College Media Review

The Pioneer turns 60; alumni reflect on changes

By Carolyn Schurr Levin and Maxime Devillaz
Long Island University

Sixty years doesn’t make The Pioneer the oldest college newspaper. Not even close.

The Dartmouth was founded in 1799, and The Miami Student in 1826. In 1871, The Bowdoin Orient debuted, and two years later, in 1873, The Harvard Crimson began publishing.

But the challenges, obstacles, and successes faced by The Pioneer, the student newspaper of the LIU Post campus of Long Island University, over 60 years are emblematic of enduring college newspapers, no matter their age. Continue reading “Making the most of milestones for college media”

An Analysis of Federal Student Press Law Cases at the University Level

By David R. Wheeler
The University of Tampa

Although some student press advocates are concerned about recent decisions curtailing the speech and press rights of college students, First Amendment protections for postsecondary school students are on much firmer footing than are protections for K-12 students.

The 1960 and 1970s: Students and Editorial Control

The birth of college press freedom began even before Tinker, when an Alabama federal district court in 1967 ruled in favor of a student editor in Dickey v. Alabama State Board of Education.  In Dickey, a disagreement over content in the student newspaper resulted in student editor Gary Dickey’s suspension from Troy State University.[1]  Dickey wrote an editorial commenting on the governor and state legislature’s insistence that no articles be published that were critical of them.  The president of the university, Dr. Frank Rose, disagreed with this policy, and Dickey wanted to write an article supporting the president.  As the court noted:

It is without controversy in this case that the basis for the denial of Dickey’s right to publish his editorial supporting Dr. Rose was a rule that had been invoked at Troy State College to the effect that there could be no editorials written in the school paper which were critical of the Governor of the State of Alabama or the Alabama Legislature. The rule did not prohibit editorials or articles of a laudatory nature concerning the Governor or the Legislature.[2]

Dickey was told by his adviser that he could not publish the column.  Instead, Dickey decided to run a blank space in place of the article with the word “censored.”  For this action, Dickey was suspended, and he subsequently took his case to federal court, claiming a violation of his First Amendment rights.  In ordering that Dickey be allowed to return to the school, the district court judge said: Continue reading “Research (Vol. 54) — Don’t Press the Panic Button Yet”

Heartening news about quality journalism as a business model—and how print and broadcast media can team for investigative ‘solutions reporting’

Quality journalism is a “viable business model,” according to Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan. In a memo sent to Post employees earlier this month, Ryan cited increasing digital ad revenue and subscriptions as among the examples, and said the Post planned to hire more staff in 2017.

• For more about what Ryan had to say, see this Poynter article: http://www.poynter.org/2016/the-washington-post-is-profitable-and-growing-publisher-says/442683/

Continue reading “CMR Extra — Quick Links”

[slideshow_deploy id=’3760′]

Reflections on an inaugural high school journalism conference

By Kelly Furnas
Elon University

Amid a backdrop of international language barriers, governmental censorship and an educational system that devalues creative thinking, Chinese high school students still learned about journalism through an inaugural national high school conference.

The conference, held earlier this year, was organized by JEA China, an affiliate member of the Journalism Education Association headquartered in the United States.  The conference included U.S. and Chinese presenters.

JEA China — an affiliate member of the Journalism Education Association headquartered in the United States — is hoping to capitalize on those obstacles by providing programming tailored for high school students hoping to study in the West.

Zhu Lun, one of the architects for JEA China’s conference, as well as the organization itself, is chief executive officer of a nonprofit organization called Youth Impact China, which he started in 2015 to provide extracurricular programming for high school students in subjects such as business, finance, biology, art, design and journalism. Continue reading “Bringing American-style journalism to Chinese high school students”

Colleges urged to end retaliation against journalists and advisers

By Chris Evans
Chair, CMA First Amendment Advocacy Committee

Most advisers eventually get The Question.

It might come in a call or an email. Or a passing comment from a colleague in the hallway. Not infrequently, it first appears in the anxious look of an editor-in-chief who’s found herself on the receiving end of a tirade by a college administrator.

This particular question often serves as an opening salvo in a confrontation over something as frivolous as a bawdy sex column or as journalistically significant as an investigation into a provost’s drunken junket to Jamaica.

Continue reading “Report spotlights threats to freedom of student press”

Opinion: Election represents challenge for advisers, journalism educators

By Carolyn Schurr Levin

If you were reading only The New York Times during the 2016 presidential election, you can be forgiven if you held a well-founded belief that Hillary Clinton would win the election by a landslide. On Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 10:20 p.m., Election Day, The New York Times predicted a Clinton victory by 85%, “based on the latest state and national polls.”

The same holds true if you were reading many college newspapers around the country this fall. Millenials (adults ages 18-35) did in fact vote strongly for Clinton, and their preferences were reflected in stories they reported for their school media. My own students submitted story after story reflecting an inherent Clinton bias.

They were all wrong.

Continue reading “Impartiality Above All”

Resource for those who want printed volumes of CMA material

Now available on College Media Review: an online bookstore where the public can purchase printed volumes of CMR research annuals and buy an assortment of college media apparel and other items.

“CMR webmaster Bill Neville, the College Media Association board of directors, and CMA executive director Meredith Taylor worked together to make this bookstore a reality. A sincere thanks to them for their work,” said CMR editor Debra Chandler Landis.

Continue reading “Online bookstore now available…”

Advice from “College Photographer of the Year”

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

Carolyn Van Houten is the 70th College Photographer of the Year. Now a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News, Van Houten is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After you were named the top college photographer this year, you said, “I’m kind of shocked.” Elaborate.

Photojournalism competitions are quite arbitrary, so when you are named the “College Photographer of the Year,” it’s a bit shocking, because you know that there were a lot of really incredible photographers all around the world that year who also could have won given different judges and different circumstances.

For someone else who aspires to be a top-notch college photographer, what would you suggest?

I would suggest doing a lot of internships, especially ones that put you in communities out of your comfort zone for long periods of time. I would also suggest seeking mentors who will help foster your way of working, not just your work—mentors who take the time to get to know you and recognize your quirks so that they can help you work them into strengths. Continue reading “Photojournalists: Get out of your comfort zone”

Student journalists drive political coverage on campus

In Philadelphia, The Temple News staff is constantly covering elections, from the presidential race to down ballot contests.

• The paper covered U.S. Senate debate for the Pennsylvania seat that took place this week before. http://temple-news.com/news/senate-candidates-debate-tpac/
• Libertarian Vice Pesidential candidate Bill Weld’s visited Temple. http://temple-news.com/multimedia/libertarian-vice-presidential-candidate-bill-weld-visits-main-campus/
• Hillary Clinton comes to Temple (video). http://temple-news.com/multimedia/hillary-clinton-comes-temple-university/
• Donald Trump appearance draws protest (video). http://temple-news.com/multimedia/donald-trump-appearance-center-city-draws-protests/
• Student petition to cancel classes on election day. http://temple-news.com/news/students-petition-cancel-classes/
• Opinion piece on third-party candidates http://temple-news.com/opinion/dont-dismiss-third-party-candidates/
• Opinion piece on professors balancing campaign coverage. http://temple-news.com/opinion/professors-balance-campaign-coverage/

Links provided by John DiCarlo, Student Media Program Director and Adjunct Journalism Instructor, Temple University

Pondering the past, present and future of journalism

Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin, Stony Brook University School of Journalism

A book about the past, present and future of journalism and the news media sounds like a monumental and daunting undertaking. Yet, this is exactly what C. W. Anderson, Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson have written. In The News Media: What Everyone Needs To Know, released in September 2016, Downie, the former editor of The Washington Post and now a professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Schudson, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, and Anderson, an associate professor at the College of Staten Island, start with the first newspaper in 1605 and end with robots writing news stories in 2016. The authors concede in their first sentence that “[i]t might seem presumptuous to write a book promising readers ‘what everyone needs to know about the news media’ in the year 2016.” And, yet, in under 200 pages, written in a lively question and short answer format, with engaging examples, this book is highly deserving of its lofty title.

The genesis of the book was a comprehensive report commissioned by the Columbia University School of Journalism about the present and future of the journalism profession. That report, “The Reconstruction of American Journalism,” written by Downie and Schudson in 2009, stirred significant discussion and debate in the field. The report led to a request to the authors by the Oxford University Press to add a book about journalism to its popular “What Everyone Needs To Know” series. Oxford touts the series as offering “a balanced and authoritative primer on complex current issues and countries,” written by “leading authorities in their given fields.” The series did not previously include a title on journalism and news media. But, now, fortunately, it does. Continue reading “Book Review: The News Media–What Everyone Needs to Know”