Student Newspaper Research Articles

“Out of the business once established could grow various enterprises”: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Ed. L. Simon & Co. Printers

“Out of the business once established could grow various enterprises”: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Ed. L. Simon & Co. Printers Elizabeth McHenry (bio) Sometime in the summer or early fall of 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois quietly purchased a printing business at 163 Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.1 He did not live or work in Memphis, nor did he have experience in or knowledge of the business of printing. In theory, there were printing offices in Atlanta that were accessible to Du Bois, and as a professor of Sociology at Atlanta University, he also would have had some access to the university’s Printing Office. Described in the Catalogue of Atlanta University for 1901–1902 as “large and well appointed,” the Printing Office was used as a place of instruction where students learned the printing trade by working on publications for both the school and the larger Atlanta Community. It was where two monthly newspapers were published: The Bulletin of Atlanta University and a student newspaper called THE SCROLL. In addition, it housed Atlanta University Press, which, beginning in 1896, had produced the proceedings of the annual Conference for the Study of Negro Problems as well as related publications.2 And yet Du Bois invested his entire life savings—some $1,600—in the Memphis print business, entering into a partnership with two young recent graduates of Atlanta University who had been his students. Unlike Du Bois, both of these men knew the business of printing: Harry H. Pace had learned the printer’s trade as a youth, and Edward L. Simon worked as an instructor in the Print Department at Le Moyne Institute in Memphis after his graduation from Atlanta University. In this, Du Bois was the outsider of the group. And yet, he was the driving force behind the venture, which promised him something he did not have but felt he sorely needed: ready access to and control over a printing press. This printing office became the home of the Moon Illustrated Weekly, a publication Du Bois envisioned as circulating among African Americans to “tell them of the deeds of themselves + their neighbors, interpret the news of the world to them + inspire them toward definite ideals.”3 In reality, the [End Page 405] Moon was a modest, essentially local newspaper and it, together with the relatively small journal that followed it, the Horizon, have been considered mere footnotes in Du Bois’s long and illustrative career as an educator, an activist, a journalist, and a critical thinker. To the extent that it has been studied, the Moon in particular has become known as Du Bois’s most spectacular failure. This was the determination of historian Paul Parrington, whose investigative study of the Moon Illustrated Weekly was published alongside the three surviving issues of the newspaper in 1986. The Moon “failed before it began,” Parrington concluded, calling the journal “a dream which was not to be realized until 1918 when the circulation of the Crisis reached 100,000.”4 In some respects, this view accurately sums up the life of the paper: Du Bois could not find financial support for the publication, he was inaccurate about the circulation numbers that could be achieved; and the Moon was never, in any practical sense, an “illustrated weekly.”5 But the Moon is only one aspect of the venture that Du Bois entered when he invested in the Memphis printing business. Rather than focusing on the failings of the Moon Illustrated Weekly, this essay takes up the larger subject of Du Bois’s printing office, the Ed. L. Simon & Co. In doing so, I am attempting to divert our focus from the demise of one small newspaper to the more significant story of a small African American printing business. These stories are, of course, entangled, but focusing only on the shortcomings of the Moon detracts from our appreciation of Du Bois’s larger objectives in purchasing a printing business and the importance of the business itself. What he sought to do with that business, I argue, will draw our attention to areas of Black print culture studies that remain unexplored: the business of printing, the history of Black...

Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975 ed. by Kimberley Mangun

Reviewed by: Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975 ed. by Kimberley Mangun James L. Baggett Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975. By Kimberley Mangun. New York: Peter Lang, 2019. xviii, 268 pp. $47.95. ISBN 978-1-4331-4802-6. Not long after attending the 1968 funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, Birmingham World newspaper editor Emory O. Jackson drove to Selma. Jackson confided to a friend that he walked back and forth across the Edmund Pettus Bridge four times, pondering the march that had happened there only three years prior. And for the next six weeks Jackson was unusually silent, not writing his twice-weekly newspaper column. It was a rare time of quiet in his otherwise long and exhausting career. Jackson was a critical, if not well remembered, figure in Alabama's Civil Rights struggle. In a welcome addition to Civil Rights historiography, Kimberley Mangun, an associate professor of communication at the University of Utah, has written the first full-length study of Jackson's work as a journalist and Civil Rights activist. Born in Buena Vista, Georgia, in 1908, Jackson grew up a child of middle class parents in Birmingham. He attended Industrial High School, then the only high school for African Americans in the city, and Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he edited the student newspaper. After teaching high school for two years, Jackson joined the staff of the Birmingham World in 1934. He was a feature writer who covered sports and wrote book reviews before being named managing editor. In the 1940s Jackson joined the Birmingham branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and [End Page 194] served for decades as an active member and officer in the NAACP. Jackson believed that the road to equal rights for African Americans ran through the ballot box. Blacks, Jackson argued, needed to secure equal voting rights and use the franchise to build political power. In letters to government officials and through the pages of the World, Jackson exposed discriminatory practices that local registrars used to keep African Americans from registering to vote and helped educate potential Black voters about their legal rights and strategies to use when confronted with recalcitrant white voting officials. Jackson also wrote extensively about police brutality and the frequent killings of African Americans by white police officers. His efforts attracted the notice of Birmingham's white city commission, who labeled him a "Communist," and brought harassment from the police. But the rise to prominence of Civil Rights leaders who practiced a different style of activism pushed Jackson further into the background. He did not support direct action protests such as those led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fred L. Shuttlesworth in Birmingham in 1963. Calling such street protests "mass action stunts," (143) Jackson believed they secured only short-term gains and were counterproductive because they disturbed the peace and sometimes incited violence. And Jackson, a Birmingham booster despite all the city's racial problems, "constantly worried about the impressions of his city," (147) Mangun writes. Jackson believed the 1963 protests, where authorities used police dogs and fire hoses to disperse demonstrators, harmed Birmingham's image. By the early 1960s, Jackson, a generation older than the Civil Rights leaders who came after him, felt "the movement was beginning to pass him by." Where he had once drawn "inspiration" from his Civil Rights activism, he now confessed to a friend that he "didn't feel part of anything" (143). Jackson was not wrong in his belief that racial equality required working within the legal system, the courts, and the ballot box. And while he supported King and Shuttlesworth, Jackson found it difficult to embrace the need to demand white America's attention with large-scale protests. [End Page 195] As a crusading journalist, Jackson was sometimes at the center of historic events, other times a sideline observer. Despite a meager salary, insufficient staff, and deep frustration with the mismanagement of his newspaper by the parent company in Atlanta, Jackson never left the World and served as...

K and output: Two Student Publications in Light of Mid-Twentieth Century Graphic Design Education

Previous historiography of graphic design education in the mid-twentieth century is shaped by published theories and educational principles of a limited circle of design teachers. As a counterbalance, this article stresses the relevance of a marginalized source: design student magazines. It juxtaposes K and output, published in the early 1960s at the Basel School of Design and the Ulm School of Design. Both magazines intended to open critical debates at their schools, but took opposite paths regarding design, editorial concept, content of articles, and critical engagement with their respective schools' design philosophies. An analysis of their reception and context reveals the magazines' corrective potential for design education by raising crucial issues within the design discourse of the 1960s.

A Study on the Impact of Student Journalism Projects on Women’s Career Prospects

A Study on the Impact of Student Journalism Projects on Women’s Career Prospects

Training political reporters during a federal election: The UniPollWatch student journalism project

UniPollWatch was the largest student journalism project ever undertaken in Australia. Approximately 1000 students from 28 universities worked to cover the 2016 federal election. The project aimed to provide effective training on political reporting in a work-integrated learning environment. Utilising a combination of analysis and descriptions of the project and a survey research methodology, the results of this project suggest that by placing student reporters in the midst of a fluid and highly contested election environment they learn by observing and doing. The project demonstrated that students’ attitudes to, and aptitude for, covering politics varied greatly, but that the skills needed for political reporting can be improved through projects such as UniPollWatch.

Journalism Education in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic: Pros and Cons

The article discusses journalism education affected by the increased information scope, media convergence and introduction of new online teaching forms and face-to-screen communication during the coronavirus pandemic. Since the introduction of distance learning at universities, the quality of teaching and learning has been debated by students, teaching staff and officials. By having to overcome the difficulties, the students majoring in Journalism develop a necessary skill of gathering information and issuing school newspapers, radio and TV programs in the new informational reality of the crisis. The study included a survey aimed at finding out how students and faculty assess effectiveness of distance learning in COVID-19 context. Using a method of case study to make a complex analysis, the authors examine the academic process at the RUDN’s Department of Mass Communications as empirical object. The survey results reveal the key problems the respondents had to face when organizing and participating in the online learning process. The survey also helped to indicate the most convenient applications for online lecturing and the most effective teaching techniques, and to analyze the performance of the university’s internal telecommunication learning and information system.

Peningkatan Keterampilan Menulis Berita Melalui Model Pembelajaran Kooperatif Tipe Jigsaw Siswa Kelas VIII D MTS Pondok Pesantren As-Salam Naga Beralih Kabupaten Kampar

Based oninitial observation the fiel, the student news writing skills MTs Boarding School As-Salam Naga Beralih Kampar regency still low. This isi caused by several factors, one of which is the selection of the learning modeling accuracies. Learning model used is still the main choice in lecture learning. Another factor that comes from the students was the lack of motivation to write the story bacauce it was though that writing astoryisa difficult activity. To correct this condition carried through Classroom Action Research type Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Model.
 Purpose of this research class action (1) describing the process of improving the student skill in writing news items in class VIII D of class VIII d MTs boarding School As-Salam Naga Beralih Kampar regency increases trough Jigsaw cooperative learning model, and (2) describing the supporting factors improved writing skills class VIII D news MTs Boarding School As-Salam Naga beralih Kampar regency increases trough jigsaw cooperative learning model. Class room Action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle through the stages of (1) planning, (2) action, (3) observation, (4) reflection. The subjects were students of class VIII D Boarding School As-Salam Naga Beralih Kampar regency.
 The results of this study showed on increase in news writing skill class VIII D with respect to completeness of the content of the news (5 w = 1 H), regularity of exposure, use of effective sentences, vocabulary used, the accuracy of using EYD, and attractiveness of headlines along with the formulation of several contributing factors in improving writing news class VIII D boarding School As-Salam Naga Beralih Kampar Regency. Jigsaw cooperative learning model type is suitable for use by teachersin teaching students to writing news. Teachers should choose appropriate learning steps in using the model of cooperative learning Jigsaw type new sin the learning process.

The importance of collaboration and supervisor behaviour for gender differences in doctoral student performance and early career development

ABSTRACT This article provides an explanation for previously observed gender differences in scientific performance during doctoral studies and the early career. Data is based on doctoral students in science, technology, and medicine at a Swedish university. We collected information on each doctoral student's publication and employment history. We also created publication histories for the doctoral candidates main supervisors. The data was supplemented with information on gender, age, and research area. Informed by theories on academic socialization, our research questions focus on how gender differences in productivity during doctoral studies and the early career relate to research collaboration and behaviour/characteristics of the main supervisor. Results show that the gender gap in productivity during doctoral studies, and the early career, can be explained by the degree to which the doctoral students co-author publications with their main supervisors and the size of their collaborative networks.

Who Controls Content Decisions? External Influences on College Media

Issues of censorship in higher education student media are common and frequent, however it is unclear how often and to what degree college newspapers experience external influences. This study examines censorship in collegiate media through in-depth interviews with student newspaper editors and advisers. Specifically, this study calls upon the recalled experiences of editors and advisers to explore external content pressures, from whom those pressures are felt, and how editors and advisers deal with those pressures. It then identifies some recommendations for organizations to implement to protect editors and student reporters from external pressures.

ЗІНОВІЙ ШТОКАЛКО (БЕРЕЖАН). НЕВІДОМИЙ… НЕЗНАНИЙ… НЕЗВІДАНИЙ…

The article considers the activities of the famous bandura player, modernist poet, student activist and doctor, doctor of medicine, and student of Berezhany gymnasium – Zinoviy Shtokalko (Berezhan). Who is he? His father’s genes to some extent determined the life path of his son Zinoviy. In my subjective opinion, I defined them as follows: Doctor. Bandurist! Writer… Artist? .. Punctuation rather shows my understanding of Zinoviy Shtokalko as of today. Attention is focused on his stay in Germany (study at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich; public activities in the field of international student movement led by the Ukrainian student community, the Foreign Students Associations; edition of weekly issue “Students news” & its publications, poetic creativity and concert activity of a bandura player) and the USA (professional activity as a doctor; concert and artistic activity of a bandura player, preservation and popularization of bandura art; literary work). Based on original documents from the funds of Berezhany Museum of Local Lore and private collections, some aspects of the biography have been clarified (period of study at the Lviv Medical Institute, arrival in the USA, performances as a bandura player in the USA). According to the research results, the catalog “Zinoviy Shtokalko (Berezhan) and his family in the Berezhany Museum of Local Lore and in private collections” was published. It includes 358 original photos, letters, books, documents and objects. All of that covers quite a wide time range (1891–2020). “Geographical” coverage is the following: Berezhany, Brody, Kalne, Lviv, Sokal, Munich, Canada, Germany, USA… Research continues: unrecognized photos, negatives and photo albums, unread letters from the family, manuscripts of Zinoviy’s father – priest Pavel Shtokalko, and documents in the archives of various institutions are awaiting processing.

Jornal escolar e compromisso social em tempos pandêmicos a experiência do Projeto Folha CEFET

O Folha Cefet é um jornal escolar que há cinco anos funciona como um projeto de extensão intercampi do Cefet/RJ. No presente trabalho, discorremos a respeito da confecção de uma edição especial do Folha Cefet – integralmente desenvolvida de forma remota – cuja linha editorial buscou contemplar a temática do enfrentamento da pandemia da Covid-19. Além de relatarmos todas as etapas de produção da edição, apresentamos, nos resultados, a avaliação dos estudantes participantes acerca do material veiculado e da própria atuação na realização das atividades. Também enfatizamos que a participação dos alunos nesse projeto de letramento possibilitou a inserção dos mesmos em práticas mediadas pela leitura e pela escrita por meio de uma rede de ações colaborativas e coletivas. Por fim, destacamos que o Folha Cefet não é somente um veículo midiático construído por estudantes e outros participantes da comunidade escolar, mas também um instrumento de ensino-aprendizagem e formação.

Незнані раритети про свободу преси в СРСР та про історію української студентської преси

Упродовж усіх років від часу створення СРСР комуно-більшовицька кліка Сталіна брехала світові про так звані успіхи комуністичного будівництва в країні нібито найсправедливішого на земній кулі суспільства.У 20–30-х роках знакових представників першої хвилі політичної еміграції заманювали різними обіцянками повернутися додому. В европейських столицях агенти Кремля підшукували й підкуповували низку продажних журналістів, влаштовували їм показові поїздки, стимулюючи цим появу в провідних газетах Заходу фальшивих публікацій про «радянський рай» на одній шостій земної кулі. Особливо послідовно влада взялася за непокірних українців: знищувала інтелігенцію, трудове селянство, національну церкву, і, як і в царські часи, насильно русифікувала.По завершенні Другої світової війни, коли втікачів-українців із того «раю» виявилося в рази більше, Москва насилала в численні табори Ді-Пі так звані репатріаційні комісії, які промивали мізки радянським збігцям, прагнули повернути їх в СРСР із тим, щоб згодом у нелюдський спосіб позбиткуватися над їхнім свободолюбством у сибірських таборах ГУЛАГу.Здавалося, той щедро оплачуваний потік цинічної російської брехні нікому й ніколи не вдасться ні заглушити, ні нейтралізувати, ні зупинити. Та ось у середовищі української еміграції виявився один сміливець, який голосно, на весь світ заявив, чому він не хоче повертатися в СРСР. Це був Іван Багряний. Народжений в Україні 1907 року, будучи поетом за талантом і громадським трибуном за покликанням, він сповна відчув на собі переваги «радянського способу життя». 1932 року репресований за безвинні з політичної точки зору вірші. На еміграції в Німеччині відновив літературну працю. 1947 року обраний заступником голови Української Національної Ради, став лідером Української революційно-демократичної партії.Вихід у світ книжки Багряного «Чому я не хочу вертати на «родіну»?» друком і накладом Українського центрального Бюро в Лондоні 1946 року стало своєрідною «бомбою». Передусім для офіційної Москви. Також для політиків, журналістів та інтелектуалів Заходу. Текст брошури складався з 13-ти коротких параграфів. Кожен із них слугує окремим прикладом-аргументом відповіді на поставлене в назві твору запитання.Через трохи більше як шість років у рідкісній на сьогодні газеті «Українські Вісті» (Новий Ульм, Німеччина) з’являється публіцистична стаття цього ж автора «Про свободу слова, совісті і преси за залізною заслоною». Її можна назвати своєрідним продовженням вищезгаданої брошури.На відміну від «Чому я не хочу вертати на «родіну»?», яка неодноразово перевидавалася за кордоном, у тім числі і в перекладах англійською, німецькою, французькою мовами, ця стаття полум’яного публіциста в українському журналістикознавстві є, на жаль, призабутою. І хоч написана вона понад 70 років тому, актуальність порушеної автором проблеми (гуманітарна катастрофа, яку зазнала українська нація від колоніальної політики російського «старшого брата») ще більше загострилася натепер, за умов неоголошеної Росією гібридної війни проти українців, зосібно й на інформаційному полі. * * *Драматичною є доля наступного тексту, який «Український Інформаційний Простір» оприлюднює в Україні вперше.Йдеться про розвідку відомого члена Української Центральної Ради, журналіста і вченого Аркадія Животка, життєвий шлях якого передчасно обірвався на еміграції, «Девятьдесять років української студентської преси». Вона мала скласти окремий розділ написаної в еміграції найголовнішої праці цього діяча – «Історія української преси».Видана 1946 року в Регенсбурзі циклостильовим способом (по-нинішньому – ксероксна відбитка машинописного варіанту) «Історія української преси» Аркадія Животка мала урізаний вигляд. Через брак коштів за умов безпросвітної еміграційної дійсності Аркадій Животко змушений був зняти з оригіналу підручника третину тексту. Як вважав, до кращих часів. Однак для цього автора вони так і не прийшли. Хворе й виснажене випробуваннями долі серце зупинилося на 58 році життя – 14 червня 1948 року. Сталося це в таборі скитальників зі Східної Європи Лягарде неподалік німецького Ашафенбурга.Утім, цю свою статтю автор встиг побачити надрукованою. Її було вміщено в спареному числі (1–2) журналу «Студентський Шлях», який на правах рукопису видавав машинописним способом у Мюнхені Центральний Еміґраційний Союз Українського Студентства (ЦЕСУС). Цінність цієї статті в тому, що більшість друкованих органів, яких тримав у руках Аркадій Животко і описував для історії, практично не існує в жодному примірнику.«Історія української преси А. Животка перевидавалася двічі: 1990 року у Мюнхені заходами Українського Вільного Університету з передмовою і упорядкуванням М. Присяжного та 1999 року в Києві заходами видавництва «Наша культура і наука» з передмовою і упорядкуванням М. Тимошика. Не опублікований у цій книзі розділ про історію української студентської преси так і залишився в машинописному варіанті рідкісної на сьогодні підшивки машинописного «Студентського Шляху».Цінність цієї статті в тому, що більшість друкованих органів, яку тримав у руках Аркадій Животко і описував для історії, практично не існує в жодному примірнику – вони розгубилися повоєнними дорогами еміграції бездержавної нації…Текст подається за оригіналом підшивки журналу, який в Україні практично невідомий. Комплект цього раритету подарував авторові цих рядків у канадському Вінніпезі покійний нині викладач Колегії Св. Андрея при Манітобському університеті Тимофій Міненко.

Student News - Winter 2020

British Columbia, Calgary, Clarkson, Indiana, Munich, Münster, Purdue, Kentucky, Waterloo, Western Ontario, Yamagata, and Montreal present student chapter updates.

Самодеятельные ученические журналы Томска как источник по реконструкции организационных форм читательской активности: к постановке проблемы

Самодеятельные ученические журналы Томска как источник по реконструкции организационных форм читательской активности: к постановке проблемы

Youth Hostels and Hostile Locals: Vancouver’s ‘Battle of Jericho,’ 1970

Chasing tourist dollars was a necessity for many following the Second World War. However, few people in the summers of 1968 and 1969 could have escaped the sight of hundreds of fashionably penniless baby boomers hitchhiking along roads on their “annual summer trek”. Municipal authorities began to receive complaints about “scruffy young people” panhandling and sleeping rough in cities and towns along the Trans-Canada Highway. Tourism, wanted and unwanted, has the capacity to cause conflict between travelers and locals. In 1970, federally funded youth hostels became the focus of Trudeau’s Liberal government’s need to manage youth unemployment as well as radicalism on university campuses. The focus of this article is youth travel to Vancouver and Vancouverites’ responses to the National Hostel Task Force, which led to sit-ins and police-youth and youth-youth conflict, which culminated in the “Battle of Jericho”. Drawing on contemporary mainstream and university newspaper accounts, Vancouver City Police reports, RCMP intelligence files and activities at University of British Columbia, this article argues that failure to understand the diverse needs of Canada’s young people turned youth tourism into the transient youth problem in the summer of 1970.

El Niño Laborista: fuente de información y educación regional en Zacatecas (1927)

El objetivo del presente trabajo es destacar la importancia que los periódicos escolares o prensa pedagógica tienen como fuentes para la reconstrucción de la historia de la educación en México. En este caso se muestra un breve panorama de la prensa pedagógica en Zacatecas, aludiendo a trabajos ya presentados. Se destaca la importancia de un periódico escolar, El Niño Laborista, como vehículo de información, educación y comunicación, entre autoridades educativas, profesores y profesoras, alumnos y padres de familia, habitantes de una región lejana a la capital, la Congregación de Empalme Cañitas. El análisis del periódico permite reconocer las múltiples actividades que debían realizar los maestros en las comunidades rurales a fin de incorporar a los campesinos al proyecto nacional posrevolucionario, que trataba de crear una nueva identidad colectiva, donde todos supieran leer, escribir y trabajar por la prosperidad de sus comunidades, lo que redundaría en el cambio de mentalidades y actitudes que llevarían a la consolidación de una nación más prospera.

Toward a Theorization of Student Journalism Collaboration in International Curricula

Adopting an international approach to journalism pedagogy, this study reports on the findings of a Global Journalism Collaboration Project involving 267 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Germany, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, Romania, Colombia, and Australia. Over 6 weeks in 2019, students collaborated to produce multimedia news stories on current issues. Using student survey results and written evaluation assessments, we report on the benefits and challenges of international student journalism collaboration. The most significant challenge was differential access to information communication technologies (ICTs) among African partner countries and, using empirical data, we offer a set of “guardrails” for future international student journalism collaboration projects.

Radicalized on Campus? (Un)Coded Whiteness as Campus Social Movement

This paper explores how whiteness is rhetorically employed in the recruitment and organizational strategies of conservative student campus groups prior to, during, and after the 2016 US presidential election cycle and during the 2020 presidential election cycle. Drawing on both critical whiteness studies and social movements, this study examines how conservative students engage in framing processes designed to convert non-adherents to adherents of a group ideology and interrogates how whiteness influences this framing. Through a multi-site case study analysis incorporating observation, interviews, and a critical document analysis of over100 unique articles and student group artifacts (flyers, social media posts, student newspaper editorials) and over 2000 tweets over two distinct time points, I find that conservative student groups are employing whiteness to recruit new students over shared experiences “coming out” as conservative, identifying as the academically and intellectually rigorous side of the campus political debate, and disidentifying with contemporary campus liberalism.

The Why of Education

What do we hope for when we send children to school? This is the question Martin Luther King, Jr. posed in an essay entitled “The Purpose of Education,” published in the Morehouse student newspaper around the time of his 18th birthday. King's answer: “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” But what, then, is character? This is the question child psychologist Diana Baumrind addressed, toward the end of an illustrious career, in an essay entitled “Reflections on Character and Competence.” Character, Baumrind writes, “provides the structure of internal law that governs inner thoughts and volitions subject to the agent's control under the jurisdiction of conscience.”

Overt censorship, self-censorship, and gender bias: an examination of high school journalism students and controversial media topics

ABSTRACT Prior research into student journalism has indicated that a willingness to self-censor was a stronger predictor than other intrinsic concerns or external threats when it came to covering controversial topics. A recent examination of high-school students, however, found that gender served as both a predictive factor in a reticence to publish controversial content and a source of perceived overt censorship actions. Seeking to provide parsimony to this issue, this study examined online survey results from 142 high-school journalists (n = 142) in relation to controversial topics, self-censorship, and overt censorship. Findings indicate that topics pertaining to sexuality remain the most controversial and that gender directly correlated with reports of overt censorship. In addition, congruity between the gender of the student and adults in a supervisory role showed diminished levels of censorship and reports of a willingness to self-censor.