Member-to-Member

From time to time, NESPA members (and others) send us questions they're dealing with asking for others to help. Here's a situation posted March 23, 2005. Please send your responses directly to NESPA. A couple of responses have already been posted.

mlevin@cdschool.org

and we'll get them posted to share with everyone.

Here's the situation...

This is an e-mail seeking advice from someone who may have had a similar experience. As a new newspaper sponsor, I am at a loss as to where to seek advice.

We are a new school newspaper and have just produced our second issue since December and hope to produce two more before the end of school in May. Our recent four-page issue included articles on "Southside Begins New Alternative School," and "Students, Teachers Asked if They Prefer Jeans or Uniforms."

As a parent and volunteer school newspaper advisor, we of course had to find a teacher willing to sponsor the paper. After an intensive search with many "too busy" responses, an 8th-grade language arts teacher took on the role with much enthusiasm. Unfortunately, his idea of a school newspaper, as he told the staff yesterday, was "to cut the school down before the last issue." This contrasts sharply with what I have been teaching the students about the purpose of a newspaper--objectivity, information, and student/school pride and recognition. The teacher and I have discussed this, but he continues to see his role as exciting the children and getting their names/newspaper recognized as "exposing the truth." After his hour-long lecture to the kids about making it more sensational, I reminded him and the kids that not only does the administration see our newspaper before it is published, but they--the students--have to maintain a relationship with the staff throughout their middle school years.

Fortunately, because we only meet once a week, after school, the job of design and lay-out falls to me, so I decide what goes in each issue. He did comment about how upset he was that I left out a column he co-wrote with an 8th-grader. This column stated that the school's media center is a joke--specifically the head of the center who recently received an "Excellence in Leadership" award.

He teaches a regular language arts class and the students really respect him. The majority of his students come from low-income families and he is very encouraging to the students and goes out of his way to help them as best he can. So, in this aspect, he is a good teacher. He is very likable, but, it does sound as if he has it out for the leadership.

I do not believe it is my place to mention the above to the administration, although I know them relatively well. For one thing, I do not want to jeopardize his job. Our administration and faculty are currently undergoing many changes.

My questions are:

Has anyone experienced this before, and if so, how was it handled?

Do I continue rewriting and deleting the negative aspects of a story?

Do I simply not put in any negative stories--although yesterday he encouraged the students to make the last issue a real eye-opener?

And, how "expose" should a middle-school newspaper article be? (For example, a student wants to write a story on the unseen drug-use in the school--encouraged by the teacher who said use no names, and discouraged by me stating all the obvious.)

This is of course very frustrating because he is the teacher (although with no experience in newspaper writing), the students think this is more fun, and if this continues, I can not head it up next year. This would be very disappointing since I put so much time and effort in getting the newspaper up and running for the first time in years, and it is a very valuable tool in communicating and learning how to write well.

As you can tell, I am very unsettled by the situation.

Any suggestions?

Please email them to: mlevin@cdschool.org and we'll get them posted.

And one member writes:
posted October 6, 2005

Dear "unsettled,"

You have some pretty hefty issues for just a "school" newspaper. However it would seem that these are issues that can be strong learning experiences for your newspaper team. You have a great opportunity to teach them what true journalism is all about. It's not easy and your writers may just as well learn now that no matter what they write they will inevitable always have to answer to someone.

Does your paper have a "mission statement"? One that envelopes what content the paper will have and how that content is portrayed. This is something you can fall back on when you need to answer to those writers that wish to linger outside of the boundaries. A mission statement keeps the boundaries intact. It doesn't exactly state what can and can't be written which of course is the ultimately "sin" in the journalism world. It protects the integrity of what is written and guards the intent of what is written. This also helps your writers to know how to create their own style of writing.

Hope this helps,
Tina

and an experienced advisor just added his comments on January 6, 2006:

First, I am glad there is someone else out there that is in the same situation I am, in so far as the fact that the brunt of the work done on the paper (or whatever else it is) is left to me, because I do not meet with the kids daily. Makes me feel better. And I congratulate you for taking on this position as a volunteer! I am paid to do this and it is my main position, whereas in other schools, it is an extra job for the teacher.

I am going to sidetrack here and mention that one of the reasons this caught my attention (never mind the fact that I teach Journalism and wanted to give my two cents), I found it ironic that this teacher of yours just happened to have an unfavorable opinion of your school’s media center. Hello! Put me in the same boat (are we in the same boat?) because my opinion of our school's media center is not favorable either, in the fact that I do not like the equipment that is in there (and some other similar points that I will not say here).

I have shared that opinion personally with the principal who understands my concerns, and have also shared it with my colleague friends. I have allowed my opinions to be known to who it would matter to. But I do not use the newspaper to create a personal vendetta by sharing that opinion with the rest of the school. In the case of your teacher, he should have done the same. Given his opinion directly to who it should involve, rather than using the school newspaper to do so.

In any case, to respond to some of your comments,

-- I feel that this teacher should start his own school newspaper if he wants to do it the way he is going about it!! His tactics are totally irresponsible, like that of some type of tabloid newsmagazine. While I agree that this is one aspect of journalism, and yes, an exciting one for the kids, it does not teach them the true and defining aspects of
journalism. The school newspaper is not a forum for one teacher to
get out his personal opinions, and to bring down the school along with him. While the newspaper is a forum for such types of editorials, it has no place the way it is being done, especially not in a school newspaper.

-- Your teacher wants to excite the kids by covering controversial topics and doing “exposes.” That I feel is irresponsible journalism.
Doing "expose" stories is kind of cool and exciting when you look at it for face value. The kids will certainly want to do that more, and it does teach them an aspect of journalism. Not a good one though.

-- I don't think you should rewrite and delete negative aspects of this teacher’s stories because then you yourself are setting a bad example to the students and that is not good journalism. Better to have a controversial topic published as is, than hacking away at it. OR, don't publish the story at all!

-- Clearly, this teacher should NOT be the one sponsoring the newspaper because he seems to have his own agenda. I advise you to quit, and let him takeover, OR, find a new sponsor for your newspaper, OR, let him do his own new newspaper with a different name, and you continue do the current one.

From my personal experience, this is what I have to share that might help out,

-- Our school takes pride in our Journalism program because it is one of the things that sets us apart from the other schools in the Diocese, as well as public schools in the area. We have become recognized by the professional media mainly because of the WAY we do things, and not for what we do. (If it was for what we do, a lot of other schools do the same, except “same” is anything but the word for our program-- Mr. Levin can probably vouch for that!).

-- Part of what makes our program so successful, if not the whole part, is that the students who participate are just as excited and dedicated to the job they do, WITHOUT being sensational and/or trying to attack people and parties in the school by doing “exposes.” My students learn both aspects of journalism in class. But we stick to being responsible journalists, and still have as much fun doing it that way. One reason why we are so successful because we have the respect of our audience.

-- The way I look at it, who has the respect of the people when it comes to press coverage? The fine institutions who use responsible journalism. And with those institutions, if there is something that needs to be exposed, it is done for the good of ALL, or to the benefit of a group or individual that has clearly been wronged. Those newsmagazines that try to call themselves newspapers? They get readership, but it is backed behind its entertainment value, and it doesn't really help anyone. These groups expose an issue or event, but what good does it do other than to show that, "Hey, we revealed it here first!", and no one benefits (except them with money in their pockets from people who wasted their money on the publication).

-- In my case, we do not cover controversial topics unless it would be interesting to the students, and those topics are very RARE. Since we
are a Catholic School, there are special rules to the game: The
principal and pastor have final say. (Hey, even in public schools there are some that have rules of prior review). However, censorship and prior review are less encountered at our school than one would think.

In the nine years that I have been doing the school newspaper and news broadcast (the latter being the past five), I have only been censored by the principal three times. That's three out of "millions" of stories we've done. Granted, we don’t strive to do controversial or “expose”
topics. One of those stories was a controversial one dealing with a new state law on putting minors in jail. Because the group involved were minors, and part of our audience is in that same age group, we wanted to do a “pros and cons” debate story on that issue in our newspaper. My principal found out about it and wanted me to not publish that story. (I later deduced correctly that the driving force behind the censorship came not from the principal, but one teacher who was against this story and made their views known to the principal). I fought to get the story published, using my knowledge and principles of good journalism, and in the end, my principal agreed with me and let us publish the story.

The other two times we were censored had to do with the news broadcast. One was not controversial, but a factual report that was not exposing anyone, but in any case, the principal did not want it aired. The other one was merely a poll. That too was not to be aired. We butted heads on both of those, and I let my opinions be known, and hoped that maybe I’d win again. I did not. But I let it go, because of the rules the game. If I pressed further, I probably would have lost because this is a private school, and second, my job is to TEACH the subject of journalism, not BE a journalist in action (of course, we must all agree that in order to teach the subject, one must be the journalist as well!).

I myself decide what goes into print/what is published/ broadcast. But because I do my job responsibly, that is why I have a good record with the principal, who knows that 99% of the time, my judgment is correct. I don’t have to check in, get things approved, or ask permission. I do when I am in doubt. Of course, if what I’ve decided isn't, “kosher,” (wrong word huh? Catholic school...) I am put on the spot for it, and whether I agree or not with the decision made, it is not my job to become “a journalist in action,” but be the teacher who must follow what the principal, the BOSS, says.

-- With that said however, this leads to next issue. My students are able to learn about journalistic issues in action (censorship, prior review, controversial topics, role of the student press, etc.) from me being a journalist in action, which I feel comes with the job of teaching the subject.
When the time comes for the topic to be discussed in class, I always share these examples, real examples, of what could and can happen in a school: journalism at the scholastic level. I tell them what happened in each case, but not into so much detail and in no way meant to make the principal look bad, but to give them real examples they can analyze for themselves.
Then there are times when they look at their professional counterparts in the media, where we will look at a newspaper article, a story in a magazine, or a video from the news and/or one of the newsmagazines where something controversial was printed or broadcast. They see that type of journalism in action, and “experience” it and learn about it there. They do NOT need to be the ones doing the irresponsible or sensational journalism in order to understand it.

-- As I've told my kids, and learned myself in teaching the subject of the students' role in a student press among the mass media, if there really is a topic/issue that really needs to be exposed, and it's one where it really needs to be addressed? (See the emphasis of the word
“really”?) Bring in the "real" media, the professional media, as suggested by the Student Press Law Center, and let them handle it. If your “inner journalist” wants to take action, stop and think first. Is this worth it? Will anyone benefit. If so, call in the professional media. If not? Don’t be like that teacher in your school.

I am sorry to say, but that teacher of yours is anything BUT good. He has no business teaching or being associated with Journalism. Unfortunately, teaching Language Arts and English are two totally different subjects from Journalism, and just because they go hand-in-hand with each other, doesn’t mean Language Arts or English teachers have any business teaching Journalism. And in most schools, those are the teachers they go to when it comes to finding an Advisor for the yearbook or newspaper. I could say the same, not from experience!, for it being the other way
around-- some may have the Journalism skills, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got the other one. By the same token, I'm not saying that there aren't good English/Language Arts teachers out there who qualify to do Journalism-related activities. (Ironically, another irony, since we're on the topic, we have a new teacher here this year at our school who is the new Language Arts teacher, and for a brief period of time, when they weren't teaching, they were reporting for a local newspaper-- this is just fact! This is not being used as an example of my opinion above).

My job is to teach the kids RESPONSIBLE journalism, and that is what I do. That is what you should do, if it means quitting the job you love because at this rate, you are not able to do your job because of this teacher. And based on your account of his actions? that’s the bottom line here. Journalism is not about exciting the children, exposing the truth, or seeing your name in print.
Like I said before, my kids are just as excited and enthused about journalism as your students must be when they hear that teacher of yours telling them to be sensational and go out and do “exposes” on the school. I get the same reaction from my kids by just telling them, “go and get your story, do your research, remember to get all the facts you need, check your sources, and if you have an opinion? don’t include it unless you are doing an opinion piece... good luck!”
And that's why my program has lasted as long as it has, and continues to thrive and excite new and even existing kids year after year. We have the respect and support of the school community, the public (did I mention the professional local media?) and anyone else who knows about our program and its related student organization.

Final thought? To corroborate what the person said who responded to you before me? That’s what it is all about! INTEGRITY. Good luck with your venture, and I hope I have given you some insight. Thanks for volunteering your time to do the work you do.

Sincerely,

"Concerned Colleague"
San Francisco Bay Area (California)

Any additional suggestions?