Searching: appropriate
Sensitive Issues
Controversial/Political News Stories - What makes a good story what constitutes a "real" story? Sensationalism? (Janet Kerby)
9/26/08 "A student getting hit at a bus stop is not a story. People who speed through school zones or students who horse-around the street near a bus stop are possible stories, but the simple fact that he got hit is not. Now this particular incident could be used as the backdrop to tell a story like speeding through schools zones, but this type of story will take a fair bit of leg work to produce. This is a good thing because it won't be ready to air until things have probably blown over. So if you simply want to announce this incident on your show to be the first to "break" the story, then you're teaching them what's exactly wrong with the local news casts these days. If you make them do a real story, as above mentioned, everyone wins. Your students learn how to tackle a serious subject; your school officials get a heightened sense of awareness about safety, and you get a sense of accomplishment because you didn?t contribute to another generation of MOSTLY ineffective journalists." (Jeb Brunt)
9/26/08 "Of course it's a story. If your broadcasts are LIVE and is responsible for "breaking news" it is most definitely a story. If your program is more the type of "feature" shows most schools do, then it would require follow ups on the safety and prevention type stories. But it's still a story." (Charles Aldridge)
9/26/08 "One of my journalism students e-mailed me from his cell before school to tell me that one of our students had been hit by a car at a bus stop. I confirmed this with the administration, who told me to hold off publishing the info on our blog. This I understand because the situation was still fluid and parents hadn't been notified, etc. Now that the rest of the bus is in school and the parents are with the injured child in the hospital, word is spreading fast among the students and will not doubt reach other parents via cell phone soon. No word yet from admin about allowing us to publish something. No doubt local TV will be here very soon to run the story.
So, the questions: what's appropriate here? How long to wait. Do we wait until the mainstream media has already run it? Do we wait for an official statement from admin? Needless to say, I will do what admin orders me to do but what would your program do in this situation (Paul Bancroft)
9/27/08 "I think this is a great opportunity to teach students the reality of journalism. As a former reporter, I had to come to the conclusion that the First Amendment only prevents the government from censorship. Editors and publishers (in this case school administrator) perform censorship everyday.
However, I don't think covering this is body-bag journalism. It was something that happened to someone who people know at the school. If you are able to stabilize the situation and give information, it may help the spread of rumors, which we all know are rampant in a school setting.
The best example I can give is that in a small town if a person is killed in a car accident, which is news. If a person is killed in a big town in the same situation I have to agree that it is probably lazy journalism. In the same vain if a child from an elementary school is hit by a car at a bus stop, I don't think it is necessary for the high school to cover it, but this was a person from a small community." (Glen Nienaber)
9/27/08 "Maybe all teachers on here who are teaching students about news are on the same playbook, but I don't claim to be a news teacher. I teach students about video productions and editing, news is a very small part of what we do."
"After reading the various opinions on here about how to handle this I would say that maybe my productions staff is more of an information service to the school. We do two shows per day, only one is live. The live show is all the administrative stuff, my kids just do the behind the scenes production work. The script is straight off the e-mails and other announcements we are given. Our afternoon show is recorded in the morning is more of a "news" magazine format. Maybe news is not the right term compared to what many have said on here. We cover club activities, sports, and items of interest to the market we play to " the teens in our school. We don't claim to be a news service or investigative reporters. I know some journalism teachers probably think we are not doing much, but we are proud of what we do. Our school newspaper takes a totally different approach and has poked fun at us as the 'sunshine Daily News", it's OK with us. Students watch our show and love it - the papers with their negative journalism, get tossed in the trash."
"So how would we have handled this issue" First, we don't have a blog so really would not have been an issue. On the morning show the principal would have very delicately told the students what happened, he is good at that. On the afternoon show we would do a short appropriate memorial, talked with about who he was, announced funeral arrangements as they were known, and closed with a moment of silence for the student. It's appropriate for us but I know every school is different."
"We are the Student Television Network, not a news/journalism teachers association." (Ray Wishart)
9/26/08 " Funny, but I was hoping folks teaching students about news all had the same playbook so we could better prepare them for what was expected in the world beyond the classroom. I don't have a problem debating this issue because it is the basis of what we teach and hope the students will learn. This is a teachable moment for students in our programs " ask them what they think." (Deborah Barnes)
9/26/08 "A student getting hit at a bus stop is not a story. People who speed through school zones or students who horse-around the street near a bus stop are possible stories, but the simple fact that he got hit is not. Now this particular incident could be used as the backdrop to tell a story like speeding through schools zones, but this type of story will take a fair bit of leg work to produce. This is a good thing because it won't be ready to air until things have probably blown over. So if you simply want to announce this incident on your show to be the first to "break" the story, then you're teaching them what's exactly wrong with the local news casts these days. If you make them do a real story, as above mentioned, everyone wins. Your students learn how to tackle a serious subject; your school officials get a heightened sense of awareness about safety, and you get a sense of accomplishment because you didn?t contribute to another generation of MOSTLY ineffective journalists." (Jeb Brunt)
9/26/08 "Of course it's a story. If your broadcasts are LIVE and is responsible for "breaking news" it is most definitely a story. If your program is more the type of "feature" shows most schools do, then it would require follow ups on the safety and prevention type stories. But it's still a story." (Charles Aldridge)
9/26/08 "One of my journalism students e-mailed me from his cell before school to tell me that one of our students had been hit by a car at a bus stop. I confirmed this with the administration, who told me to hold off publishing the info on our blog. This I understand because the situation was still fluid and parents hadn't been notified, etc. Now that the rest of the bus is in school and the parents are with the injured child in the hospital, word is spreading fast among the students and will not doubt reach other parents via cell phone soon. No word yet from admin about allowing us to publish something. No doubt local TV will be here very soon to run the story.
So, the questions: what's appropriate here? How long to wait. Do we wait until the mainstream media has already run it? Do we wait for an official statement from admin? Needless to say, I will do what admin orders me to do but what would your program do in this situation (Paul Bancroft)
9/27/08 "I think this is a great opportunity to teach students the reality of journalism. As a former reporter, I had to come to the conclusion that the First Amendment only prevents the government from censorship. Editors and publishers (in this case school administrator) perform censorship everyday.
However, I don't think covering this is body-bag journalism. It was something that happened to someone who people know at the school. If you are able to stabilize the situation and give information, it may help the spread of rumors, which we all know are rampant in a school setting.
The best example I can give is that in a small town if a person is killed in a car accident, which is news. If a person is killed in a big town in the same situation I have to agree that it is probably lazy journalism. In the same vain if a child from an elementary school is hit by a car at a bus stop, I don't think it is necessary for the high school to cover it, but this was a person from a small community." (Glen Nienaber)
9/27/08 "Maybe all teachers on here who are teaching students about news are on the same playbook, but I don't claim to be a news teacher. I teach students about video productions and editing, news is a very small part of what we do."
"After reading the various opinions on here about how to handle this I would say that maybe my productions staff is more of an information service to the school. We do two shows per day, only one is live. The live show is all the administrative stuff, my kids just do the behind the scenes production work. The script is straight off the e-mails and other announcements we are given. Our afternoon show is recorded in the morning is more of a "news" magazine format. Maybe news is not the right term compared to what many have said on here. We cover club activities, sports, and items of interest to the market we play to " the teens in our school. We don't claim to be a news service or investigative reporters. I know some journalism teachers probably think we are not doing much, but we are proud of what we do. Our school newspaper takes a totally different approach and has poked fun at us as the 'sunshine Daily News", it's OK with us. Students watch our show and love it - the papers with their negative journalism, get tossed in the trash."
"So how would we have handled this issue" First, we don't have a blog so really would not have been an issue. On the morning show the principal would have very delicately told the students what happened, he is good at that. On the afternoon show we would do a short appropriate memorial, talked with about who he was, announced funeral arrangements as they were known, and closed with a moment of silence for the student. It's appropriate for us but I know every school is different."
"We are the Student Television Network, not a news/journalism teachers association." (Ray Wishart)
9/26/08 " Funny, but I was hoping folks teaching students about news all had the same playbook so we could better prepare them for what was expected in the world beyond the classroom. I don't have a problem debating this issue because it is the basis of what we teach and hope the students will learn. This is a teachable moment for students in our programs " ask them what they think." (Deborah Barnes)
