ASNE Final Project

Lauren Benere

ASNE Final Project

Background Information/Context

We are a 2,000 student high school in central Virginia in a primarily upper-middle class area. Our Journalism program is well-established (our school is almost 20 years old), and I have one year of experience as the program’s sponsor, which is why I applied to the ASNE program. There is a newspaper production class, with a separate Journalism 1 class that is mostly freshmen. We have alternating block scheduling, so I see the production class every other day. It takes six to eight weeks for us to produce an issue from initial idea session to final principal approval (we have prior review). We design and print a 12 page, full-color newsmagazine with circulation from 300-600 copies, usually distributed in classrooms rather than to individual students. We create our newsmagazine using Adobe InDesign 6 and Photoshop, using PCs. Students have an 86 minute class period to work on the magazine and the magazine alone, including writing, interviewing, design, photography and editing. Many of the students also use their study period at the beginning of the day, as well as their lunch period to work on the design and production of the magazine. We are funded by both proceeds from yearbook sales and community ads.

Our school has a diverse population, with students from all over our county. Our school houses both the county-wide specialty center for Leadership and International Relations, a program a good portion of my staff is involved in, as well as a separate English Language Learners’ Program where “students who are non-native speakers to utilize the language effectively and communicate orally, through reading, and by writing. The ESL Program will help students develop these skills quickly in order to prepare them for mainstream classes and a high school diploma.” Within our school, we also have a variety of SES statuses.

The lessons I’ve created are designed for Journalism 1, not the production class. With the way our program is set up, Journalism 1 is where the students learn all the basics, such as elements of newsworthiness, ethics, principles of news writing, design and photography, while the production class (Journalism 2, 3 and 4) is purely application and practice of those principles with the production of the magazine, and occasional long-term projects. Therefore, students in Journalism 1 who choose to continue into Journalism 2 need to learn these skills primarily in Journalism 1. I hope to include more reinforcement of these skills for these newer students this coming school year, but the focus of learning these skills is in Journalism 1.

The topics of both ethics and media law are both subjects I’d like to spend more time with next year in Journalism 1, because they are so important to helping the students not just develop as young journalists, but are skills and knowledge essential for success in their lives. Without ethics, students cannot make proper decisions in both their journalism projects and in life, which also affects their ability to understand media law and libel. It all goes hand in hand, and because of my newness to teaching journalism last year, my timing was off and I was unable to spend as much time with these subjects as I felt was needed or personally wanted to. With the group that has just moved up this year, I may reinforce those skills in the production class, but I want to do a more solid job with these subjects in Journalism 1 next year, especially if I want to keep the program strong. The Leadership students would especially find these subjects of ethics and law to be of interest, and since these students are primarily the ones who sign up for Journalism 1, I need to have more that appeals to them. If I can show them how these two subjects not only tie into the Leadership curriculum they are already learning, but to their future lives, then I can keep Journalism not only interesting, but relevant to them and what is important to them as people. Also, with the appeal and general ease of online cheating, students’ ethical ideas are evolving (“everything on the internet is free and doesn’t belong to anyone so it’s not cheating”) and this focus can only serve to bolster flagging ethical instincts in young students.

Lesson 1 ASNE Reference: Sylvie session: “Ethical Concerns: How to Make Good Decisions”

General Topic: Ethics

Overview and Rationale for Lesson 1:

Ethics is arguably one of the most important topics for young journalists to understand in order to help them fully comprehend their social contract with their audience. Unfortunately, with the ease of cheating from the internet, students’ views of ethics tend to be skewed. With this lesson, I will show my students not only how troublesome it is to be deceived, but also show them that there are definite consequences to deceiving your reading audience. I showed Shattered Glass last year, but I want to set up more context and make the lesson more ethics-based this time. This also would be done earlier in the year (October) while students are learning to report. The overall goal of this lesson is to show what unethical journalism is, how it is caught, and what the potential consequences might be through personal engagement with the deception itself.

Essential Question: What is ethical behavior for a journalist?

Critical Engagement Questions:

• What is the social contract between journalist and reader?
• What are the consequences for deceiving your reading audience?

Activities (Performances of Understanding) (class is 86 minutes long):

1. Students will read a full text version of “Hack Heaven” by Stephen Glass. We will then have a large group discussion of the article as if it were any other article (my classes frequently do this activity as a warm up). There will be no reference to ethics on the board or in their homework, and I will not reveal to them that the article is fictional. (15 minutes)
2. Then, I will divide the class in two, and tell one half to pick apart the article and prove it is a lie, and the other half to defend Glass’s reporting. They must use the article to support their side. (15 minutes)
3. Students will THEN read “Lies, damn lies and fiction” by Adam Penenberg. We will then discuss Penenberg’s process for refuting “Hack Heaven,” and how it feels to know that they were deliberately deceived by Stephen Glass’ article. (20 minutes)
4. Students will then read “What does Jukt Micronics teach us about fact-checking?” by Michael Rosch. We will again discuss the ethics of the situation, and the responsibility of a journalist to his/her audience (15 minutes)
5. Students will then brainstorm a list of what makes an ethical journalist on the board based on these three articles and what they have learned so far in Journalism 1 (prior knowledge). This list must contain at least 10 items (15 minutes).
6. Then I will distribute “YOU need a code of ethics! Not your publication, You!” by Thomas Eveslage.

Assessment:

As homework, students will react to the “Hack Heaven” deception in 1-2 paragraphs, and how potential dishonesty affects how they read media articles. They will apply “YOU need…” handout to their reaction.

Recommended Readings/Sources

• “Hack Heaven” by Stephen Glass
• “Lies, damn lies and fiction” by Adam L. Penenberg
• “What does Jukt Micronics teach us about fact-checking?” by Michael Rosch

My Contact Info:

Lauren Benere

ASNE Reference: Hiestand session: “Scholastic Press Law”

General Topic: Media Law

Overview and Rationale for Lesson 2:

Last year’s experience teaching scholastic press law for the first time in Journalism 1 showed me that students are generally unconcerned about this topic at first mention. They told me they felt it only applied to professional journalists, and didn’t feel it was likely that they, as young student journalists, would be in a position to libel anyone, and therefore didn’t see how it could apply to their writing personally. Their attitude wasn’t blasé, but it was a bit disturbing that they were so unconcerned about it. I am determined to change that this year, and not only show my students how relevant this is to ALL journalists, no matter what their age, but how this ties in with media ethics and the overall legitimacy of our school publication through personal examples and an activity where they can see the divide between libel and ethical coverage. I will teach this early in the year, after they have learned about ethical journalism, so they can pull from prior knowledge as they work on the warm-up activity.

Essential Question:

What is libel?

Critical Engagement Questions:

• Why is libel so potentially dangerous for journalists?
• How can a journalist avoid libel? How does media ethics relate?

Activities (Performances of Understanding) (class is 86 minutes long):

1. Warm-up: Students will gather into small groups. The students will receive different fictional scenarios involving their Journalism teacher. A few are just silly and inaccurate (“Ms. Benere is a full-blown Trekkie who speaks fluent Klingon”), and a few are libelous (“Rumor has it Ms. Benere doesn’t just have coffee in that mug”). The groups will then form a plan of how to cover their topic, including research they plan to include, sources they plan to talk to, and interview questions. They then will present their plan to the class (25 minutes).
2. As the students present, we will discuss as a group which stories are libel that the journalism teacher could potentially sue over (20 minutes).
3. Then, students will watch/take notes from a “SPLC Media Law Presentation: Libel Law”. This formally defines libel and libelous situations (30 minutes).
4. I will distribute the Student Press Law Center handout “Know Your Rights: Libel and Privacy” and “Advice for avoiding libel suits” from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. We will briefly discuss the contents of the handouts (10 minutes).
5. After discussion of libel and libel law, as a whole group the students will discuss how they might cover potentially “red flag” stories in an ethical way based on the handouts (10 minutes).

Assessment:

As homework, students will find a famous case of libel, print the source, and prepare to present the 5W/1H of the libel situation to the class.

Recommended Readings/Sources:

• “Know Your Rights: Libel and Privacy”
• “SPLC Media Law Presentation: Libel Law”
• “Advice for avoiding libel suits”

My Contact Info:

Lauren Benere