McCormick Media Awards for Chicago High School Journalists

Don't miss Chicago's annual high school  journalism workshop and awards ceremony. This year, the event will be held on March 16, 2012 at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Register now and submit your students’ entries for a chance to compete in dozens of categories. The top student journalists will receive a $1,500 scholarship. Applications are due on Feb. 17.  SPAC is also accepting nominations for Principal of the Year.  

For registration and nomination information on The Scholastic Press Association of Chicago/McCormick Foundation High Schools Media Awards, visit http://spac-chicago.blogspot.com/. 

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Hats off to Chicago’s Best Student Journalists

We were very excited to host the McCormick Foundation High School Media Awards this past Friday, where the best high school journalism in the Chicago area was recognized. The luncheon at the Chicago Cultural Center honored 12 schools in 24 categories. Lane Tech College Prep High School won the most awards, and Mike Stanton of Whitney Young Magnet High School was named High School Journalist of the Year. For the first time in the event’s 19-year history, two principals were acknowledged for their leadership in protecting and defending press freedoms. Prior to the awards luncheon, the morning featured dozens of workshops for the HS journalists, with presenters from a variety of media and topics ranging from "hunting for good stories" to "making your blog buzz."

The Scholastic Press Association of Chicago, which is based at Roosevelt University, coordinated the event.

For a list of all the winners, click here.

Check out an interview with one of the 2011 principals of the year, Juan Carlos Ocon, principal of Benito Juarez Community Academy.

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Grantee Spotlight: University of Southern California's High School Journalism Days

Earlier in March, hundreds of high school students gathered at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism’s for the High School Journalism Day (HSJD). The event, held several times a year, provides high school students a chance to participate in journalism workshops and see panels led by professional journalists and USC faculty.

The next High School Journalism Day will be held in November 2011.

For more information about the event and how to get involved in future HSJD’s Click here

Also, check out Terry Anzur’s blog about speaking at this year’s High School Journalism Days.

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Wanted: Chicago’s Best High School Journalists

The Scholastic Press Association of Chicago and the McCormick Foundation are teaming up once again to honor Chicago’s best high school journalists. The annual journalism workshop and awards ceremony will be held on April 15, 2011 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Register now and submit your students’ entries for a chance to compete in dozens of categories. The top student journalists will receive a $1,500 scholarship. Applications are due on Feb. 19. For registration information on The Scholastic Press Association of Chicago /McCormick Foundation High Schools Media Awards , visit http://spac-chicago.blogspot.com/

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Leader of the Pack

California has again stepped forth as a leader in the movement to protect student speech. The state enacted a law last week - known informally as the Journalism Teacher Protection Act - that will protect high school and college advisers from retaliation "for trying to protect student press freedoms," according to a recent L.A. Times article by Robert Lopez (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-advisors4-2009jan04,0,7158385.story).

Lopez states that the measure is the most stringent in the nation ---- and "closes a loophole in state law that for years has ensured free speech rights for students but failed to guarantee protections for advisors, according to supporters." He continues: "They say administrators have been able to exercise de facto campus censorship by clamping down on journalism advisors."

For more on the new law, visit MF grantee Student Press Law Center's site: http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1817.

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'Reznetters' Net National Award, Internships

Eleven staff members of reznetnews.org have snagged summer internships this summer at eight organizations, including The Boston Globe, Denver Post and three bureaus of The Associated Press.

All are grads of the American Indian Journalism Institute, an intensive three-week program for college students sponsored by the Freedom Forum. AIJI is held each June at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

Reznet reporter Sunnie Redhouse was recently was named as one of the nation’s 100 best student journalists by UWire, a news and career service for college students. Redhouse, a Navajo who graduated this month from the University of New Mexico and is a 2005 AIJI grad, will report at The Salt Lake Tribune.

“It’s validation of what we’re trying to do, both in terms of reznet and AIJI,” said Denny McAuliffe, who teaches reporting at AIJI and is the project director and creator of Reznet. The six-year-old Web site, a grantee of the McCormick Foundation, is a project of the University of Montana School of Journalism in Missoula.

For more information, click here: www.reznetnews.org.

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We May Be Biased, but....

It looks like working on your high school newspaper or yearbook correlates with higher academic achievement and test performance, according to a new study released this week by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Foundation. Student journalists earn higher grade point averages, do better on the ACT and earn higher grades in their first year of college, the study found.

Among the highlights, journalism students:

• Scored at the 64th percentile on their ACT composite (overall) score, compared to the 56th percentile for non-journalism students.
• Earned higher HS GPAs in six academic areas, including English, Math, Science and Art.
• Were far more involved in extracurricular activities and took greater leadership roles in those activities (31.6 percent of journalism students were involved in student government, compared to 17.6 percent of non-journalists).

It wasn't all sunshine for the industry-sponsored study, though. Unsurprisingly, non-student media geeks outperformed their ink-stained peers in 2 of 14 academic areas: ACT Math and ACT science scores.

The study tapped data from 31,175 high school students who took the ACT exams during the past five years. For the executive summary, visit: http://www.naa.org/docs/Foundation/journalism%20matters%20exec%20summary.pdf.

Oh, and we think working on student media is also going to become a lot cooler, thanks to MTV's new reality show, The Paper, that premiered this week. The quasi-reality show follows the staff of a high school newspaper based in Florida. It's sure to be filled with all the backstabbing and intrigue made popular in any of the dozens of reality shows produced on MTV.

Check out the first episode: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1584809&vid=221964

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Read It, and Rate It

The American Society of Newspaper Editors, an MTF grantee, is looking for a few good reviewers to assist its High School Journalism Initiative. ASNE has launched a new review section of its Web site (http://www.highschooljournalism.org/) for journalism teachers and students to rate books, articles, videos etc. for the classroom. The hope is that the review process will identify the resouces that can best help teachers.

Meanwhile, Kent State University's Center for Scholastic Journalism recently launched a blog to serve as a clearinghouse and discussion forum around free speech issues that impact young people. Check it out at http://csjblog.org/.

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Motown Blazes Way in Teen Journalism + The Environment

How do you get urban teens interested in journalism? And to make it an even taller order – in environmental journalism, math and science?

We can all learn from what they’re doing in Detroit. The lessons drawn from the 3rd annual city-wide high school journalism conference (“Steroids, Makeup and Polar Bears: Journalism and the Environment”) that took place Wed. Feb. 27 read like a How To:

* First, invite some 200 DPS students and their journalism advisors/chaperones to take a day away from school
* Host the event at the very impressive Detroit Zoo, which has a great educational facility and interactive exhibits and an amazing array of guest ‘speakers’ from amphibians of all kinds to polar bears and arctic foxes
* Ask a group of high energy experts to organize and manage the program. In this case, vision and leadership came from committed people like Jim Detjen (director of Michigan StateUniversity’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism), Cheryl Pell (director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) and Emilia Askari of the Detroit Free Press
* Shape the agenda around topics that are relevant and news worthy to teen reporters, such as - steroids use, environmental justice, the dangers of make up, global warming and teen depression
* Invite local anchors like Carolyn Clifford and meteorologist Andrew Humphrey to provide truly inspirational opening remarks
* Ask eager young reporters like Chris Lau and Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press (who aren’t that far removed from high school themselves) to moderate sessions
* Oh, and finally have the whole thing piggyback on the steady coaching and nurturing of local talent by the likes of Erin Hill of the Detroit Free Press who heads the newspaper's inspired high school journalism initiative

Then add the energy, curiosity and giddiness of more than 200 high school students and you’ve got the mix for a winner. The high points of such an event are numerous but one stood out for me. At the end of his talk meteorologist Humphrey asked how many of the seniors in the audience were registered to vote. He then opened his bag and had voter registration forms distributed to all those that weren't.

Successful youth journalism programs like this are, after all, about much more than journalism alone. They're about inspiring young minds and opening up career possibilities but also about kick-starting interest in our communities and country and civic participation in our democratic society.

But what a great place to start.

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The Bill is Back

If at first you don't succeed, re-submit. At least that's the hope of state legislators proposing a high school and college scholastic free speech bill in the Washington state legislature. State Sen. Joe McDermott (D-Seattle) is proposing a bill similar to one introduced in March 2007, which guarantees editorial independence and prevents censorship for high school and college media. Last year's proposal never reached the floor for a vote.

Get the details at the Student Press Law Center: http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1666

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An Unhappy Anniversary

Twenty years ago this week the U.S. Supreme Court sent forth a ruling in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier that continues to erode student free expression today. In the landmark case, the court ruled that principals had the right to censor school publications if they felt the content could be "reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns." In that case, it meant the principal was allowed to remove articles about pregnancy and divorce in a high school newspaper.

The precedent has meant principals have felt increasingly comfortable exercising prior review and prior restraint.

"Not only has it (the ruling) changed the way journalism is taught at many schools, it has made it more difficult for high school students to learn the important lessons about democracy that come from publishing -- or simply reading -- serious newspapers," writes journalist Robert Just in the Washington Post.

To learn more, check out Just's column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011102775.html

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8 Great Ideas for Scholastic Journalism in 2008

In keeping with the theme of journalistic resolutions for the New Year, veteran journalism educators Candace Perkins-Bowen and John Bowen offer some much-needed goals for the scholastic free expression movement for 2008. This past year brought some setbacks to student free expression, such as the Bong Hits 4 Jesus Supreme Court decision, but that's even more of a motivator to start 2008 off right.

Among their ideas:
1. Starting a cohesive national movement to establish state laws that protect student press rights in high school and colleges.
2. Encouraging the professional media to support student free expression.
3. Leading an initiative to discourage prior review among administrators.

Interested in learning more? Sign-up for and read the Dow Jones Adviser Update at http://djnewspaperfund.dowjones.com/fund/pub_adviserupdate.asp or visit Kent State University's Center for Scholastic Journalism at: http://jmc.kent.edu/csj/.

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IA School Principal Yanks Paper With Racism Survey

The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that a school newspaper in Iowa City was pulled earlier this week after a survey on racial attitudes allegedly caused three "near fights" between students.

The article states that a plea for action against racism appeared in the same issue of City High's Little Hawk that ran the survey. Executive Editor Adam Sullivan says that the survey was intended to encourage discussions about race among students. He also says that Principal Mark Hanson did not inform anybody of his decision to pull the paper ahead of time. Hanson said that his decision was spurred by concerns over violence. "If I think there is something endangering student safety, I'm going to do something about it," he said.

Read the whole story here.

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The Drama of High School

Known for producing lascivious reality television like the Real World and The Hills, teen TV juggernaut MTV is set to create a new hard-hitting reality series delving into...high school newspapering.

The eight-episode series, to be called The Paper, follows the "dynamic and surprisingly intense life of students" working on the award-winning newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida, according to a recent article in Broadcasting & Cable (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6473000.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&q=mtv).

The show will document the inner workings of The Circuit, which won several local journalism awards in 2004-2005. If it's like other MTV reality shows, the Circuit is sure to be filled with heavily-scripted backstabbing and drama.

Stay tuned. The show is slated to open in the first quarter of 2008.

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You Wrote What about Your Principal?

Oregon is on track to becoming the seventh state to authorize expanded free speech protection for student journalists, provided the state Senate joins its House in passing a new bill, according to the scholastic journalism group J-IDEAS. The Oregon House approved the landmark student press bill earlier this week and it's headed to the state Senate by the end of the month.

The bill protects both high school and college students from administrative (i.e. principal, superintendent, deans etc.) censorship and is the first of its kind that offers protection to both age groups, according to J-IDEAS.

The proposed protections come at a particularly contentious time for student speech - a number of teachers and students nationwide have recently reported a crackdown on student media. In addition, in April the Washington state Senate killed a student press bill as well.

For more information, visit http://www.jideas.org/

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Calling All Chicago High School Journalism Teachers....

Want to learn how to start a broadcast program or improve what you're already doing? Then Camp STN is for you. MTF is funding a four-day summer training (August 6-9, 2007) at Columbia College for high school journalism or broadcast teachers who want to learn the ins and outs of how to create a compelling scholastic broadcast program while still managing the classroom, dealing with the administration and community, and maintaining your sanity. The best part is that tuition is free and participants will receive a $100/day stipend and continuing education credits.

For more information or to apply, visit: http://www.hsbj.org/

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