Quill & Scroll SPRING 2015
CENSORS AND SCHOOLS FREE SPEECH THE ETHICS OF LYING 10 TIPS FOR EDITING
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TEACHER OF THE YEAR APPLY NOW
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IN THIS ISSUE
SPRING 2015 Volume 89 • Issue 2
Magazine of Quill and Scroll International
4. Faced with Lies- Ana Rosenthal
Honorary Society for High School Journalists
5. End of the Year - Staff 6. Book Reviews - Barbara Bealor Hines
12. Hold the Phone - Julie E. Dodd and Judy L. Robinson
l Journalis o o ch
ts
10. For Free Speech - Frank D. LoMonte
High S
9. Censors - Audrey Wagstaff Cunningham
14. Top 10 Editing Tips - Kelsey Johnson 16. Censorship Effect - Maggie Cogar 18. Yearbook Excellence Sweepstakes Winners - Staff
ABOUT THE COVER This photograph by Laura Gilligan of Westlake High School, Austin, Texas, placed second in the 2014 Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society Yearbook Excellence Contest - Feature Photo Division. See the complete list of winners on the Quill and Scroll website quillandscroll.org, where a sampling of winning entries in a CD PowerPoint presentation can be ordered.
Editor and Business Manager Vanessa Shelton Executive Director, Quill and Scroll Society Assistant Editor L.C. Graf Senior, University of Iowa
Contributing Editors Julie E. Dodd Professor, College of Journalism and Mass Communication The University of Florida, Gainesville Bruce E. Konkle Professor, College of Journalism University of South Carolina, Columbia
Book Editor Barbara Bealor Hines Professor Emeritus, Mass Communication and Media Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
KEEP IN TOUCH @quillandscroll
quillandscroll.org 3 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015 quillandscrollsociety
FACED WITH LIES NBC’s Brian Williams reminds us of an all too familiar circumstance. By ANA ROSENTHAL CSPAA 2nd Vice-President Student Publications Adviser, The Hockaday School, Dallas, Texas Everybody lies. People lie all the time. Everyone reading this story, at some point in their life, has lied. We lie so we can look good. We lie because we are afraid that the way we are is not good enough. According to Dr. Salomon Grimberg, an adult and child psychiatrist in Dallas, we lie and invent things because it helps us navigate through life. “People like to tough up themselves so that they can appear better than they are,” Grimberg said. “Even if they are good.” Was Brian Williams navigating through life when he lied in February about being in the helicopter that was attacked in Iraq in 2003? Lying is a very complicated thing to understand, according to Grimberg. Lying has no age or gender barriers. A few years ago in one of my journalism classes, a student was frantically opening all the folders in her computer anxiously looking for the assignment that was due that day. She spent at least the first half of class looking for the document. She couldn’t find it. She kept on looking to no avail. She assured me she had done her homework and, somehow, it had gotten lost. I knew she was lying to me. I told her not to worry and asked her to go to the school’s tech department; surely they would be able to track her computer’s history and help her recover the homework. And find it they did not. I was right; she had been lying to me all along. I was very upset, not because she hadn’t done her homework, but because she had lied to me. So if lying is so normal and everybody does it, why is it so bad? In her book “Lying,” Sissela Bok writes that from a very early age we learn “what is to lie and to be lied to.” But she adds that the most serious miscalculation people make when contemplating whether to lie or not “is to evaluate the costs and benefits of a particular lie in an isolated case, and then to favor lies if the benefits seem to outweigh the costs.” But learning how to weigh and evaluate lies comes with experience. And we learn and understand the consequences of lying as we are growing up. “Lying is more normal for little kids,” Hockaday School’s Upper School Counselor Dr. Margaret Morse said. “The boundaries of reality and a fantasy world are very blurred.” Adolescents are more likely to try on different personas and see what kind of reaction they get. Morse believes that adolescence is a stage of life where lying and taking more risks could be more part of the process — during adolescence you are trying to figure out who you are and your self-concept. “We would be more forgiving to adolescents who lie than to adults because we understand the stage of development they are in,“ Morse said. But she warns, “I’m not saying it is normal, but it can be a higher probability if it happens during that time of your life.” As one gets older, one understands better the social norms and
what is and is not appropriate — and lying becomes not appropriate, she said. Adults by that time should know who they are and be true to who they are, Morse continued. But for people in the public eye such as celebrities, this might be a challenge because they have “an inflated sense of their own importance in the world and their own importance in culture and entertainment,” Dallas Morning News editor and reporter Bruce Tomaso said. And, for people like Brian Williams, this contributes to them doing things to boost their own image. “Maybe they wouldn’t do (these things) if they were just acting like newsmen,” Tomaso said. Tomaso is also an adjunct lecturer in the journalism department in the Southern Methodist University Meadow School of the Arts, and his first lecture every semester about plagiarism and lying is short and simple: “Don’t do it,” he said. “If you do it as a journalism student or journalist you can destroy your career.” Tomaso believes many journalists have been doing it all along but it is just much easier to get caught now. “If there was ever a time when a journalist should not be lying is today because it is so easy to get caught,’ Tomaso said. “And if you get caught the repercussions are so much greater than they were ever in the past.” When a journalist lies and gets away with it, it is a lot easier for him or her to do it again. And when finally caught, they don’t only hurt themselves. They “hurt the whole profession,” Tomaso said. Learning the consequences of lying should be understood from a young age. Morse believes it is better for bad behavior to be snuffed out through reprimanding (and for that matter good behavior rewarded) while young, so the habit of lying isn’t instilled. But the consequences shouldn’t be necessarily about punishment. She recommends consequences that aren’t shaming. The consequences should point out what harm has been done and how that can affect the community. “Some kind of consequence that helps them realize the benefits of being truthful. And to realize that that is the better way to go,” she said. “You don’t want people to be fear-based because it will get them in trouble; you want them to aspire to be better and have higher morals.” And the student who lied to me? I reported her to the school’s Honor Council and they took over. I never knew how they approached her or what the consequences were. I do know, however, that for a while she was not happy with me, but she worked harder and met her deadlines. By the time she graduated, we both had moved on and our relationship had changed — for the better. Consequences should help a young person learn not to make that mistake again in the future; it should allow them to move on, according to Morse. A consequence should teach that you are not a bad person — you just did a bad thing. Because, “every one does it,” Morse said.
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END OF THE YEAR
Memberish induction ceremonies are blooming Quill and Scroll headquarters staff are eagerly adding new members to the honor society. This happens every year about this time, as another school year winds down. New members are nominated by media advisers and teachers throughout the year, but most are inducted in April and May, at the end of the school year. It’s a time when overall academic and media performance the past year is often recognized. For some schools, Quill and Scroll Honor Society inductions are celebratory events that include food, family, administrators and plenty of fun. Banquets, potluck dinners, cakes, cookies, and pizza are common as are award certificates, end-of-the-year video and slideshow presentations, and, of course, the requisite distribution of Quill and Scroll pins and honor cords. A candle-lighting ceremony to induct new members is still a popular fixture at some schools, although many are using battery-operated candles. Scripts for the ceremony, a version with candles and one without, include an induction pledge and are available on the Quill and Scroll website www.quillandscroll.org/ chapters-al-az. The scripts may be adapted to meet each chapter’s needs. Inductions may be planned by school chapters that include students from yearbook, newspaper, online, literary magazine and/or broadcast staffs. Student organized events offer them yet
another leadership experience, one above and beyond the chapter’s service activities and working on the media staff. Other schools prefer to recognize student achievements in a more personable way, distributing membership awards and accolades among the media’s staff. More than 6,000 new members are expected to join Quill and Scroll this spring. It’s an honor that lasts a lifetime. Upon high school graduation, Quill and Scroll members may join the organization’s alumni on Facebook/QuillandScrollAlumni and Linked In/QuillScroll to stay informed about the organization as well as other matters that may be of interest. There’s still time for graduates planning to major in journalism or communications to submit applications for Quill and Scroll scholarships. They should be postmarked no later than May 10. For more information, visit http://quillandscroll.org/ scholarships For those graduating from high school in the future, mark your calendars for Quill and Scroll activities and deadlines: News Media Evaluation service entries are accepted April 1-June 15; Yearbook Excellence Contest postmark deadline is Nov. 1; International Writing, Photo Contest and Blogging Competition deadline is Feb. 5; and applications for scholarships to study journalism or communications in college should be postmarked no later than May 10.
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BOOK REVIEWS By BARBARA BEALOR HINES
Howard University, Professor Emerita, Mass Communication and Media Studies
Entrepreneurship is the buzz word for today. Books featured in this issue of Quill and Scroll look to the business side of industry and help to provide some insight for students looking to create new ventures for their staff or a possible career direction. One, College Poor No More, provides some great hints on ways to score financial success and helps to get those entrepreneurial juices flowing. All of the books have a similar theme: struggles come before success, and the outcome depends on work ethic and passion.
$2495
Steinle, Paul and Sara Brown. Practicing Journalism: The Power and Purpose of the Fourth Estate. Marion Street Press, 2014.
Paul Steinle, former president of United Press International, and his wife, Sara Brown, a human resources management consultant Ph.D., hatched a bold plan. They wanted to find out why, in a time of challenges for newspapers and news workers, many were fighting to stay in the industry serving their communities during all the tumult. They wanted to find out for themselves if journalism was a dying profession. They felt the best way to do it was to conduct face-to-face interviews with editors and publishers across the U.S. What evolved was Practicing
$3595
Banks, Miranda J. The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild. Rutgers University Press, 2014. In today’s electronic age, digital-savvy staff members are looking for options as possible careers. A new book, The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild, may give them some avenues to think about. Written by Miranda J. Banks, an assistant professor of visual and media arts at Emerson College, The Writers features in-depth interviews with more than 50 writers whose talent has shaped popular culture. Among the writers who share their voice and vision are Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Nora Ephron, Ring Lardner, Jr. and Frank Pierson, and nothing is left to chance.
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Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean in for Graduates. Alfred A Knopf. 2014. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg got people talking with her book Lean In, which sold over 1.75 million copies since it was published in 2013. But now she’s come out with Lean In for Graduates, with suggestions for high school and college graduates on how to be successful and happy.
Journalism: The Power and Purpose of the Fourth Estate. Their book includes heartfelt stories from more than 90 journalists representing large, small, privately owned, chain and ethnic newspapers. Readers will hear from journalists from newspapers including The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe, the Navajo Times, La Opinion and The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, to name just a few. It has become a primer for staffs seeking to develop best practices and to learn about commitment and motivation. Steinle, who is now president of Valid Sources, which continues to evolve from this book project, offers six important tips for practicing ethical journalism: Seek the truth and report it, tell the entire story, be responsible: manage your own reporting, ask the difficult questions, don’t back down to authority and remember who you are serving.
Not only does the author provide a clear analysis of film history, she provides insight into the formation of the Writer’s Guild of America, which celebrates its 60th anniversary with the publishing of the book. Banks had full access to the archives of the Writers Guild Foundation, and as such, writes about the important moments in film, ranging from the advent of sound, to the blacklisting of writers, to the advent of technology affecting television and film scholarship and the labor movement. It, too, is a book focusing on struggle and success. Included are chapters on The Artist Employee, Two Front Lines, The Infant Prodigy, Mavericks and Confederation. The historian includes an appendix of screenwriters and selected credits and explains the methodology for the work.
Lean in for Graduates offers sound ideas for students just entering the workforce; it offers chapters from experts on finding and getting the most out of a first job, resume writing, best interviewing practices, negotiating your salary, listening to your inner voice, owning who you are and leaning in for millennial men. The Lean In movement has become an empowering movement for women, and there are now Lean In chapters at college campuses (including Howard University). Sandberg’s book for graduates includes the entire text of the 2013 edition, updated and with the ad-
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ditional chapters and an inspirational letter from Sandberg advising graduates to find and commit to work they love. Lean In for Graduates includes anecdotes from women of differ-
$1495
Higgins, Michelle Perry. College Poor No More: 100 Savings Tips for College Students. New Year Publishing, LLC. 2015 With the semester coming to a close and college in the fall, College Poor No More should be on everyone’s reading list. Written by an awardwinning financial planner, author, and wealth manager, this book helps readers understand the importance of and how to manage their money, to how to live, socialize, travel and survive in college. The tips she provides are ones that will work long after earning the college degree. College Poor No More is also a fun book to read, with illustrations emphasizing important points made in the content. The author
$1995
Hollihan, Kerrie. Reporting Under Fire: 16 Daring Women War Correspondents and Photojournalists. Chicago Review Press. 2014. For students interested in international reporting and photojournalism, this inspirational book features stories about women reporters’ challenges and successes through the years and across the globe. The book is one in the Women of Action series and truly lives up to its title. It is divided by time periods identified as World War I, Between World Wars, the Second World War, A Cold War, Ancient Peoples-Modern Wars, and A Challenge that Never Ends, 1990-Present. By placing these women in their working-life time period, Reporting becomes the first young adult nonfiction title to chronicle the
$30
Carlson, Nicholas. Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! Grand Central Publishing. 2015.
All eyes had been on the young woman tapped to lead Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, and Nicholas Carlson, chief correspondent for Business Insider, was first to produce a corporate history detailing the rise of Yahoo from David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web (after founders David Filo and Jerry Yang), to a multi-billion technology giant with a female, 30-ish chief executive. Carlson writes about Mayer’s rise from her student years at Stanford to her work at Google to her leadership of the Fortune 500 com-
ent ages and backgrounds and is considered lively and entertaining, while garnering kudos for its courage. It has generated a great deal of press, and is useful for both young women and men.
makes the point that “being poor in college is neither a bad thing nor a rare thing…so why not embrace poverty, college- style, for the creative challenge it is?” There are 100 tips in the book ranging from Having the Right Financial Attitude, to Budgets are Sexy, to the Freezer is your Friend, to Clothing Swaps are Hot, to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Don’t Pay Double for Medical Insurance. A final section of the book, Welcome to the Real World, includes a College Budget Sheet, Emergency Reserve Fund and a Credit Card Payoff Tracker. It’s never too early to begin thinking about getting to the point of wealth management. history of women war reporters and photojournalists. Some, including Georgie Anne Geyer, Martha Raddatz and Robin Wright, are bylines and storytellers still working the news. Others like Louise Bryant, Sigrid Schultz, Martha Gellhorn, Margaret Bourke-White and Marguerite Higgins helped create the history of journalism through their work as writers, editors, and photojournalists. Whether it’s writing from behind enemy lines as the Nazis rose to power in the ‘20s and ‘30s, to the ethnic clashes in Tbilisi, Georgia, to the wars in the Middle East, there’s an important theme running through this book about the preparation, commitment and work ethic needed to succeed. School Library Journal calls it “a well-researched and riveting book…Not only do readers gain a healthy respect for each reporter, but they also gain insight into global history. As such, the book reads like a narrative timeline of world history, women’s rights, and the field of journalism as a whole.”
pany. This book was written without the cooperation of the subject, Mayer, but has been cited for its credibility. Carlson’s writing background is steeped in technology and finance: he is a frequent guest on CNBC, has contributed to the Bloomberg biography series, Game Changers, and is known for his investigative reporting about Facebook, Twitter and Groupon. Carlson focuses on the campaign created by Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund billionaire, against the management and board of directors of Yahoo. Loeb purchased a 5 percent stake in the company and started a shareholder activist campaign. Mayer is the fourth CEO during this contentious period of corporate change. The reader feels like an insider: at Mayer’s first meeting with employees to her decision to hire Katie Couric as Yahoo’s Global Anchor.
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GUIDING PRINCIPALS Reaching out to create advocates among administrators
By CARRIE FAUST, MJE
Director-At-Large, Journalism Education Association As a third-year adviser, I applied for a position in a school where a former adviser served as part of the administration team. For the next two years she was my mentor and evaluator. Through my work with her, she educated me on my role and responsibilities as an adviser while we worked together to educate the rest of the administrative team on the rights and responsibilities of scholastic journalists. Those two years created the solid foundation on which Smoky Hill High School’s scholastic journalism is built, and through which Smoky Hill has earned the 2015 First Amendment Press Freedom Award from JEA, some 11 years later. The experience that I have had as an adviser, thanks in large part to my supportive administration, has allowed me to become an advocate for other programs through the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission. When it came time for my master’s project at Kent State University, it seemed a perfect fit to focus on providing resources and training for administrators to become scholastic journalism experts in their own schools. When the newly-elected JEA board met last May at JEA’s national headquarters at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, the first order of business was to set goals that would direct JEA’s decision-making for the next three years. After a morning of discussion and brainstorming led by Executive Director Kelly Furnas, the following guiding ideas were set: •
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•
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Create partnerships with higher education departments to conduct research in the areas of journalism teacher retention/attrition and the effectiveness of established scholastic journalism curriculum by February 2016. Develop and implement a revised convention model for the spring conference with a plan presented by end of 2015. Increase participation in First Amendment programming (FAPFA applications, 45words student partners, First Amendment Fund donations, monthly page views on jeasprc.org, Making a Difference submissions) by 300 percent by January 2016. Increase administrator participation in JEA programming, including increased representation from administrator groups, administrator chaperones and Administrator of the Year award nominations. Increase JEA profile in journalism and scholastic journalism with partnerships equaling $100,000 by end of 2017.
Because of my positive working relationship with administrators, I am excited to work toward achieving the fourth goal, focused on administrators, with the members of the JEA Principal Outreach Committee. The committee of eight advisers will strive to increase the engagement of administrators in scholastic journalism. The JEA Principal Outreach Committee members are: Linda Ballew, MJE, Erin Coggins, MJE, Annie GorensteinFalkenberg, CJE, Stephanie Hanlon, Leslie Shipp, MJE, Matthew Smith, and Tom Winski, MJE. The positive working relationship that I have established with my administration makes me excited to lead the work of this committee, which will focus solely on this
important JEA goal. While this will be an ongoing initiative for our organization, the first phase will focus our efforts on creating a comprehensive resource for administrators at our newest site: principals.jea.org, launched at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in Denver this April. This site features frequently asked questions from the administrator’s perspective, important scholastic press court cases and their implications in the classroom, training materials, links to resources and organizations that can help administrators working with the scholastic press, and testimonials from administrators who are advocates for the journalism programs in their schools. Organizations like the Journalism Education Association, Quill and Scroll and the Student Press Law Center readily recognize that scholastic journalism programs address, perhaps more comprehensively than any other program, the needs of modern education. Our curriculum easily aligns with Common Core State Standards; as shown in our JEA Curriculum Initiative, our methodology fosters the development of essential 21st Century Skills, and our courses are steeped in the “4 C’s” of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking that projectbased learning requires. Unfortunately, administrators who already face public scrutiny over test scores, reduced budgets, and college-readiness often see student free expression through journalism as a potential liability for the school. As a result, the school and its students miss out on all of the benefits having a strong journalism program can bring. Over the next two years, the committee will work to connect with administrators through JEA programming and award opportunities. More importantly, we will strive to ensure that every principal and administrator knows that JEA is a partner to them in creating a comprehensive, American educational experience that includes an ongoing dedication to the ideals of participatory citizenship that can be taught through scholastic journalism programs. Administrators in charge of running schools are not the experts in scholastic journalism; scholastic journalism advisers and their students are the resident experts in each school. While many advisers across the country work to educate the administrators in their own buildings, the Principal Outreach Committee would like to see administrators educated on the benefits of a free and responsible student press in their licensure programs and district cohorts. By dedicating easy-to-access resources to help our principals and administrators better understand the nuances of scholastic press law, we can raise the level of communication and cooperation between student, adviser and administrator. Few know the school and its community better than the administrative team, and when administrators and advisers work together to support a free and responsible student press, they create the opportunity for students to create a product that benefits the community, engages the students, and develops an informed and proactive citizenry. It is our sincere belief that through discussion and education, administrators can become the advocates scholastic journalism needs.
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CENSORS
By AUDREY WAGSTAFF CUNNINGHAM, PH.D Assistant Professor of Communication, Hiram College
While participation in high school journalism has been proven to be advantageous in preparing students for college, for some, the risks may outweigh the rewards. Among those most concerned about the content of studentproduced media are school administrators. But what is it that makes them so nervous, despite Jack Dvorak’s 2008 Newspaper Association of America Foundation study that shows students who participate in journalism programs really do “do better”? And why do school officials choose to censor these media, thereby squelching the free press rights of their students? One argument suggests that administrators are concerned about how controversial content will affect the younger, more vulnerable members of the student body. As in the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case, where a principal censored a story package about teenage pregnancy, divorce, running away, and other issues plaguing youth, administrators are concerned that the content of these publications is simply too mature for their audience. This is best explained in W. Phillips Davison’s 1983 Third-Person Effect Hypothesis study, which suggests that people “overestimate the influence that mass communications have on the attitudes and behavior of others.” And, when people believe that media content may negatively affect others, they have a tendency to support restricting – or censoring – that content. In the case of high school principals, they are in a unique position to censor student speech, and often do so by misapplying legal precedent. For example, they might use the Hazelwood decision to justify censoring a story about sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) by claiming that the story is disruptive to the educational mission of the school. Included among the most controversial stories are those about teenage sex (e.g., STIs, pregnancy), drug and alcohol use, political issues, and those criticizing the school. Thus, stories with these subjects are most widelycensored in scholastic media, according to researchers Bowen and Wagstaff in 2008. However, it is plausible that administrators are not only concerned with how exposure to this type of content might affect their students, but are also worried about how outsiders may perceive a school that publishes this type of content in its student-produced newspaper. In other words, the administrator may view the student newspaper or TV station as a public relations vehicle for the school. In a national survey of 187 public high school principals from nearly all 50 states and
the District of Columbia, I discovered that high school administrators most certainly exhibit a tendency to believe that the content of student-produced media affects others more than themselves. Here’s a little background on those principals: On average, the administrators who completed the survey had 13.8 years of experience as principals and a mean age of 48.3 years. Roughly 69 percent of them were men, and nearly 98 percent of them had completed a master’s degree. In terms of experience, 7.5 percent had been journalism teachers, and 16 percent had been student media advisers. I asked these principals to consider how desirable a purposively vague hypothetical story about teenagers engaging in sexual activity would be. Not surprisingly, the majority reported that the story was quite undesirable, and, if given the chance, they would censor it, not only to protect the students in their school from ill effects, but also to protect the school’s reputation. After all, what local taxpayer wants to shell out money for a tax levy to support a school where students produce a newspaper that contains stories about sex? Knowing this tendency, what can student journalists and their advisers do? Perhaps most important is to know the law and be able to articulate it to your principal. Understand the differences among cases like Tinker v. Des Moines, Bethel v. Fraser, Hazelwood, and Morse v. Frederick. For example, you should know that a story about the ill effects of smoking marijuana is not censorable under the Morse decision as it does not advocate for the use of illegal drugs. In addition, strive to earn your principal’s trust by publishing good, sound journalism and by having an open dialogue about the content of your media product. If there’s a story about a school board member accused of embezzling funds from the district and you’re covering it (which you should!), let your principal know, and assure him or her that you are researching and producing a legally and ethically sound piece. Finally, make sure that your publication has a public forum policy, and operates as a public forum. Sell advertising to support printing or licensing costs, distribute and promote your media in your community, and welcome letters to the editor and comments. If you tell good stories, people from your school – and beyond – will want to read/watch/listen to them. And you will be fulfilling your duty to be the “watchdog” for your fellow classmates and advisers. 9 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
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FOR FREE SPEECH
North Dakota legislature considers free expression bill. Here’s a look at the arguments for and against scholastic media censorship.
By FRANK D. LOMONTE Executive Director Student Press Law Center
As this magazine goes to press, North Dakota legislators are debating whether to join the list of states that offer extra-strength legal protection to insulate student journalists against censorship. Because federal courts have decided that the First Amendment provides only minimal rights for student journalists working in school-funded media, journalism advocates have been forced to turn to the states for help. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1988 ruling weakening student journalists’ rights, Hazelwood School District v. Kulhmeier, marks the least free-speech protection schools can give to student journalists. But states (or districts or schools) can always offer more rights than the constitutional minimum – they just can’t offer less. After the Supreme Court’s Hazelwood ruling, a wave of states adopted laws restricting schools’ censorship authority (sometimes referred to as “anti-Hazelwood laws”). Seven states – Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts and Oregon – now have laws giving students in public K-12 schools heightened rights. (California’s unique laws go even further, protecting the rights of students at private as well as public schools.) An eighth state, Illinois, protects student journalists only at the college level. Washington, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia give students enhanced rights through Board of Education regulations rather than laws passed by legislatures. How do “anti-Hazelwood” laws work? Anti-Hazelwood laws typically give schools a limited checklist of the material they can force student editors to change or remove – such as libel, obscenity, or material that threatens to provoke illegal behavior. Anything short of that line is legally protected speech, and if a school attempts to censor it, the student can take the school to court. The proposed North Dakota law shares an important feature with those in California and Kansas – it expressly protects teachers as well as students. A teacher in those states cannot be punished for refusing to censor her students’ legally protected speech. Even in states that give students the right to challenge censorship decisions in state court, lawsuits involving student journalism are very rare. The most recent one was brought by a journalism teacher, not a student, and it illustrates how anti-Hazelwood laws can come to the rescue when schools overreact.
In a 2011 case (Lange v. Diercks), Iowa teacher Ben Lange went to court to clear his name after his principal put a reprimand in his personnel file for refusing to censor his students’ “April Fools’ Day” humor edition. The parody newspaper included items that Lange’s school believed might undermine respect for the law and for school rules (for example, a doctored photo of the chemistry teacher alongside an article about the teacher’s fictional arrest for cooking crystal meth in the chemistry lab). Lange cited Iowa’s Student Free Expression Law and said he couldn’t be blamed for “letting” the students publish the humor issue, since it would have been illegal to stand in the way. The Iowa Court of Appeals agreed that the students’ work was legally protected – making fun of school rules is not the same thing as inciting people to break the rules – and ordered the school to restore Lange’s clean record. Lessons from North Dakota Until state Rep. Alex Looysen filed House Bill 1471 in the North Dakota legislature this year, progress on improving student free-speech rights had stalled. No state had passed an anti-Hazelwood bill since Oregon in 2007. Advocates in Connecticut, Kentucky and Washington have tried to pass laws in their states, but the bills have gone nowhere. Several essential ingredients came together in North Dakota: (1) Journalism students from the University of Jamestown took the lead, preparing a draft bill and meeting with state legislators to make their case many months before a bill was actually filed; (2) The state’s largest professional newspapers enthusiastically supported the bill and published editorials endorsing it; (3) Legislators from both parties signed onto the bill as sponsors, making it clear that student press rights are not a Democrat/Republican or liberal/conservative issue but are of equal concern to everyone; (4) The state school administrators’ association and the leaders of the state’s largest colleges did nothing to oppose the bill, and some even publicly endorsed it.
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Getting beyond the myths Every successful campaign for reforming Hazelwood starts with committed – and patient – students and educators who do their homework. An essential part of that homework is anticipating, and preparing good answers for the skeptics who believe teenagers aren’t trustworthy enough to edit their own publications. With a little research, it’s easy to disprove the myths about student press freedom. It is a myth that schools need the Hazelwood level of control to protect themselves against being sued for libelous stories their students publish. Schools have the authority to remove libelous material even in anti-Hazelwood states. Schools almost never get sued over what students publish in student media, and there is no record of any court case in history that ended with a school being forced to pay anything to a person harmed by student media. It simply doesn’t happen. It is a myth that denying schools the Hazelwood level of authority means “anything goes” and that student journalists will run wild. Reversing the impact of Hazelwood just returns schools to the level of control the Supreme Court established in its 1969 Tinker case. Under Tinker, schools may restrict speech that threatens a “substantial disruption” of school activities – the standard that applies today to T-shirts,
hairstyles and other “non-curricular” speech. It is nowhere near the same freedom that The New York Times or other off-campus, adult media enjoy. It is a myth that school administrators need Hazelwood authority so they can “edit” students’ work and teach better journalism. In reality, that is not the way censorship authority is used. Students who call the SPLC when they’ve been censored most often report that (a) the only reason they were given is that their journalism “makes the school look bad” or (b) they were given no reason at all. It is a myth that administrative censorship is standard practice in all schools. Surveys of students and teachers attending the National High School Journalism Convention in each of the last three years have consistently found that mandatory “prior review” by school administrators is practiced in only a small minority of schools. The most effective arguments against school censorship are educational and not legal ones. Everyone agrees that ethical decision-making is an essential life skill that schools should do better at teaching. When a principal rewrites an accurate story to convey a falsely upbeat image of the school, or kills a well-researched editorial because it might call attention to students’ dissatisfaction, that behavior serves as a negative ethical role model for the entire school.
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HOLD THE PHONE By JULIE E. DODD
University of Florida journalism professor
JUDY L. ROBINSON
Digital technology specialist
How much time do you spend every day on your cellphone? How much of that time is purposeful versus just filling up your time? Do you sometimes feel like your phone is ruling your life – or the lives of your family members or friends? Now’s the time to consider some of those issues with fun activities that ask you to consider how purposeful and intentional your phone use is. We’re sharing some ideas from the Bored and Brilliant project, created by the New Tech City podcast (http://www.wnyc. org/shows/newtechcity/). Manoush Zomorodi, host of the New Tech City podcast, led the week-long project designed to help listeners take more control of their phone use. By using their phones less spontaneously, listeners would have more time for unstructured free thought, which would lead to more creativity. First, you need to determine how much time you are spending on your phone every day. We’re talking about your screen time – texting, emailing, using apps, taking photos. (Talking on the phone doesn’t count in your screen time.) New Tech City recommended two apps to calculate minutes of screen time – the Apple app Moment and the Android app BreakFree. (Both apps are free, but beware that both apps have some limitations in accurately tracking your phone time.) Here are three of the Bored and Brilliant challenges that we thought you’d find most interesting:
1
For one day, when you’re on the bus, in the car, or on the sidewalk, keep your phone in your pocket or bag.
Without being on your phone, you will be more aware of your surroundings and can let your mind wander. One of the themes for the Bored and Brilliant project was that you could have more creative insights and ideas if you weren’t filling your free time with texting, Candy Crush, or other screen activities. A finding from the Bored and Brilliant project was that putting your phone in your bag -- not having your phone next to your body, where you can feel the vibration with each incoming message or call – makes a big difference.
2
For one day, don’t use that one app that takes too much of your time. The New Tech City challenge said to delete the app, but that is too extreme for most of us. You’d have trouble installing the app again if it requires an email address – or you could lose your high score.
Photo Illustration by Catie Flatley, University of Florida
3
For one day, don’t take any photos.
The reason for not taking photos? We may be so busy taking photos and uploading them or texting them that we aren’t paying attention to what we’re taking photos of. We took the picture of our lunch and uploaded it to Instagram but didn’t talk with the people we’re eating lunch with. We took photos of the ballgame and tweeted them but weren’t really following the game. A key part of Bored and Brilliant is for you to reflect on your experiences. What are you doing more of if you aren’t having as much screen time? After taking the challenges, how would you like to modify your phone use in an on-going way? You may find that the challenges will be more interesting to explore with a friend or your family. You can talk with each other about each challenge as you take it on, help each other keep honest, and then decide what would be good modifications to make.
Resolve to be more purposeful in how you use your phone.
12 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
You’re here.
You learned in high school that journalists don’t just find great stories. We craft them through careful research and precision storytelling across multiple platforms. But now it’s time for the next level, so the only real question is ...
Where will you be when lightning strikes? W
Lightning striking NIU’s Holmes Student Center in 2012.
e hope you’ll be at Northern Illinois University, where generations of award-winning journalists and public relations pros have trained. Whatever your niche - print, broadcast, online, photography, videography, or all of the above - our degree will prepare you to succeed in a multimedia and multicultural environment that’s changing even as you read this. Here’s a taste of what we offer: • Valuable internships in the Chicago media market • Scholarships • Summer journalism camps • Nationally recognized student newspaper • Award-winning broadcast journalism in state-of-the-art facilities • Student Film and Video Association
Visit www.niu.edu today! Facebook/NIUDeptofComm or scan this QR code.
13 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
10 TOP EDITING TIPS By KELSEY L. JOHNSON University of Iowa
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These experienced editors shared their best practices with Quill and Scroll. Use their advice to improve your editing skills and inspire your staff to make every media production your best! “You will become a better editor by reading everything. Grab books, newspapers, magazines, Kindles, iPads or whatever you get your hands on to learn different writing styles. Newspaper articles offer structure, creativity and substance. Different kinds of books (sci-fi, romance, autobiographies, contemporary novels, history books, poetry) also will help you to expand your grammar and imagination.”
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“Be inquisitive; ask questions. As an editor, I consider myself the reader’s reader. Copy editors are the last line of defense. We work on print and online products, so we have to ask questions that readers might have when reading the stories online or the next morning. Editors and reporters strive to maintain the credibility of the publication so that readers will return. For example, if you post statuses on Facebook, send out tweets on Twitter or write a blog, you want to write (and edit) interesting content so that you will have repeat visitors. The same thing goes for the newspaper’s print and website.”
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“Play well with others: Editors should try to maintain the writer’s voice. In other words, don’t rewrite a reporter’s story but edit responsibly.” -Diane Hawkins, The Courier-Journal, Copy Editor “Keep your sentences simple. Long, convoluted sentences just slow down the readers and impede their understanding of what you are writing. Two shorter sentences are easier to comprehend that one long sentence with a couple of clauses.” “Strive for crisp ledes. A well-crafted lede that is short and to the point will grab readers’ attention more quickly than a lede that delays busy readers from getting to the point of your story.”
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“In longer stories, don’t assume busy readers are keeping track of who the various people are in the story. There’s nothing more frustrating for a reader than having to stop and scan backwards through a story, trying to find the first reference to someone. Frustrated readers are more likely to give up and move on to another story.”
-Randy Evans, recently retired Opinion Editor, The Des Moines Register
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“Don’t order people around. Instead, nudge. As editors, our job is to get the story (or the photo or the page) right and to get it in on deadline. But an even bigger part of our job is to nurture and develop talent. It’s hard to do that if we’re ordering folks around and telling them what to do. This might get the job done or the deadline met, but it also breaks down their confidence.” “Don’t do things because they’re cool or different. Do them in order to tell a great story. Or to help make a story great. I come from the visual side, where way too many folks do stuff simply because it looks cool or because they saw it in a magazine or newspaper or website they admire. Tell the story first. Concentrate on that first. Do it clearly and crisply. If it looks cool, then terrific. But don’t let that be your first consideration.”
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“Respect the deadline. I’ve worked in newsrooms large and small. But some of the worst experiences I’ve had were caused by folks who got so wrapped up in their own work that they disrespected other folks’ deadlines. I don’t care how good they are: If you can’t hit deadline, then your stuff is no good. The best, most brilliant colleagues I’ve worked with will find a way to get the job done on time.”
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“Plan ahead. Learn how to build a backout schedule. That will help you make deadline. Look ahead at important anniversaries on your beat and make plans in advance to give them the attention they need. If you don’t have time - or can’t make time - to plan, then you’re not doing it right.”
-Charles Apple, Orange County Register, Focus Page Editor
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A special thanks to the Quill and Scroll for providing talent and expertise in the judging of the 2014 REVERE Awards. TEACHERS: We need you as judges!
Would you like to Explore new and innovative learning solutions? Meet with fellow teachers who share your spirit of discovery? Get some free materials to use in your classroom? Become a judge! The REVERE Awards program is the most prestigious program in the learning resource community. Evaluations by teachers are critical to the judging process and are a distinguishing feature of the REVEREs. Apply today by contacting Linda Swank at lswank@publishers.org or by calling 267-351-4322. 15 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
www.REVEREAwards.org
CENSORSHIP EFFECT By MAGGIE COGAR Center for Scholastic Journalism Graduate student Kent State University A recent study suggests censorship of student publications lowers the overall quality of the publication. The study finds a connection between censorship practices in high schools and lower overall quality of work when judged in competition. The study, conducted of the 31 schools that entered the Ohio Scholastic Media Association (OSMA) state contest in 2014, examined censorship practices of student publications in relation to overall contest rating. Material from the judged contest critiques and published editorial pages were used as contextual support of the findings. Publications that faced no censorship from administration, or where students made all final content decisions and administrators did not see content before publication, were more likely to get a higher overall rating in the state contest than publications that faced some sort of censorship practice before publication (i.e. prior review as a form of indirect censorship and prior restraint as direct censorship). Student publications that face a high degree of administrative censorship, or where the school admits to administrative prior review and restraint before content publication, are 85 percent less likely to have a higher rating as compared to schools where no censorship practices take place and a policy exists to prevent administrative review of content before publication. These findings indicate where a free and open press exists, or where a policy preventing censorship practices is officially established and implemented, judges rated content of the student publication higher and, more specifically, made more positive remarks in the opinion writing and leadership categories of the rubric. Of the 31 schools entered into the contest, five were rated at the highest level of “All-Ohio.” Each of these schools was free of censorship practices of any kind and had a published editorial policy, which directly stated the publication, was a “forum for student expression” (see Table 1 for overall percentages and results on page 19). The schools that dealt with more controversial content were free from censorship and had better overall judging comments regarding the content of the publication than schools with censorship practices in place, and thus schools with lower ratings. Judges’ comments on the overall contest critique sheets gave publications with no censorship more favorable feedback, using phrases such as “excellent comprehensive coverage” and “excellent leadership.” Schools that had any type of censorship practices in place more often received unfavorable comments from
the judges. These schools were often criticized for not having “in-depth coverage” or lacking “substantive news coverage” all together and their editorial pages were critiqued in an especially negative light, with judges often commenting on the weak opinion articles and editorials. Judges called editorials in these publications “trite,” “cliché,” and “light-hearted,” where editorials in noncensored student publications were labeled “sound,” “argumentative” and “well-researched.” These contrasting comments illuminate the content differences between student publications with more press freedom, or that operate as open public forums, versus publications that experience more administrative control. Overall, where those censorship practices were in place, publications rated lower in the contest and judging remarks seemed to take a more negative tone, suggesting more “voice” was needed in the student publication. The main limitation of this research is its sample size. Given the identified population, the research was limited to the 31 schools that entered the OSMA state contest. This small sample size is not indicative of all the schools in the state with a journalism program and thus the results cannot be completely representative of all schools with a journalism program. Future research will focus on including contest results from additional states in an attempt to get a larger sample size, make results more representative, and compare findings among different state scholastic press associations. This study found that censorship is negatively impacting the quality of scholastic media publications, and thus the pedagogical process for students. These results indicate if a student publication operates free of administrative control and censorship practices, it is more likely to have stronger content and a better overall contest rating than publications where the administration routinely reviews content, or even threatens to review content. Therefore, future research should focus on answering larger questions such as why censorship continues in high schools across the country, despite the proven negative consequences of such practices.
*The research study discussed in this article (The Impact of Forum Status on Content in Scholastic Media: A mixed-methods analysis of Ohio high school publications) was conducted by Maggie Cogar, a graduate student at Kent State University, and presented at the AEJMC midwinter meeting in 2015.
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OVERALL CONTEST RATINGS BY FORUM TYPE No censorship occurs & publication policy prevents administrative review
Censorship practices may/may not occur; no policy exists to prevent administrative review
16 26 19 3
Censorship occurs; school admits to prior review & restraint
% ALL OHIO RATING
% 1ST PLACE RATING
10
% 1ST PLACE RATING
2ND PLACE RATING
2ND PLACE RATING
3RD PLACE RATING
6.5
%
3RD PLACE RATING
*31 schools entered the competition
R HSJI
L E A R N . C R E AT E . E X P L O R E .
High School Journalism Institute 2015 summer journalism workshops at Indiana University for high school students and advisers
STUDENT SKILLS WORKSHOPS July 6-10, July 12-16 Students learn new skills and sharpen existing talents to help prepare their schools’ publications and media projects for the coming school year.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE WORKSHOPS July 12-16 Converged newsrooms provide hands-on learning experiences for high school journalists. Students function as a newsroom staff to produce multimedia stories in a range of subject matter.
ADVISER OPPORTUNITIES Independent Study for Journalism Educators (June 22-July 24), Staff Retreat (July 6-10), Practicum (July 6-10, July 12-16) Registration opens in February.
1ST PLACE RATING
%
%
%
6.5 3
%
journalism.indiana.edu/hsji
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10
% 3RD PLACE RATING
YEARBOOK EXCELLENCE The 2014 Yearbook Excellence Contest is presented by QUILL AND SCROLL and the following partners; BALFOUR, HERFF JONES, JOSTENS, PICABOO YEARBOOKS, and WALSWORTH.
The Quill and Scroll Yearbook Excellence Contest and partners proudly present the 2014 Yearbook Sweepstakes Winners. Over 1,600 entries were evaluated. For a complete list of winners in the Yearbook Excellence Contest please visit our website at quillandscroll.org. THEME DEVELOPMENT BLAKE WARANCH Boone HS – A Orlando, FL ANNA KONING Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA STUDENT LIFE AMELIA KINSINGER McKinney HS – A McKinney, TX HAYLEY PARK Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA ACADEMICS ELLEN HONAS Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park, KS HARRISON WILSON Notre Dame de Sion HS – B Kansas City, MO CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS ELLEN HONAS Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park, KS HAYLEY PARK Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA SPORTS SAVANNAH RATTANAVONG Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park, KS LEXI CHURCHILL Notre Dame de Sion HS – B Kansas City, MO PEOPLE MICHELLE MADRID Texas HS – A
Texarkana, TX KELTON MURPHY Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA ADVERTISING REAGAN SUNDERY Timberland HS – A Wentzville, MO DAILON SMITH White Oak School – B White Oak, TX SPORTS ACTION PHOTO ANDREW BAGGETT Westlake HS – A Austin, TX ALYSSA FAUGHN Twentynine Palms HS – B Twentynine Palms, CA ACADEMIC PHOTO BRYAN CHAVEZ El Dorado HS – A El Paso, TX GREYDON WILLIAMS Buffalo Island Central HS – B Monette, AR STUDENT LIFE PHOTO ANDREA JOHNSON Southside HS – A Fort Smith, AR DANIEL CARMICHAEL Buffalo Island Central HS – B Monette, AR CLUBS/ORGANIZATIONS PHOTO DOMINIC HERNANDEZ El Dorado HS – A El Paso, TX MARY TRUJILLO Tucumcari HS – B Tucumcari, NM FEATURE PHOTO MARY THAIER Rockwood Summit HS – A Fenton, MO YOLANDA ARELLANO Tucumcari HS – B 18 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
Tucumcari, NM GRAPHIC DESIGN ANNA LAM Johnston HS – A Johnston, IA JOSH HAMPTON White Oak ISD – B White Oak, TX PHOTO ILLUSTRATION CAMERON MCCARTY Francis Howell North HS – A St. Charles, MO HANNAH WIEDTIZ Mount Vernon HS – B Mount Vernon, IA INDEX ANDREW NEVINS Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park. KS ANNA KONING Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA HEADLINE WRITING AND DESIGN JOE ROUBINEK Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park, KS NOUR HUSSEIN White Oak ISD – B White Oak, TX CAPTION WRITING ANDREW NEVINS Shawnee Mission North HS – A Overland Park, KS BRITTIN SCHNEIDER Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA PERSONALITY PROFILES COURTNEY WANG Westlake HS – A Austin, TX CASSIDY BROWN Arrowhead Christian Academy – B Redlands, CA
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In my chapter of Quill and Scroll Society, I have found a tight-knit family sharing the same passion for journalism as I have. — Carley Lanich, Lawrence Central High School graduate
It’s an honor!
Quill and Scroll INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY FOR HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISTS
u o r J nali l o o s h c Quill and Scroll Stylebook ($2.00)
ts
High S
Quill and Scroll has recognized and encouraged scholastic journalism and academic excellence since 1926. Its services include:
Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism ($5.00) Advertising Survival Kit ($3.00) How to Conduct a High School Poll ($3.00) Ethics in Action Workbook ($5.50) Contest-winners PowerPoint Presentations on CDs ($15.00)
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19 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015
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QUILL & SCROLL Official Magazine of the International Honorary Society for High School Journalists 100 Adler Journalism Bldg., Room E346 Iowa City, IA 52242-2004
20 • Quill & Scroll • Spring 2015