Media Education
Compiled from various reports by Bill Densmore
A national study commissoned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
and conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut says that
America's high schools are leaving the First Amendment behind.
Educators are not giving high school students an appreciation of free
speech and free press, according to the study researchers, who questioned
more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers, and more
than 500 principals and administrators.
The survey also questioned nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500
administrators and principals in April and May last year.
An overwhelming majority of administrators said it is important for
all students to learn some journalism skills, but cited a lack of
financial resources as the main obstacle. Of the high schools that do not
have student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them within the past
five years.
"The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media," said
Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas Project at Ball State University in
Muncie, Ind., an organization aimed at developing high school journalism.
"Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get
the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms."
Mr. Maidenberg called the survey a "wake-up call."
"If there is not a future to the First Amendment, then this is a very
different kind of country," he said.
The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders,
the study says. When asked whether people should be allowed to express
unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school
principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.
The results reflected indifference, with nearly three in four students
saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn't know how they
felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what
is protected by the Bill of Rights.
Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It's not. About half
the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the
Internet. It can't.
"Schools don't do enough to teach the First Amendment," Linda Puntney of
the Journalism Education Association said in the report.
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Click here to access the Key Findings of the study.
http://firstamendment.jideas.org/findings/findings.php
Click here to access the news release on the study.
http://firstamendment.jideas.org/professionals/news_release.php
Test from Monday's news conference:
http://firstamendment.jideas.org/recommend/maidenberg.php
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BELOW:
http://www.jideas.org
http://firstamendment.jideas.org
Analysis in the report by Journalism Education Association Executive
Director Linda Puntney shows that high school students are lacking in
their education about the U.S. Constitution.
"Schools don't do enough to teach the First Amendment," Puntney lamented
in the report. "Students often don't know the rights it protects. This all
comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything.
And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment."
Jack Dvorak, who serves as the director of the High School Journalism
Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, said many established
journalists are "often unaware of a lot of the freedoms that might be
associated with the First Amendment."
"Kids aren't learning enough about the First Amendment in history, civics
or English classes," Dvorak remarked in a statement.
He continued, "It also tracks closely with recent findings of adults'
attitudes. It's part of our Constitution, so this should be part of a
formal education."
More information on the 90-page "The Future of the First Amendment" survey
can be found at The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's High School
Initiative web site.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states, "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the
press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances."
Copyright © 2005
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Editorial in the Rocky Mountain News calling for
more civics education:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_3512457,00.html
----------------------------------------
BELOW:
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=939&year=
High school journalists, other students believe First Amendment goes too
far in protecting freedom of speech, press
© 2005 Student Press Law Center
February 1, 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. . Twenty-five percent of high school student newspaper
participants agree that students should not be allowed to publish
controversial issues in a student newspaper without the consent of school
authorities . just one of the sobering results in a recently released
study about high school students and the First Amendment.
The study, conducted in the spring of 2004 by researchers at the
University of Connecticut and sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation, revealed that more than a third of all high school students
surveyed believe the First Amendment "goes too far" in guaranteeing
freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The study surveyed 112,000
students; 7,889 teachers; and 327 principals in 544 schools across the
country.
"These results are not only disturbing, they are dangerous," said Hodding
Carter III, president of the Knight Foundation.
----------------------------------
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3018522
Jan. 31, 2005, 10:58PM
Freedom may get an assist
Survey finds student debits on basic rights
By JASON SPENCER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Mayde Creek High School journalism teacher Shetye Cypher remembers a time
not long ago when her student reporters went out of their way to challenge
authority.
"In the past, I had students who would buck up against the principal for
not letting something in the paper," said Cypher, faculty sponsor of the
Rampage student newspaper. "Now, I don't have anyone like that at all."
----------------------------------
BELOW:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050131/bl_bottomstrip31.art0.htm
http://www.freepress.net/news/6450
U.S. students say press freedoms go too far
>From USA Today, January 31, 2005
By Greg Toppo
One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more
restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper
stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released
today.
The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should
get .government approval. of stories before publishing; 51% say they
should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.
Asked whether the press enjoys .too much freedom,. not enough or about the
right amount, 32% say .too much,. and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten
percent say it has too little.
The survey of First Amendment rights was commissioned by the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation and conducted last spring by the University of
Connecticut. It also questioned 327 principals and 7,889 teachers.
The findings aren.t surprising to Jack Dvorak, director of the High School
Journalism Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington. .Even
professional journalists are often unaware of a lot of the freedoms that
might be associated with the First Amendment,. he says.
The survey .confirms what a lot of people who are interested in this area
have known for a long time,. he says: Kids aren.t learning enough about
the First Amendment in history, civics or English classes. It also tracks
closely with recent findings of adults. attitudes.
"It's part of our Constitution, so this should be part of a formal
education," says Dvorak, who has worked with student journalists since
1968.
Although a large majority of students surveyed say musicians and others
should be allowed to express .unpopular opinions,. 74% say people
shouldn.t be able to burn or deface an American flag as a political
statement; 75% mistakenly believe it is illegal.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 ruled that burning or defacing a flag is
protected free speech. Congress has debated flag-burning amendments
regularly since then; none has passed both the House and Senate.
Derek Springer, a first-year student at Ivy Tech State College in Muncie,
Ind., credits his journalism adviser at Muncie Central High School with
teaching students about the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of
speech, press and religion.
Last year, Springer led a group of student journalists who exposed
payments a local basketball coach made to players for such things as
attending practices and blocking shots. The newspaper also questioned
requirements that students register their cars with the school to get
parking passes.
Because they studied the First Amendment, he says, .we know that we can
publish our opinion, and that we might be scrutinized, but we know we
didn.t do anything wrong..
This article is from USA Today. If you found it informative and valuable,
we strongly encourage you to visit their website and register an account
to view all their articles on the web. Support quality journalism.
-------------------
BELOW:
href="http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/5617/
Three fourths of high school students believe it is illegal to burn an
American flag, according to a new report on attitudes toward the First
Amendment.
By Kathryn Fiegen
Scripps-Howard News Service
Washington, D.C. - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire - The report, "Future of
the First Amendment: What America's High School Students Think About Their
Freedoms," showed high school students today are apathetic toward and
ignorant of the First Amendment's guarantees, said David Yolof from the
University of Connecticut, one of the principle researchers for the
project.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "These results show a lack
of knowledge and a lack of understanding of the First Amendment."
The Supreme Court has ruled that state laws that ban flag burning violate
the First Amendment's protection of free speech.
The study questioned 112,000 students, 7,889 teachers and 327 principals.
Yolof said the report found apathy doesn't stop with students. Among high
school teachers and principals, only 25 percent thought student newspapers
should be able to report on controversial issues without the approval of
school authorities.
The report also found that 49 percent of students thought newspapers
shouldn't be able to publish without prior government approval.
Vanessa Shelton, director of the Iowa High School Press Association, said
Iowa generally does well with the First Amendment, but she sees changes as
faculty members retire.
"You have some schools where they have a strong journalism program, which
means there is a strong teacher behind them," she said. "But, a couple
years later, that teacher may retire and the new teacher is new in the
classroom and maybe doesn't understand the First Amendment and students
aren't learning how the First Amendment applies to them."
Yolof said the survey had three main sections - a profile of attitudes and
knowledge among high school students, the differences of opinion between
students involved in media and those who aren't and the learning
environment for the First Amendment in all areas of the curriculum.
The report showed higher understanding among students involved in school
media, such as newspapers. But it noted that only 47 percent of students
in the study attended schools with one media activity and just 18 percent
attended schools with more than one media activity.
"First Amendment rights would be more universally known if they were
classroom staples," Yolof said.
The First Amendment Center, with the help of the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation commissioned the report and will release recommendations
for change later this year.
Carole Simpson, former ABC news anchor, has traveled around the country
for the network speaking to adolescents about being informed citizens, and
she said she has found the same results.
"Studies show young people are not watching the news," she said. "I have
just been so horrified with our young people. They don't see why that's so
important to know."
Simpson said engaging teenagers in what is going on is essential to
democracy.
"The real challenge for news media is to get their attention," she said.
"We have got to change, because I am really scared about a free press
today."
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