Scholastic Journalism Division 2010 Abstracts
Let’s Go Crazy: Teaching Cultural Literacy Through Remix • xtine burrough, cal state fullerton; Emily Erickson, cal state fullerton • This paper suggests how educators can guide coordination norms for creating user-generated content (UGC) with a rich knowledge of fair use. An outline of UGC challenges to fair use, and a history of the technology that paved the way for a participatory culture provide background information for this activity. Students study the fair use doctrine as applied to the Lenz v. Universal case, and create a remix of Lenz’s original video for YouTube.
Disruption and Innovation: Online Learning and Degrees at Accredited Journalism Schools and Programs • Laura Castaneda, USC — Annenberg • This study examined online journalism courses and degrees at the 113 ACEJMC-accredited programs in 2008-09. A Web survey, which garnered a 72 percent response rate, and interviews with faculty members and administrators, found that 13 percent of programs now offer or plan to offer online degrees. Viewed through innovation theories, these and other results suggest that online journalism programs and courses are growing, and early innovators could carve out new markets of non-traditional students.
Tinkering with Student Expression: The Schoolhouse Gate Becomes a Revolving Door • Thomas Eveslage, Temple University • Technology is changing the learning landscape and blurring the boundaries of public schools. One worrisome result is that the ease with which students communicate with one another inside and outside of school is tempting school officials to flex their administrative muscles beyond school boundaries with the same authority they believe courts have given them within the schools. This paper examines the four U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the past 40 years that provide the legal framework for regulation of student expression and identifies the parameters established there for off-campus punishment of online expression. A review of recent cases concludes that lower courts are still trying to find a comfortable way to fit Supreme Court precedence into an educational environment populated by techno-savvy students armed with new ways to challenge administrative authority.
Editor Toast: A study of burnout and job satisfaction among college newspaper editors • Vincent Filak, UW-Oshkosh; Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas • Using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a study of 185 college newspaper editors revealed that participants were experiencing moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, two key factors in clinical burnout. Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were significant negative predictors of editors’ job satisfaction while personal accomplishment was a significant positive predictor. When compared to the advisers for these editors (n=217), student editors had significantly higher scores on the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scales. However, there were no differences between advisers and editors on job satisfaction.
Scholastic Millennials and the Media: News consumption habits of young journalism students • Geoffrey Graybeal, University of Georgia; Joe Dennis, University of Georgia; Amy Sindik, University of Georgia • This study examines the media patterns of high school journalism students, and what factors motivate them into consuming news media. This study conducted a survey and focus groups at a weeklong 2009 summer scholastic journalism camp at a university in the southeastern United Sates. The study found that parents and classes are primary factors that influence the news and media consumption of teenagers interested in journalism
High School and Collegiate Journalism: The Ties That Bind (Through an AEJMC Division, and Beyond) Bruce Konkle, University of South Carolina- Columbia • Connections between high school and collegiate journalism programs run deep, perhaps because of AEJMC’s approval of a Secondary Education Division in 1965-1966, the inclusion of nearly 80 scholastic journalism-related research articles published in the association’s research publications, education journal articles highlighting the link, and the sponsoring of scholastic media associations and summer journalism workshops by journalism and mass communications schools. How important were the links between high school and college journalism programs to the growth and prospering of high school journalism?
Toothless Tinker: The Continued Erosion of Student Speech Rights • Dan Kozlowski, Saint Louis University • This paper analyzes four primary ways in which federal courts have weakened Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark student speech case. The study particularly focuses on recent lower court interpretations of Tinker. Analysis shows that even when Tinker provides the applicable precedent in a case, students are increasingly losing their First Amendment claims with alarming frequency, leaving student speech advocates to wonder what rights students actually have left.
Authoritarians in the front office? Personality and support for expression rights among high school principals • Brian Schraum, University of Missouri; Adam Maksl, University of Missouri • This study applies authoritarian personality theory to the context of free expression in schools through a survey of Missouri high school principals (N=86). Support for the First Amendment in society, in-school student speech rights and off-campus digital expression rights are measured. The results show no significant relationship between level of authoritarianism and level of support for student expression rights, contradicting the notion that administrators are quick-to-censor authoritarians. Alternative predictor variables are also discussed.
Protecting the ‘impressionable minds’ from the ‘impressionable minds’: The third-person effect and student speech • Adam Maksl, University of Missouri; Brian Schraum, University of Missouri • We examined support for student expression and First Amendment attitudes among Missouri high school principals (n=86) using the third-person effect as a possible predictor. We found the greater principals perceived mass media to affect others over themselves, the less supportive they were for student free expression rights, particularly online. In addition to applying a theoretical framework to this area of research, we present several significant covariates to free expression attitudes other than the third-person effect.
Teen attitudes towards journalism and the news media: a study of inner city youth • Regina Marchi, Rutgers University • Based on formal one-on-one interviews with 20 (of an eventual 30) high school aged journalists, this paper discusses young people’s attitudes towards the profession of journalism and towards the news media, in general. While most existing research on teen journalists has focused on suburban, predominantly White and middle class youth, this work in progress seeks to illuminate how racially diverse, predominantly working class teens get their news; which news stories they feel are most important, and what role they feel journalism plays in the larger society. The paper also explores these young people’s notions of the public good and their frustrations regarding the mainstream news media, offering clues to how news organizations might better appeal to the younger demographic they so desperately seek to engage.
Squelching Student Speech?: The Impact of Florida’s Anti-Cyberbullying Law on Public School Student Expression Policies • Kara Murrhee, University of Flordia • A survey of ten Florida school district anti-cyberbullying policies revealed that all had amended their policies in light of the Florida’ anti-cyberbullying law. Of the ten school district policies surveyed as part of this thesis, the large school districts tended to include additional provisions that amplified the restrictions placed on student expression, whereas the small school districts appeared to stick more closely to the language adopted by the Florida Department of Education. Although the districts’ efforts are admirable, it is doubtful they would pass constitutional muster if challenged in court on First Amendment grounds. Such over-proscriptions would stand in the way of offering protection when public school children would need it most.
Understanding the Role of Structural Correlates, Functional Considerations, and Modality Evaluations on Interest in Campus Newspapers • Fernando Paragas, Nanyang Technological University • Using data from a survey of 1,064 respondents from nine universities in the Philippines, this research finds it is the students’ course domains, among five structural correlates, which differentiate level of interest in the content of campus newspapers (CN). It discovers interest is determined by the use of the CN to address cognitive and integrative needs, and the evaluation of how the CN fulfills its purpose. It reveals readership and interest are significantly, but weakly, correlated.
Computational journalism in the middle school • Kim Pearson, The College of New Jersey; Ursula Wolz, The College of New Jersey; Monisha Pulimood, College of New Jersey; Meredith Stone, The College of New Jersey; Mary Switzer, college of New Jersey • This paper presents a model of scholastic journalism that is designed to introduce students to computer science concepts that will be essential not only for the next generation of journalists, but also for the professionals across a range of computing-dependent fields. The model was created as part of a three-year demonstration project funded by the National Science Foundation. Results suggest that the study has succeeded in spreading awareness about the range of computing careers.
Journalism Teacher Assessment of Education Inhibitors • Bruce Plopper, University of Arkansas at Little rock; Taylon Cook, University of Arklansas at Little Rock • Combining cultural-historical theory of human development with research pinpointing education inhibitors, a survey was developed to investigate how journalism teachers evaluated the effects of five education inhibitors on their students’ learning. Results showed that use of electronic gadgets and lack of parental education were perceived as having the most negative influence on learning, while students’ subcultures were perceived as having the smallest effect. Respondents knew the least about their students’ nutritional intake. Implications are discussed.
The underprivileged: Journalism students seeking the shield • Erica Salkin, Graduate Student • Undergraduate and master’s-level journalism students tackle a variety of newsgathering and writing assignments, with the expectation they perform at or near a professional level. Despite this expectation of quality, journalism students are not afforded the journalistic privilege given to their professional counterparts, even those working on student newspapers. This paper examines the potential for journalism students to claim privilege under state statutory and common law, federal common law and the concept of a researcher’s privilege.
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