RESEARCH: Student media coverage of censorship and press freedom

Student news organizations have long experienced various forms of censorship.

Abstract

This qualitative pilot study (N=46) examines articles on college newspaper websites to explore how student news organizations cover issues of press freedom and censorship. The researchers used a grounded theory approach to explore common themes of coverage and potential differences between private and public institutions’ approach to such topics. The findings indicate there are four broad areas of interest: explanation of the role of journalism, industry challenges, censorship, and college-specific issues of press freedom and speech. This pilot study will serve to inform a larger content analysis.

Introduction

According to the Student Press Law Center, censorship is “any restrictions on your publication’s coverage or operations by anyone who works for the school or is acting on behalf of the school (like student government officials)” (Dean 2021, para. 1). Outright acts of censorship can be seen, for example, when in 2013, The Fauman at Florida A&M University was “suspended from publishing, its adviser removed and its staff told they must reapply for their positions” (Gregory 2013). In a case study of different college newsrooms, it was found that “that administrators who engage in censorship appear to do so when the newspaper publishes unflattering coverage of the university” (Matlock 2021, 97). Continue reading “RESEARCH: Student media coverage of censorship and press freedom”

First CMA Confab devoted to building trust in media

Sifting through misinformation to get to the real story

  • CMA CONFAB: The midterm elections are on the horizon, and college journalists must grapple with reaching their audiences while sifting through misinformation along the campaign trail. This session aims to provide tips on how to navigate the political free-for-all while getting down to the issues.
  • ORGANIZER: Fredrick Batiste, College Media Association, vice president, member training
  • SPEAKER: Lynn Walsh, assistant director Trusting News
  • WHEN: Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 via Zoom meeting

Continue reading “First CMA Confab devoted to building trust in media”

Legal analysis: Why Sarah Palin (still) matters for student journalists

‘This is—and has always been—a case about media accountability’

By Carolyn Schurr Levin

You may be tired of reading about Sarah Palin and her potentially “groundbreaking” libel case against The New York Times.  However, so much has happened since our 2019 analysis of her case that I thought it was time for an update. I will focus on how the recent 2022 court resolution of this 2017 libel lawsuit impacts what student journalists do, and how best for campus media advisers to advise them.

First, a bit of background. On June 14, 2017, The New York Times published an editorial entitled “America’s Lethal Politics,” which stated that there was a connection between a 2010 advertisement by Palin’s political action committee and the 2011 Arizona mass shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Arizona, and others. The byline for the editorial was “By The Editorial Board.”

The New York Times changed the language of the editorial and published a correction two days later, on June 16, 2017, after readers noted there was no connection between the Palin advertisement and the Giffords shooting. The correction read, in full: “An editorial on Thursday about the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established. The editorial also incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting. It depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath stylized cross hairs.” But, The New York Times did not apologize to Palin. Continue reading “Legal analysis: Why Sarah Palin (still) matters for student journalists”

Applying Scanlan’s ‘The Coaching Way’ to media design instruction

Editor, adviser can assume coaching role

By Melanie Wilderman

I first heard of Chip Scanlan’s “The Coaching Way,” in 2004 when I was preparing to teach my first college-level class, Introduction to Media Writing, as a very green master’s graduate and new adjunct instructor for my alma mater. I was 23 years old and, like many new instructors, terrified my students would think I was a fraud. “The Coaching Way” saved me that first semester. It guided me as a teacher as much as it helped guide my students.

SAMPLE 1
SAMPLES: In examples of students’ final designs for the basic business card assignment, note that they make decisions concerning color, font and placement of simple shapes to create the business cards. In doing so, they are primarily practicing the concepts of dominance, balance, hierarchy and space in their work.

For those who may not be familiar, Scanlan, a seasoned journalist and former writing instructor for The Poynter Institute, detailed his approach as an editor in a 2003 Poynter article. He said he approached coaching journalists first with the question, “How can I help?” Then he listened to the answer. Sounds simple, right? Even Scanlan admitted this, but it’s an important first step, and what follows is a more intense progression of open-ended questions throughout the writing process and a back-and-forth between editor and journalist (or, in educational settings, between teacher and student) that requires participation from both parties. He calls this style “The Coaching Way.” Continue reading “Applying Scanlan’s ‘The Coaching Way’ to media design instruction”

Review: ‘News for the Rich, White and Blue’

Author Nikki Usher proposes a “post-newspaper consciousness” framework to viewing media today

Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin

I live in a town where, while we do have local newspapers, none of them regularly cover school board meetings (or police or fire department or other town meetings, for that matter). I would venture an educated guess that many – if not a majority of – college newspapers don’t regularly send a reporter to cover student government meetings, either in person or virtually during the pandemic. This state of affairs, both on campus and off, no doubt, is not good. In her recent book, “News for the Rich, White and Blue,” Nikki Usher tells us why.

“Journalism anchors American democracy by connecting people to the places they live,” Usher writes, “providing them with critical news and information as well as a sense of cultural rootedness and belonging.” If journalists are not covering the day-to-day meetings and events that impact our lives, are we getting what we need to be an “active and engaged citizenry,” college students and adults alike? We are not, Usher forcefully argues. She shares with her readers studies reflecting the underlying premise that without local news, the public cannot make informed decisions Continue reading “Review: ‘News for the Rich, White and Blue’”

Research (Vol. 58): The College Newsroom amid COVID

A Statistical Assessment of Advisers and their work in College Newsrooms in 2020

Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, EdD
Florida International University

Elizabeth Smith, EdD
Pepperdine University

Jody Kleinberg Biehl, MA
University at Buffalo

Research Associate: Lillian A. Abreu, MSW
Florida International University


Abstract: This research updates and explores the role and jobs of college newsroom advisers, the context of their work, and the newsrooms they advise. Using a survey (N=332) of student media advisers, the data provide important understandings for college journalism issues that have emerged, or re-emerged, in the past year: COVID-19, diversity, and prior review. Responses show, despite campus closures and some declining advertising revenues, COVID-19 did not halt the work of the vast majority of college newsrooms. On the contrary, data from this survey combined with national trends point to the growing importance of college news media across the nation. As local news outlets decrease, college newsrooms are filling the void.  Open-ended responses revealed anxieties among advisers about how the pandemic would affect newsrooms in the coming academic years, especially regarding budgets and advertising revenue. For the first time, this research collected information on race/ethnicity. Participants were mostly white, although community colleges had the largest group of advisers of color. Responses reveal that 87% of advisers report that they do not edit newsroom content, although responses raise questions about the role that faculty-guided class work plays in newsrooms and how advisers define prior review. Compared to past research, adviser salaries have increased in the past five years and 62% of advisers hold either a faculty or staff title. Overall, salaries have increased 12% among advisers since 2014.

Keywords: college media, student newsrooms, student journalism, newsroom diversity, COVID-19, prior review

Continue reading “Research (Vol. 58): The College Newsroom amid COVID”

College radio perseveres, adapts to COVID-19 challenges

KZLX’s Nerdmageddon and the owner of a bar named The Pub. From left to right are The Pub’s owner, Jeff Zeller, and then the Nerdmageddon crew: Molly Hauser, Simon Clark, Corie Herzog, and Mckenzie Duval.

It’s not ‘the end of the world’

By Mason Bigler
Special to CMR

Borrowing from Matchbox 20, going to spring break in 2020 was like “waking up at the start of the end of the world” for college radio. Luckily, the world’s not over just yet.

Because of COVID-19, some college stations were abandoned for the spring semester, only on air because of automated systems. Others had to fight for their right to keep student DJs through strict rules and sanitation. As outlined below, some of those rules are still in place, while at other universities, precautions are being relaxed and the radio stations are returning closer to normal. Continue reading “College radio perseveres, adapts to COVID-19 challenges”

Review of ‘The Diversity Style Guide,’ by Rachele Kanigel

Printed revision and update for the style guide

Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin

Originally a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism in San Francisco State University’s journalism department in the 1990s, the “Diversity Style Guide” was a collection of terms from other style guides that existed at the time. That original guide, which was available in PDF form but was never published, was updated and expanded into a searchable website, https://www.diversitystyleguide.com, in 2016. The goal of the website, which is still available and regularly updated, was to “make journalism more inclusive from the classroom to the newsroom.” The website offered “guidance, context and nuance for media professionals struggling to write about people who are different from themselves and communities different from their own.”

While editing the website, Rachele Kanigel, Professor and Chair of the journalism department at San Francisco State University, realized that “there were a lot of issues and context that needed further exploration, and that a book would be a better format for that information.” The result was the book version of “The Diversity Style Guide,” a highly useful and usable tool for students, professors and professional journalists alike. Although published in 2019, what better time to explore this book than now? Continue reading “Review of ‘The Diversity Style Guide,’ by Rachele Kanigel”

Five inaugurations on the front lines with student journalists

Three Doane University students at the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush, the only one of five inaugurals covered by students in which students could get close and actually sit to watch it. The students are, left to right, Amanda (Millard) Memrick, Elizabeth (Zaborowski) Spencer and Jonathan Hoke. (Photo courtesy David Swartzlander)

Bearing witness to democracy on the road presents challenges but pays an enormous dividend

By David Swartzlander
Past President, College Media Association

Attending my first inauguration was a dream come true.

Literally.

After I was hired in 1999 as a journalism instructor at Doane University in Crete, Neb., I was told I had a month to come up with an idea to teach a course for a two-week interval between fall and spring semesters. Students learned through mini-courses on campus or they traveled off-campus for academic reasons.

For days, I searched in vain for an idea. When my head hit the pillow one week before the proposal deadline, I still was clueless.

That’s when I dreamed I attended the 2001 presidential inauguration. And I realized that it happened every four years on Jan. 20, perfect timing for the class. I had my course.

A million dollar view for students from the “cheap seats.” (Photo courtesy David Swartzlander)

Over my 22 years at Doane, I led dozens of students to five presidential inaugurations — from the “hanging chad” election of George W. Bush to the magically historical inauguration of Barack Obama to the “American Carnage” inauguration of Donald Trump. We traveled as one news organization, reporting and sharing stories with students and readers/listeners in Nebraska.

Continue reading “Five inaugurations on the front lines with student journalists”

A pandemic as the unexpected teacher

Finding news in new places during an isolating time

By Susan Coleman Goldstein
Mount Wachusett Community College

“I don’t have any ideas for my next beat.”

This is a common lament, particularly at my school, a small, rural Massachusetts community college, where most of the students enroll in my basic news reporting course to check off an elective. They usually have no desire to enter the journalism field or to even write professionally, unless it’s creative writing.

In the old pre-pandemic days, I relied on our campus for beat ideas. I stood in the classroom and talked about the importance of covering the Student Government Association, for example— “follow the money,” I’d say passionately into faces that usually showed no reaction. But that was okay because then I could take them on a forced field trip, down three flights of stairs to the Student Life Office, where they met Kathy, the woman who gave them the agenda and minutes for the next SGA meeting, the woman who provided contacts to campus clubs, and the woman who supplied background and details about upcoming events.

What about a beat focused on the library? Tutoring services? Advising? The Student Lounge? “Line up! Let’s take a stroll around campus and get to know these people.” Along the way, we often practiced short impromptu interviews in the hallways with passing students. There would be embarrassed laughs, shaky hands taking notes, or the occasional bravado of someone comfortable with talking to strangers, but the lesson was learned: story ideas were everywhere on campus.

Continue reading “A pandemic as the unexpected teacher”