Do your student media meet First Amendment standards?

The five scholastic media organizations offer secondary schools across the country an opportunity to show they are First Amendment-relevant schools through completion of a survey as part 1 for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award. The questions below are part 1, and can be used to evaluate your school’s First Amendment status.

Circle your choice: Yes, No or Don’t know (should be avoided or explained) Take this quiz before and after you read the book.

1. Does your school actively protect First Amendment rights, including artistic expression by students and faculty?

Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)

2. Does your school promote and support teaching of the First Amendment through classroom instruction and activities?

Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)

Student journalists make ethical decisions daily, whether in advertising, design, information gathering or reporting. It is essential and ongoing.

A number of excellent resources exist for helping students, their advisers and those in their communities make those decisions. Administrators help students and their advisers with this task through positive reinforcement of journalism activities. One point is important to note: Ethics are only guidelines. They do not represent standards for punishment or discipline.

Administrators should follow two basic practices with student media:

School boards and student media
School boards, elected governing bodies of public schools in many states, set policies regulating school procedures. They do not manage day-to-day activity in schools, but can and do pass policies that may be counterproductive to an administrator’s view of student media.

Administrators should review school board policies that govern student free expression because they are charged with upholding school board and state code governance policies

Supporting student media with technology and budgeting

Just as the science lab requires specialized equipment such as microscopes and incubators, journalism classrooms need up-to-date digital cameras, computers and software.

Because journalism provides hands-on application of 21st-century skills, the classroom has unique needs in both setup and equipment. Administrators should allocate adequate funds to create the best learning environment.

The value of using social media

Mobile phones, tablets, laptop computers and other devices make it possible for teens to stay connected virtually every moment of their waking lives. As a result, much of the information they gain about their school, community and world at large comes from online sources – in particular, social media.

In the 2011 “Future of the First Amendment” survey of more than 12,000 high school students and 900 teachers sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, researcher Dr. Kenneth Dautrich found that nearly two-thirds of high school students obtain news and information from the Internet at least several times a week, while half use mobile devices such as iPhones and Blackberrys for the same purpose. More than three-quarters of high school students use social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr at least several times a week for news and information – and nearly half spend some time seeking information about what is happening at school.