National Newspaper Week and National Yearbook Week are being celebrated Oct. 5-11. More than 94 percent of U.S. public high schools produce yearbooks and more than 64 percent publish newspapers, according to the most recent survey by the Center for Scholastic Media at Kent State University. With more than 18,000 public high schools in the U.S., the newspapers and yearbooks produced have significant impact upon the lives of students and their communities.

“We live in an information society, and access to information about what’s happening in your community and your world is important to an informed citizenry,” said Mark Goodman, professor and Knight Chair for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. “We teach students to be collectors and disseminators of accurate and relevant information and to also be consumers of accurate and relevant information. Scholastic journalism does just that.”

The theme for the 74th National Newspaper Week is “Newspapers: The Foundation of Vibrant Communities.” The theme reflects the many roles of newspapers, which serve as government watchdogs, provide investigative journalism and offer timely public notices.

“Student media can fulfill all those roles, too, and do so while improving students’ skills in critical thinking, collaboration and all forms of communication,” said Candace Perkins Bowen, director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism.

President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Yearbook Week in 1987. “The students who compile yearbooks likewise treasure all that the experience can teach them about teamwork and about writing, the graphic arts, and business skills,” Reagan said in his proclamation.

Some ideas to celebrate National Newspaper Week and National Yearbook Week at your school:

• Invite students who might be interested in joining your newspaper or yearbook staff to tag along with a reporter or photographer on an assignment.
• Self-promote your newspaper or yearbook by setting up a display at your school that shows the publication in past decades and informs students how to join the staff or purchase the publication.
• Host a pizza party/work night after school to recognize your publication staffs for the hard work they do throughout the year.
• Attend a football game or other school event as a group, and go out to eat before or after the game.
• Examine the collection of columns, editorials and editorial cartoons at nationalnewspaperweek.com, and discuss in class.

The skills students learn in scholastic journalism help them throughout their lives.

“High School Journalism Matters,” a 2008 research study by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, found that students who work on high school newspapers and yearbooks get better grades in high school, earn higher scores on the ACT and get better grades as college freshmen.