Being an adviser to my university’s student run media organization involves more than pointing out AP Style and grammar issues. It’s an opportunity to assist students as they wrestle with ethical questions, explore issues about how and why to cover a story, and help them put what they learn in a classroom into practice in a newsroom.
Ideally, student-run media organizations are a chance for students to develop solid journalism skills. It includes being able to cover controversial topics and ask fair but tough questions to those in power. Student media needs to be more than a list of club meetings and tidbits boosting the university and its administrators.
Hopefully students should be familiar with the notion Chicago Evening Post journalist Finley Peter Dunne introduced 122 years ago on October 7, 1893–that the job of a newspaper is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”
Student journalists are not the only group being educated on campus about the role of the media. The audience of student readers has the opportunity to understand real journalism can go beyond the 150-character limit of a Twitter headline. Journalism can be emotional, disturbing, and robust.
Administrators can discover the talents of student reporters and use student-run media as a tool to see how the university can improve and grow.
David R. Wheeler’s article, “The Plot Against Students Newspapers,” in The Atlantic outlines a cautionary tale of how a student-newspaper adviser ran into trouble with her university’s administration and wound up being replaced by a Butler University public relations staffer.
Wheeler quotes the director of the Student Press Law Center, Frank LoMonte, who states, “What we’re seeing is the convergence of two worrisome trend lines: Colleges are more obsessed with ‘protecting the brand’ than they’ve ever been before, and journalism as an industry is weaker and less able to defend itself than ever before.”
How can advisers to student media organizations, student reporters, and journalism faculty members protect themselves and work to improve the situation?
First, they should all become familiar with the resources available to help protect First Amendment rights. Organizations such as the Poynter Institute, the Society of Professional Journalists, the First Amendment Coalition (FAC), and the previously mentioned Student Press Law Center can help during a time of turmoil.
Journalists also need to be aware of the state laws protecting student-run media. Not all states have laws protecting college newspapers. As David R. Wheeler points out in his article, “When censorship of college newspapers began increasing in the 2000s…state legislatures, including Oregon (2007), Illinois (2008), and North Dakota (2015), began passing laws explicitly protecting college newspapers from censorship.” Often private colleges and universities are not included in these protections.
Second, student media advisers and reporters should look for opportunities to explain the role of student-run media to university leaders. It is important to outline why these news organizations should not be a public relations arm for the institution. Administrators often need to be reminded of the role the press has in fostering a healthy democracy.
Third, student-run media needs to continue to shine a light on the dark corners of academia.
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