Scholastic Journalism 2018 Abstracts
Perceived Threats and Risks among Student Journalists: A Q Study of Self-Censorship • Lee Farquhar, Butler University; Michael Clay Carey, Samford University • This research analyzes news-making decisions and self-censorship among student journalists through the lens of gatekeeping theory. Using Q methodology, the study examines responses of 45 student journalists who were asked about variables that would influence their decisions not to pursue a controversial story. Four factors emerged based on analysis of three principal variables: the source of perceived threats, the nature of those threats, and the parties most likely to suffer if the threats come to fruition.
The day students scooped the established media: the extreme experiential learning in a pop-up multiplatform newsroom • Alex Canner, University of Derby; Ivana Ebel, University of Derby • Simulations are not enough to teach student journalists to react to unpredicted situations and produce high-quality content under adverse circumstances. Therefore, the university needs to provide experiential learning activities and training in real-world scenarios. This case-study explores one extreme experience of creating a pop-up newsroom as a learning environment to cover a medieval game. More than a hundred students were involved in real-time multimedia coverage, scooping the established media and creating new avenues of collaboration.
In Their Own Words and Experiences: Journalistic Roles of High School Journalists • Marina Hendricks • This study combined ethnographic observation and interviews to gain an understanding of how high school journalists describe and practice their journalistic roles. Their newswork was examined in the context of nine roles: monitorial, facilitative, radical, and collaborative from Christians et al. (2009), and interpreter, disseminator, adversary, populist mobilizer, and pluralist from Weaver et al. (2007). An important consideration of this study’s design was for the high school journalists’ experiences and words to take precedence.
Journalism or Public Relations? Coverage of Sports Teams in High School Journalism Programs • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Bradley Wilson, Midwestern State University • Just as professional sports reporters are often embedded with teams, high school sports journalists have to go to class with the athletes they cover. However, high school reporters lack the expertise of professionals, leading to an examination about whether high school media coverage of sports was more like public relations or objective journalism. In a survey of high school media advisers, the scholastic sports coverage was found to be a trade-off between objective journalism and positive public relations produced by students – who gain valuable skills – for students.
Data Journalism Education in Canada: Scaffolding of Skills for the Future • Jennifer Leask • There is limited research on how data journalism is affecting journalism education, particularly in Canada. This exploratory study examines what skills are considered by key informants as essential for a journalist to tell more quantitatively-oriented stories. Interviews with instructors at Canadian post-secondary institutions were analyzed using a qualitative iterative analysis approach. A typology of skills was produced to inform educators how to cultivate journalists better able to leverage data storytelling tools for the public good.
Flipping the Traditional Classroom: Is flipping really better? • Kelly Poniatowski, Elizabethtown College • Using the case study method, this research looks at grades and student satisfaction over the course of six semesters in a college-level writing class. Three of the classes were taught traditionally and the other three classes utilized the flipped classroom concept. All classes were taught by the same instructor. Using one-sample t-tests, results indicate that students received higher grades and had more satisfaction in the traditional classroom.
Sources of student First Amendment knowledge • Amy Sindik, Central Michigan University • This study aims to investigate the sources from which the students learn about the First Amendment, and if some sources are considered more valuable than others. This study focuses on three primary possible First Amendment sources, parents, classes and media. This issue is examined through a survey of high school students. The study indicates that parents are the source of First Amendment knowledge that students regard as the most valuable.
I am a Journalist: Understanding Communities of Practice in Student Newsrooms • Elizabeth Smith, Pepperdine University; Jean Norman, Weber State University; Kirstie Hettinga, California Lutheran University; Lisa Lyon Payne, Virginia Wesleyan University • The concept of Communities of Practice can help educators understand how student journalists learn in a student newsroom (Wenger, 1998). This study used focus groups (N=40) to understand how learning happened through practice, community, identity, and meaning. Findings revealed significant overlap among the four pillars and that conflict resolution development and responsibility to the community are evident in all four pillars. Coding also revealed tensions between course curriculum and newsroom mentorship.
“We Are a Neeeew Generation”: Early Adolescents’ Views on News and News Literacy • Sanne Tamboer, Radboud University • To function as well-informed citizens in democracy, early adolescents (12-15 years old) should become more news literate. This is not a simple task in this time of fragmented media use and evolving conceptions of the (importance and relevance of) news. This study investigated news consumption and –literacy through the eyes of early adolescents, by conducting focus groups. Results include early adolescents’ evaluations of news and their feelings towards and strategies for critically evaluating news.
College Writing Assignments on Mobile Devices: Comparing Students’ Attitudes and Engagement Across Disciplines and Age • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland; John Misak, New York Institute of Technology • Nearly 90 percent of students owned a smartphone by 2017 but how do they feel about completing written assignments on their phones? An experiment exposed undergraduates (N=75) in two writing courses at two institutions to mobile assignments measuring pre and post attitudes and preferences. While no significant differences occurred within each class, some unexpected differences emerged across the two institutions and between younger and older students. Results are discussed in the context of connected classrooms.
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