AJR in the Classroom
Discussion questions for selected stories from the April / May 2005 issue, along with suggestions for further readings:


STORY 1: Constitutionally Challenged | Story 2: Hip--and Happening  | Story 3: Out of the Past | Story 4: The Quote Machines   |  STORY 5: Does No Mean No?

the U.S. Constitution / Courtesy the National Archives and Records Administration

STORY 1: “Constitutionally Challenged: High School students either don't support, or don't understand, the First Amendment." By Rachael Jackson

MORE INFO: More than a third of U.S. high school students think First Amendment rights go too far, according to a study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. But, encouragingly, researchers found more support for press rights and free speech when students were asked about restricting song lyrics or requiring pre-approval of news stories for school publications.

RESEARCH / CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:

  • How rampant is censorship at area high schools? Assign each student in class to contact an area high school principal and that high school's student editor or student government leader. Each journalism student should conduct interviews to determine if the high school supports student publications; if it supports independent student publications; and how much administrators have censored content in the past. If there was censorship, what was the reason given by administrators? How did students respond? Each journalism student should write up his or her answers and present them verbally to the class. If the instructor could help the class formulate interview questions before students embark on the assignment, the research could be pooled for a story that could be submitted to campus publications.
  • The class could take a look at how independent the student publications are on campus. Students could invite a campus spokesman and editors of campus publications to come class to discuss if news decisions are made independently, or if the university sometimes censors or tries to censor information. Are the publications funded by the university? If they're censored, what is the university's argument for doing so? Have student journalists for those publications challenged university interference? Have law suits resulted? 
  • Students could be asked to research prior cases of censorship of high school or college publications around the country. What are some of the more notable cases? How were they resolved? The Student Press Law Center (see link below) could provide a good starting point.  

ADDITIONAL READINGS / RELATED LINKS:

 

STORY 2: "Hip--and Happening: You thought all those free mini-dailies for the way-too-busy and way-too-young-and-cool were dreck, didn't you? Well, many have captured significant shares of their markets and are heading toward profitability faster than imagined. And more are on the way.” By Sharyn Vane

 

MORE INFO: Vane reports: "In the five years since the Luxembourg-based Metro conglomerate arrived in Philadelphia with its quick-read format, a proliferation of mostly free "mini-dailies" has sprung up throughout the country aimed at nontraditional readers--code for the much coveted younger set." Metro papers have also sprung up in Boston and New York. Meanwhile, the Tribune Co. launched RedEye in Chicago; the Sun-Times countered with Red Streak; The Washington Post published Express; American Consolidated Media debuted A.M. Journal Express in Dallas, and the Morning News launched Quick.

 

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT / CLASS DISCUSSION:

  • Have students write a 1,000- to 1,500-word paper analyzing research that's been done on young adults and news readership. What does research say about newspaper readership? How does that compare to Web readership? What tactics, besides launching free dailies, have been taken by media companies to try to regain the younger demographic?  

  • Engage students in a discussion of their own reading habits, and those of their peers. How often do they read newspapers? Watch newscasts? Read the Web for news? What stories/programs/Web offerings most engage them? Turn them off? What suggestions do they have for media companies trying to attract and hold the interest of a younger audience?

ADDITIONAL READINGS / RELEVANT LINKS:


STORY 3: “Out of the Past: Jerry Mitchell has an unusual beat. The reporter for Jackson, Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger specializes in uncovering new evidence about unsolved civil rights-era murders. His stories have helped lead to arrests in long-dormant cases."  By Sherry Ricchiardi

MORE INFO: Mitchell's most recent target was Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old Baptist minister and former Klan leader. Killen was indicted in January in connection with the 1964 killings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

RESEARCH / INTERVIEWING ASSIGNMENTS:

  • How well are today's media covering racism, hate crimes and civil rights struggles--for gays, women and racial and ethnic minorities? Students could be assigned to watch a local news show for two weeks, keeping a tally of pertinent coverage. Other students could be assigned to do a LexisNexis search of pertinent coverage in local or national newspapers. Students should write up their findings and be prepared to present them to the class.
  • Ask students to interview a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or elder mentor about events they personally witnessed in the '50s and '60s pertaining to race relations in the United States. What did they see or experience? How did it make them feel? Did the events shape their life choices? For each interview, ask students to write up a 300-600 word narrative in proper news writing style, following AP style rules. Narratives could be read aloud in class.

ADDITIONAL READINGS AND DOCUMENTS:

 

 

STORY 4: "The Quote Machines: They’re everywhere, a handful of scholars and pundits with an opinion for every reporter’s phone call. Is there anything wrong with turning again and again to the usual suspects, or should journalists try harder to diversify the expert pool?"  by Mark Francis Cohen

MORE INFO: Cohen quotes Tom Rosenstiel as saying that just getting more sources for conjecture pieces might not be enough: "There's too much mindless analysis out there," says the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "What happened to fact-based reporting?"

CLASS DISCUSSION / RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:

  • Engage the class in a discussion of "best source" vs. "most accessible source." Journalistically, what are the dangers of using the latter over the former? Ask students to give examples of their own missteps on this front, as they've reported for campus or professional publications. The teacher should also be prepared to give examples from his or her own career.
  • Ask students to do a LexisNexis search of The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today for the last six-month period, searching for three of the frequently quoted sources listed in links below. How often did each name come up in each publication? On what topics were they quoted? Did they appear to be the best sources for those topics? If not, what other sources might have been tapped? Students should type up their findings and be prepared to discuss them in class.

ADDITIONAL READINGS /  DOCUMENTS:



STORY 5: “Does No Mean No? A former journalist says she doesn’t want to be interviewed, but then talks freely. Should the interviewer have used her remarks?" By Natalie Pompilio

MORE INFO: One-time San Jose Mercury News columnist T.T. Nhu says she thought comments to a current Mercury News columnist were off the record--but she didn't specifically use those words. Nhu spoke in inflammatory terms about her decision to move back to Viet Nam after President Bush's re-election. Was columnist Scott Herhold guilty of an ethical lapse in publishing their conversation? Or was he using good reporting techniques, getting Nhu to talk when she had been reluctant to do so?

CLASS DISCUSSION:

  • What does it mean to talk to a source "on background" or "off-the-record"? How frequently do reporters agree to those terms with sources? Invite a panel of three professional journalists in to talk to the class about the terms and their publications' (or their own personal) rules on interviewing. What are the pros and cons of allowing either agreement?

ADDITIONAL READINGS / RELATED LINKS:

  • "Under Fire: Journalists have been barraged by a spate of subpoenas to identify confidential sources and court decisions ordering them to comply. Investigative reporting could suffer if more ensue. Can the media fight back? Does the public care?" by Rachel Smolkin, from the February/March 2005 issue of AJR.

  • "Important If True: Despite periodic spasms of concern over discredited stories relying on unnamed sources, the practice of granting anonymity has survived and thrived. Will the Jayson Blair episode reverse the momentum?" by Jill Rosen, from the August/September issue of AJR.

  • "The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government" provides info on Freedom of Information issues and what journalism organizations are doing to foster greater transparency in government.

  • The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics urges reporters to identify sources whenever feasible and "clarify and explain news coverage and invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct."  

 

 

 


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Teachers' guide written by Chris Harvey, online bureau director at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and former managing editor of AJR.
Published April 5, 2005; additional material added April 18, 2005.

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Permission is granted to freely print, for classroom use, up to 100 copies of the most up-to-date version of this document, as long as the document is not modified.