Fake news. Bias. Alternative facts. Journalism is under attack, and our students certainly feel the apathy that results in this constant cycle of distrust. For students who might be interested in journalism, the job market seems dubious and there’s been increasing vitriol about mainstream news outlets being “fake news.” These realities and fictions affect morale about the field, to be certain, but larger trends in education also threaten the ways in which young people could and should be encouraged...
Perspective. This is a word we use often when we delve into the fundamentals of media literacy. Whose perspective are we getting, and who is in control of the message? How is this perspective different from what we are used to? Are many perspectives being considered? When we teach media literacy, we are often teaching a "best of" buffet of classic liberal education, from rhetoric and argumentation to literary analysis, to civics and history. Rhetorical and literary analysis feed directly into...
A recent poll by Gallup reports that 62 percent of Americans believe journalists are biased in the arena of politics. The majority of those polled feel journalists favor Democrats in their reporting. This isn’t a shocker. Poll after poll has similar results: Americans believe journalists are biased and weave a web of fabricated tales. Where did we go wrong? Recently, I engaged in conversations with several individuals who remember Watergate. All expressed that the majority of the...
I remember stepping into the journalism classroom that fall of 2003, trying to live up to the legacy of the award-winning program I was honored to inherit from one of the historically stellar journalism teachers in the country. Even with my journalism degree and five years of experience, I constantly thought, “Who am I to teach this? How will I inspire these kids to become better photographers, writers and designers?” To add to it all, a decade ago my principal approached me about adding broadcast to the mix, even though I had limited experience in that field. This story happens over and over again with instructors in the journalism classroom. But there are advisers out there to offer...
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Google when I first started working with it as a new teacher five years ago. The overabundance of emails from shared assignments was not enjoyable. On a due date, my inbox would automatically increase to 30 new emails or more in a matter of minutes. By the end of the day, filtering through shared assignments, as well as emails from parents, staff, and administration was an impossible and laborious task. The introduction of Google Classroom though was much less intimidating and would become one of my favorite educational technological tools. Four years later, few, if any of my assignments are on paper. All of my classes are functioning in Google Classroom and...
When I first started advising newspaper, an online news site was already part of the class. There was just one issue: despite being a journalism major in college, I didn’t have a lot of experience with managing a website. The previous adviser left me some notes and passwords for the site, but even with that, it was still a bit stressful. Luckily for me, my editors and returning students were able to guide me in the process of running our publication, as well as our website. When I took a job advising at a different high school, however, there was no online news site, so when my students asked if we could get one, I had to start from scratch and figure out how we were going to incorporate...
Multiple surveys and studies have shown that Americans remain unaware of the five freedoms the First Amendment guarantees. When more Americans can name characters from an...
MIPA is a state organization working in association with the Missouri School of Journalism; Journalism Educators Association, JEA; and the National Scholastic Press Association,...
January 14, 2017
