Suppose you were in the position to help administrators better understand journalism, its roles, its value and importance. What would you want to have available in the way of materials and information in the following areas:

• Certification and adviser training

• Curriculum

• Professional standards

• “Responsible journalism”

• Legal and ethical issues

• Newspaper/print journalism

• Yearbook journalism

• Broadcast journalism

• Online journalism

• Other

Help us put together packets for a major project to do just that. What worked with your administrators? What do you wish you had available?

Leave your comments here or open a discussion. We are looking for many points of view.

As my colleague and good friend Jan Leach keeps rightfully reminding me, the toughest choices we make are about questions of right versus right.

That thought is also at the core of an online ethics course for scholastic and collegiate media teachers I teach for the first time this fall.

And I wonder if it is also at the core of trying to bridge what seems to be a growing gap between media advisers and school administrators.

Illinois journalism adviser Randy Swikle said it well many times: on what can We Agree?

To me, the core principles we should be able to agree on include accuracy, completeness, transparency and honesty, all in pursuit of truth. To achieve those I would add the educational values of critical thinking, decision-making, responsibility and civic engagement.

I am sure there are more we might have in common or might be able to agree upon.

What do you think?

What would you add? Share your thoughts below. It might make a difference.

We continue to raise  the question, borrowed partially from a recent ethics workshop at Kent State University: What Values?

What value is there in prior review by anyone outside the student media staff? Even if administrators can claim some sort of legal allowance stating they can, what are the ethical and educational  values indicating they should? Who gains? Who is harmed? What elements of the school mission are fulfilled? How does the action serve truth and accuracy?

Along this line is a relatively new upshot on prior review (maybe not new, but certainly new to this timeframe): The superintendent as publisher; the principal as editor and the adviser as assistant adviser.

The students: certainly not getting a journalism education.

We would again ask: What is the educational value? How does this address the greater good? Who benefits? Who is harmed? What are students learning about the values of a school system that removes them from the process of critical thinking and decision making –  and also puts their teacher and principal in legal harm’s way?

What values – educational or otherwise – are at play?

Speaking of What Values, those teachers interested in lesson plans to address journalism ethics and discussions on online ethics have a free source.

The plans are available for high schools to supplement Kent State-Poynter What Values? workshop Sept. 17. Download materials at the workshop site by scrolling down to the lesson plan button. You can also follow the discussions on online journalism ethics from the workshop.