PANIC BUTTON!
Any JEA member needing assistance or just a comforting chat can now use the press rights commission’s panic button to locate someone in their state who can be of service.
The idea is to make quickly available resources for assistance. This outreach capability is a direct result of JEA’s Adviser Assistance Program designed to combat censorship hassles advisers and students might face.
The panic button leads to an interactive map of contacts. Mouse over your state and information will pop up identifying contacts.
Other resources include the Student Press Law Center, regional directors and the press rights commission.
Thanks to Kent State University Center for Scholastic Journalism graduate assistant Stacy Stevenson for developing the interactive map.
Additional essential resources for legal and ethical information and guidance:
• Student Press Law Center is the premier site for legal and ethical advice, detailed information and the ability to ask legal expert question. The information is vast, with soon-to-be-added lesson plan and teaching resources.
• JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission Web site for everything from sample editorial policies to JEA’s Six Tenets of Responsible Journalism and how they can help prevent censorship situation.
•Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press is an excellent Web site and resource for a myriad of information about legal and ethical issues as well as reporting and information gathering issues.
• The Poynter Institute and NewsU are two wonderful sites for information that will strengthen your journalism program. The Poynter links here go to ethical issues. Another continues the list and a third goes to online and multimedia ethics tips. The NewsU link goes to courses offered for commercial journalists and collegiate and scholastic media students.
• Journalists’ Toolbox is a product of the Society of Professional Journalists This particular link goes to ethics, but in particular to copyright and plagiarism resources.
• Freedom Forum/First Amendment Center plenty of good resources in terms of lessons and articles as well as research for the classroom and/or situations where you need background and philosophical rationale.
• High School Journalism.org is an excellent resource for lesson plans and relatively current information about issues in scholastic journalism. Lots of information for students, too.
The last two sites are less for legal and ethical issues and more for overall journalism excellence.
• High School Broadcast Journalism Project features a range of advice, lessons and teaching resources for broadcast programs.
• The Newseum covers a wealth of historical and philosophical information and programs on journalism, and is an excellent resource of what are current newspaper design trends.
Essential Documents for journalism students and advisers
• JEA/AEJMC Model editorial policy
• JEA statement against prior review
• Sample open forum editorial policies
Quick ways to avoid the big C (censorship):
• Be accurate in your reporting is a key requisite for good reporting. The slightest error or omission or grammar mistake can persuade a reader the reporting is flawed. It can also give those who want to control reporting an opportunity to do so by citing obvious flaws. Your credibility is built on how accurate you can be. Prior review and censorship are only designed to limit or destroy accuracy.
• Be thorough and complete in your reporting as sometimes it is not enough to just present information but also to put that information in perspective. What seems like a single issue of point today might have a long history that completes the information audiences need to make informed decisions. Reporting can be slanted by omission as much as by viewpoint, so be thorough in finding all relevant information.
• Use multiple and credible sources to give all stakeholders a voice. Find the best and most credible resources – live and nonlive – to help tell and show all angles and all affected. Think ahead to what questions audiences might have and try to answer them all. All relevant viewpoints should have a voice. The more credible and reliable sources used, the more comprehensive and effective the reporting.
• Follow professional standards that include legal and ethical approaches that are defendable. Just because students can report a story does not mean they should; just because administrators can call for prior review and restraint (censorship) does not mean they should. Work to find common definitions of journalism, journalistic responsibility and accountability and then practice them.
• Think through the implications of what your students are reporting, how they are reporting it and why they are reporting it. It is the adviser’s job to help students think along these lines. Think of the possible danger points but instead of creating red lights empower green lights that support successful publication of information. Anticipate what challenges or questions various audiences might raise and know how to respond.
Watch this space grow.