedy President Journalism Education Association
Education and educators are under attack right now. And for journalism education and advisers, this is not a new phenomenon. But an examination of the relatively new Common Core Standards for English Language Arts reveals that journalism education and media studies – not to mention actually working on a publication or broadcast or website – gives us some hope. It will not surprise you – though it will surprise the general public – to find that journalism education is the single most effective way to develop literacy skills. Let’s take a look at some of the 21st Century Skills most states now say students who are ready for college or work should possess. The particular wording I am using comes from Colorado’s Academic Standards in Reading, Writing and Communication, revised December, 2010. Skill: Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others, and contribute ideas to further the group’s attainment of an objective. Journalism courses combine both group work (in the form of editorial boards, reporting teams or media staffs) and individual leaders (editorial writers, editors, directors and producers). The ability to form well-developed questions is essential in a student’s education, and students are always aware that their objective is to reliably inform the audience. Skill: Demonstrate skill in inferential and evaluative listening. Journalism courses stress careful, objective and skilled interviewing and note taking, to gather information and to ensure the accuracy of the information. No other course can provide the regular practice in active listening and in
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Skill: Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail. Journalism courses are unique in their focus on clarity, coherence and observational detail. Strong writing skills lie at the heart of journalism, whether it involves print or electronic media. Most importantly, students must always write with a diverse audience in mind. The primary audience may be students, but there is a broad secondary audience of faculty and community that must be considered. Skill: Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language. Journalism courses develop an appreciation of standard English in students, with the goal of clear communication with a wide audience. Journalism courses also use widely recognized style guides, such as the Associated Press Style Guide, to guarantee consistency in written and oral communication. Skill: Implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work. Journalism courses emphasize the writing process, from planning coverage (individually and in groups), to establishing deadlines for reporting and drafts, to the final proofing process, emphasizing clarity, correctness of expression, and appropriate journalistic style. Skill: Discriminate and justify a position using traditional lines of rhetorical argument and reasoning. Journalism courses develop persuasive writing and thinking skills, through formal essays (editorials) and informal essays (personal opinion commentary and review writing). With a diverse audience, the importance of logic and well-reasoned appeals is paramount in successful arguments.
Skill: Gather information from a variety of sources; analyze and evaluate the quality and relevance of the source; and use it to answer complex questions. Journalism courses demand the gathering of information from various informed sources, sorting and evaluating the information gathered, and then presenting the relevant information to readers, viewers and listeners
‘Cyberbullying’ and First Amendment
in ways that communicate effectively with the audience. Student journalists often explore complex questions, with a focus on how those questions affect real people in a community. Skill: Demonstrate the use of a range of strategies, research techniques, and persistence when engaging with difficult texts or examining complex problems or issues. Journalism courses provide a range of strategies for students to use in engaging with a diverse audience. Some reporting demands a narrative approach, while other complex reporting requires more data presentation, in the form of charts, diagrams or timelines. Reporters are asked to read and interview deeply, with the goal of providing a synthesis of opinions and facts, and to provide the audience with new insights and understanding. The very essence of reporting involves persistence: Sources are often reluctant to provide information, and in-depth research and analysis forces students to go beyond superficial facts and opinions
Skill: Exercise ethical conduct when writing, researching, and documenting sources. Journalism courses focus on citizenship and the rights and responsibilities contained in the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment in particular. Knowledge of press law and ethics is key to the success of any student journalist, and those students practice that knowledge daily. The proper use of direct quotations, stressing accuracy and fairness, lies at the heart of journalism, as is the proper use of attribution of all other sourced material. Journalism courses emphasize the difference between objective reporting and opinion, and publications and broadcasts are careful to separate the objective and the subjective. These are just a sample of the skills and concepts high school graduates should master. The next time you find yourself defending the very existence of your print, broadcast or online program, analyses like the above are helpful. Actually, I would argue that journalism is the new English, and that the skills we develop lie at the very heart of becoming a well-educated person. The real question: How can any American high school not offer a comprehensive media education?
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Notes
Frank D. LoMonte Executive Director Student Press Law Center
From the Secretary of Education on down, the nation is talking about the problem of uncivil online speech – “cyberbullying” – by young people. High school journalists need to be part of that discussion, but they need to participate with thought and care. When a student who is hounded by classmates’ online attacks commits suicide, the impulse of adults in the community is to roll back the freedom of online speech for all young people. We see this in numerous states – at least 28 states have laws specifically targeting cyberbullying, including 22 passed just within the last four years – and in many districts as well. In some cases, these laws even carry the threat of felony convictions and prison time. The case that thrust cyberbullying to the front of the national education agenda was the January 2010 suicide of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old South Hadley, Mass., girl who was targeted by jealous classmates for vicious online name-calling in addition to in-person attacks. Her case was the impulse for a renewed push in state legislatures to equip schools and police with greater authority to punish students’ online speech. Because the government response to bullying drastically impacts students’ lives, it is essential that the student media treat the issue with the sensitivity, subtlety and complexity that it deserves. Student journalists can meaningfully contribute to the public dialogue about bullying in three important ways. First, students should use the platform of campus media to speak out forcefully against the hateful attack speech that is placing the First Amendment at risk for all young people. Even though the courts have said that “hate speech” is protected under the
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First Amendment, there’s a big difference between what it’s legal to say and what it’s wise judgment to say. Students should never censor themselves when it comes to political opinions or opinions addressing matters of public concern, but personal attacks on individual classmates are a different matter. Good taste and discretion are part of getting along in a civilized society. Students who cry “freedom of speech” to defend calling their classmates names on “burn book” websites are devaluing the First Amendment for the vast majority of students who have something worthwhile to say. Second, when writing about the problem of cyberbullying, students should remember to save a paragraph or two for the First Amendment. While state laws penalizing cyberbullying are well-intentioned, some of them reach far beyond threatening or harassing speech and attempt to punish speech that is merely offensive or annoying. Florida’s state law, which is fairly typical, defines “bullying” conduct to include “teasing” and “social exclusion.” That covers an awful lot of ground – some might say that the average teenager’s waking hours are primarily devoted to teasing and social exclusion – and it’s legitimate for student journalists to question whether such definitions are too far-reaching. Student journalists shouldn’t shy away from asking tough questions about the proper scope – and the possible side-effects – of cyberbullying laws.
? Questions
Should the same laws intended to protect vulnerable, suicide-prone kids apply equally to speech about school administrators? Or should administrators expect to absorb criticism – even sometimes unfair and harsh criticism – because they are government officials whose actions are a matter of public concern? If students’ off-campus speech is under the school’s jurisdiction because of the way people might react to it on campus, what’s next? Could a school punish a girl who cheats on her boyfriend, if her cheating causes the guys she’s been dating to get into a fistfight on campus? Isn’t offcampus behavior better regulated by parents than schools?
There are multiple sides to every story, and student journalists may be in a better
position to appreciate the real-world impact of cyberbullying laws than adult journalists. If the laws are ineffective – or are being misapplied to punish innocent kids – the first to know will be the students. Their perspective is valuable information for adult decision-makers.
! Tip
Public schools must make information about how they apply discipline available under state open-records laws. Individual students’ disciplinary cases are shielded by privacy laws. But the statistics – or the records that allow journalists to compile their own statistics – must be made available on request, with the identities of individual students removed. It is important for journalists to ask how often students are being punished under cyberbullying laws, and what types of penalties they’re receiving.
Third and finally, students should highlight the positive role that journalism can play in creating a healthier school community. Those who make policy at the state and district level hear about the few awful cases in which students’ abuse of their online freedom goes terribly wrong. But they should hear – from the students themselves – about the many more positive, constructive ways in which students use media. This constructive role was well-illustrated in Phoebe Prince’s own school district. Five years before Phoebe tragically took her life, the editorial page of the South Hadley student newspaper, The Spotlight, issued a desperate cry for adults to take the school’s bullying problem more seriously: “How long can the school department ignore the increasing rate of bullying before reality sets in? How many more harassed kids will it take, how many more enraged parents, how many more cases of depression, and how many attempted suicides? A blind eye has been turned toward emotionally repressed students. It is only a matter of time before the administration is forced to act – right? Unfortunately, time may be a benefit that bullied students don’t have.” Sounding the alarm on dangerous conditions in schools is student journalism at its best. Given some training and a light hand of guidance, students are capable of substantially contributing to the dialogue about how schools can be better-run. This is the “rest of the story” that adult policymakers must hear, and it is students themselves who must tell it.
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JournaLism
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More Reading on Mobile Devices ‘Students check their course syllabi on their cell
phones. They purchase their textbooks to be read on mobile readers. They download handouts that their teachers are distributing as PDF or ePub files. Julie E. Dodd Journalism Professor University of Florida
Judy Robinson Journalism Assistant Professor University of Florida More and more college textbooks and handouts are going paperless. Students check their course syllabi on their cell phones. They purchase their textbooks to be read on mobile readers. They download handouts their teachers are distributing as PDF or ePub files. The book and textbook battle is going on over the format and delivery system. Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iPad, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Borders’ Kobo and the Sony Reader are some of the digital readers to chose from. Digital readers have several benefits for college students. One benefit of digital readers is their portability. By choice or because of limited campus parking, most college students use public transportation, walk or ride a bike or scooter to campus. They may have three or four different classes during the day and may need their textbooks for reference in class or for studying between classes. A big backpack loaded with pounds of textbooks isn’t as transportable as having an iPad, Kindle or other digital reader with all those books loaded and ready for use. Digital readers also enable students to purchase textbooks at a lower price than
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the paper textbooks, even used paperback textbooks sold at a discount rate online. Many textbook companies offer the option of renting the digital textbook, which further reduces the price. Digital textbooks also can be ready for you to be read as soon as you purchase the book online. You may be able to order the same book as a paper book online, but it may take weeks for the textbook to arrive, which can be a problem, as you need the book for assignments and for preparing for tests. But textbooks on digital readers also have a few challenges. You have to take care of your digital reader. Dropping your backpack filled with books won’t cause any real damage – other than squashing your sandwich, if your lunch was packed in your backpack. You can break your digital reader by dropping it. You also have to consider how you’re going to protect the digital reader in case of rain or snow, such as a waterproof case. You need to learn some new active reading strategies. Some eBook readers incorporate features that you’ve used with paper textbooks – the ability to highlight passages, write notes and add bookmarks. But each eBook reader is different and may not have all of these options. Some eBook readers, like the Nook, allow you to share a book with one other person. Some eBook readers, like the Kindle, allow you to have the same book on different devices at the same time – your Kindle, your iPad, iPod Touch and your iPhone. Most eBooks are in the ePub (electronic publication) format, which is the format recommended by the International Digital Publishing Foundation (IDPF). The ePub format supports DRM (digital rights management), which means that protection can be put on an eBook that would only allow you to read the book on one specific device. Currently, some e-textbooks at universities can only be read and referenced on the computer or eBook reader that they are purchased on. This means if you buy the book using your desktop computer, you could not transfer the book to your Android or iPad and read it there also.
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What you want to become aware of now is how the ePub format works, where you can find books in the ePub format (both free and paid), and how to get ePub files and get them on the eReader that you use. You can download ePub versions of books that are in the public domain for free from http://www.epubbooks.com Once you’ve downloaded the ePub file that has the extension .epub you can: • Drag it to iTunes to upload and read it with the free iBook app on your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad • Read ePub on your Macintosh or Windows computer using free reader Stanza (http://lexcycle.com) or free Mobipocket Reader (http://mobipocket. com) • Use FBreader (http://fbreader.com) for Unix or Windows • Read it on your Android with Aldiko (http://aldiko.com) You may already have some eBooks in other formats that you downloaded from Gutenberg.org where you can find thousands of titles. What you need now is an application that will take any format of eBook – provided it is not protected with DRM – and convert it to ePub format to read on your eBook reader. For this, download the free eBook management application called Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com). Calibre is a sophisticated program that does more than convert books to ePub format. It can format online news to read on your mobile device, too. But most importantly, Calibre can convert a wide range of digital eBook formats into the ePub format to load onto your eReader of choice. Learning to read digital materials and create them not only will help you be a savvy college student, but also will help you have the skills media organizations are looking for in new employees, as they try to be more effective and creative in online and mobile content delivery.
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Spring 2011
The Long Weekend Focus on Journalism
Join us on campus at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for The Long Weekend journalism camp June 17-19, open to middle or high school students. For more information, contact ASPA at aspa@ua.edu or visit the website at www.aspa.ua.edu.
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