Consider the journalistic and storytelling possibilities inherent in video games. What a fabulously interactive way to better understand a topic, by experiencing it in a game or simulation. And what an interesting environment in which to consider stereotypes, particularly racial stereotypes, as the action unfolds.

Thomas Huang, a Dallas Morning News assistant managing editor on a yearlong ethics and diversity fellowship at Poynter, writes about this topic in a Poynter Online centerpiece, Storytelling and Stereotypes in the World of Video Games.

Here's an excerpt.

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Poynter is running a contest to find, just for fun and enlightenment, a six-word motto for journalism. Winner gets a copy of Poynter faculty member Roy Peter Clark's excellent book, "Writing Tools:  50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer."

Clark is running the contest and describes it in his column, Motto for Journalism -- in Six Words.  He asks that entries be emailed to him at rclark@poynter.org by this Friday. He wants the mottos to describe "the purpose, mission, genius, tragedy, poverty and general condition of contemporary journalism."

Give it a try. See what you come up with. Tell Clark you're a student, and maybe he'll create a special student category, recognizing voices that are the future of the profession.

The rules:

1. The motto must be about journalism, but does not have to contain the word journalism.
2. The motto must be exactly six words long, not five, not seven.
3. Multiple entries from the same writer are OK.
4. The deadline for entries is: Friday, April 25, at noon EST.
5. Poynter is free to publish, or not, any entry.

Here are six mottos from Clark, to get you started:

--Last one out, turn off lights.
--If it doesn't fit, edit it.
--Need more Knight, but less Ridder.
--All the news no longer fits.
--See no evil, write no story.
--Feed the watchdog, euthanize the lapdog.

Good luck.


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Watch this 10-minute video and learn some quick facts about copyright law. The YouTube video describes the definition of copyright, what things can be copyrighted and fair use of a copyright. The video is done in a comical way featuring Disney movies so the characters are actually the ones teaching you.

This video was recommended to us through the Journalism Education Association listserv.




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Do you know what rights are given to you by the First Amendment? As a journalist, it's important to know. A NewsU course, First Amendment for the High School Journalist, explains everything from what you can and cannot do.

You'll learn what the amendment protects in your everyday lives and legal jargon. Ever wonder why you're unable to view an Internet page while researching on a school computer? You'll find answers to those questions and more. At the end of the course, you'll have the chance to test your knowledge in a game. You'll answer questions about whether you should run a certain story and what to do with controversial information.

Take this course. It's worth an hour. You may be surprised at the things you can do. I was surprised when I learned students can make a request to see a public school teacher's personnel files and the school district has to provide those files upon request.






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The news industry is more troubled than it was a year ago, and the problems are different from what was expected. So begins the Project for Excellence in Journalism's 2008 State of the Media report.

The report lists the following major trends:

• News is shifting from being a product — today’s newspaper, Web site or newscast — to becoming a service — how can you help me, even empower me?
• A news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations. Rather, they're stops, places to find out where to dig deeper.
• The prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central to the next era of journalism, for now appear more limited, even among “citizen” sites and blogs. Best citizen input comes as story ideas, sources, sometimes pictures or video.
• Increasingly, the newsroom is perceived as the more innovative and experimental part of the news industry. It's the business side that has that "deer-in-the-headlights" look.
• The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden. Coverage of Iraq and the U.S. presidential elections filled one-quarter of newspaper newshole in 2007.

For more about what this means, see this column by Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds. He notes that:

• According to TMS Media Intelligence, news sites are now clearly trailing the overall growth of Web advertising.
• "Citizen" sites and blogs do not fare better economically; for them, too, assembling an audience is hard to transfer into advertising sales.
• By most measures (though the metrics are still inexact), the audience for news is actually growing when online is included along with print circulation.
• News sites get high marks for innovation, and in 2007 they showed their willingness to connect to outside destinations rather than being "walled gardens."

Those of you considering careers in journalism will enter a changed, and changing industry. As technology-minded media consumers, you're fueling the new dynamic. Perhaps your ideas about reporting, informing the public and telling people's stories will serve the democracy better than ever ... and be financially sustainable.

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Five editors in chief worked together to lead a staff of more than 50 at North Central High School in Indianapolis. Adviser Tom Gayda wrote the article "Teamwork key to staff unity" in the Adviser Update  by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund about his decision to have five editors and how it benefited the staff.

Gayda said in his article that the decision to choose one editor was difficult, so he gave the top five candidates the position. Here's how they managed and some advice from each editor, as reported in the article:

Share the power and communicate.

Deal with controversy.

Update content and medium.

Build and manage your staff.

         Spencer Hegewald said:

Focus on teamwork


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Student editors enjoy a rare and privileged role that combines leadership and journalism. You're guiding a journalistic enterprise that serves your school community, and you're doing it by leading a staff of schoolmates.  Big responsibility, especially considering it might be your first real leadership opportunity.

Poynter teaches leadership seminars to professional journalists to help them lead their newsroom staffs. One of the instructors is Butch Ward, former managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who shared the thoughts below in a recent column, reminding editors that their experience as storytellers can be helpful in their new role as newsroom leaders:

• To bring a character alive, a reporter needs to be able to discover that character's essence: What makes her tick? Ask a good leader what it takes to motivate someone effectively, and you'll hear about searching for what makes the staffer tick.

• Then there's dialogue. Good reporters capture conversations, not just quotes. Good leaders engage in real conversations, not just monologues.

• And what about meaning? The best stories help me understand something. They leave me knowing why I read them. The best leaders help me discover why my work matters –- its meaning and what difference it makes.

Butch Ward offers this tip, drawing on your skills as a writer:  Organize for "story."





I've taken the questions Ward suggests editors ask themselves and modified them for you.  Ask yourself:

• What expectations does your adviser have? Are they clear to you?

• Have you, in turn, clearly explained to your staff your expectations of them?

• Do they know what you think of their current level of performance? Do you know what they think of yours?

Now, Ward suggests, imagine how your story will end. For example:  "We will be the most credible and relied-upon source for understanding the events in our school community."  Ward concludes:



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Student journalists are sharing their skills by mentoring elementary students. Here's how two newspaper staffs are being leaders:

Aside from publishing a weekly newspaper, The Tower staff of Grosse Pointe South High School in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., mentored a second grade class using journalistic skills, the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association reports. Linda Whelan, a teacher at Maire Elementary school, assigned her second grade class to write a feature story based on the state's new curriculum. Jeff Nardone, The Tower adviser, and the staff taught the students about how anecdotes and quotes help tell a story.

The project was such a success that Nardone and his staff plan to return to Whelan's class and other elementary teachers in the district want to have similar projects.

In the December issue of Stet, a magazine published by the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, Nardone said:


Smoke Signals, my former high school newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., mentors to second graders as well. Linda Evanchyk, Smoke Signals adviser, began The Kid's World program in 1990 with second grade teacher Jenifer Bafundo at Elliot Point Elementary School. Both were high school friends.

Each staff member has one second grade pen pal for the entire school year.  The students visit their pen pals several times a year at the elementary school and attend field trips. The program includes activities such as a book club where the staff chooses a book series each year and the pen pals share their reviews of each book.

In an email interview, Evanchyk said:


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As student journalists and school media advisers brace for the end-of-semester crunch, take a few minutes to reflect on why scholastic journalism matters.

In his acceptance speech, Jim McGonnell, Dow Jones National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, lists five reasons why after 30 years he continues to teach high school journalism. Money makes the list, but there's more.

The speech, from a Nov. 10 awards lunch at the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association convention in Philadelphia, may remind teachers why they got into the business. It might help students understand what motivates their advisers to invest the time and the intellectual and emotional energy that they do.

Congratulations, Jim. We at Poynter look forward to having you attend a seminar here, courtesy of the Newspaper Fund.  See you then.


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As a leader on your staff have you ever thought of yourself as a coach, too? Here's some advice from Poynter's Jill Geisler on how to be a good leader and coach.

Jill Geisler, leadership and managment group leader at Poynter, writes in her column, The Manager as Coach: Tools for Teaching:

Here are some tips from her column:

• Know your staff. Pay attention to their work and to them as human beings.
• Check your ego at the door. Resist trying to impress a student with your knowledge.
• Ask questions. What are we aiming for in this story? What did you see out there? What did you like most about the assignment? What's causing you concern? How would you like to approach the problem? Who else might we want to include? Is there another way to look at this? What would happen if we turned things upside down?
• Listen completely. Resist the temptation to give instant advice or answers. Give the student time to get a point out fully.
• Be positive. Emphasize growth and goodness. Praise people when they do something right.
• Look for "teaching moments." Be on the alert for opportunities to reinforce values and skills.
• Inspire. "Don't be frightened by that notion," Geisler writes. "You may not think of yourself as an inspirational figure, and your humility is laudable. But even the most humble leaders were known for their values."
• Be responsible risk-takers. Celebrate creativity that respects values but try things a different way.

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What does it mean to be a leader? Poynter recently hosted a Leadership Academy for professional journalists. Here's advice from one session, Words from Wise Leaders, that will help you be a more effective leader on your staff.

Don't think you know everything. "I think it's very limiting to assume you think you don't need to know anything else when you think you know a lot," said Michele McLellan, Director of Tomorrow's Workforce at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

"There's a lot of value in rediscovering," McLellan said. She suggests that you constantly rediscover what you already know while asking yourself questions like "What can we do well?" and "What are our possibilities?"

Don't think you always have to make the decisions. "The most effective leader helps the people they are working with figure things out," McLellan said.

"Don't be fooled by the stereotype of a leader," she said. People tend to see the leader as always decisive. "That's not leadership," McLellan said, adding that a leader should ask questions and listen, too.





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Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar here at Poynter, got people's attention last week when he wrote a column urging journalists and citizens to read the newspaper to help save journalism. He argues that we must support the print-on-paper work of the editors and reporters, designers and more who cover wars and statehouses, stories near and far. I'm wondering how you, as future journalists and citizens, feel.

WHO'S SAYING WHAT?

Track the discussion in the blogosphere: *BlogPulse results *Technorati tracking *del.icio.us discussion *digg comments *Subscribe to a feed of blog reactions to this piece Bloggers respond: *Steve Yelvington responds to this piece on his blog. *JD Lasica responds. *Steve Bryant responds. *K. Paul Mallasch responds. *Bill Doskoch responds. *Andy Dickinson responds. *Mark Matassa responds. *The Editor's Desk (Wichita Eagle) responds. *David Hauslaib responds. *Cynthia Brumfield responds. *Jeremy Littau responds. *Craig Stoltz responds. *Mark Potts responds.

Is it your duty to read a newspaper?

Read here the beginning of Clark's column, then follow the link to read the whole thing and the more than 75 comments, pro and con.  Clark writes:

Clark continues:
Could make an interesting debate in journalism class, around the lunch or dinner table or in a college application essay....


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How widespread are prior review and censorship of high school media? I knew of cases here and there and had a sense that it was increasing, but I wanted to see it.

I had in my mind the image of a world map I'd seen that plotted natural disasters, extreme weather conditions and other notable global happenings. And I had heard of an intensely local map where people could plot troublesome potholes on their neighborhood streets using Google mapping software.  I wanted to combine those two ideas in a map where teachers and student editors could plot cases of prior review and censorship at their schools.

I shared my vision with John Bowen and Candace Perkins Bowen at Kent State University, and they found a graduate student, Audrey Wagstaff, who wanted to take this on for her research project.  She researched cases through the Student Press Law Center and asked teachers on a Journalism Education Association listserv to send her their examples of censorship and prior review.

Here's the result of her work since our first conversation in May. Red pins indicate censorship, yellow pins mark prior review and blue pins show landmark court cases.  Click on a pin and read details of each incident, including the nature of the stories involved.

Wagstaff is exploring enhancements to the map, including ways to allow people to enter their own incidents.  But for now, the map offers a glimpse, at least, at the state of First Amendment freedoms for student journalists in our nation's schools.

Contribute data for the map by contacting Wagstaff here.



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Managing a staff can be tough. Communication is key to the performance of your staff. Poynter faculty member Jill Geisler offers these tips on how to handle difficult conversations:

RELATED

For more on dealing with difficult conversations: This isn't supposed to be easy. Get over your fears and reservations. Prepare for the talk by asking yourself these questions. Learn how to deal with underperformers. Go to NewsU and take the free course “Dealing with Difficult Conversations.” Sign up to receive Jill Geisler's column, Leading Lines, by e-mail, click here.

1. Be clear about your goal. Know exactly what you want to accomplish in the conversation and why. Include “preserve the dignity of the other person” as part of your overall goal.

2. Know yourself. Specifically, know your “default style of conflict resolution. If you know that at heart you're a competitor, compromiser, collaborator, accommodator or avoider, you can determine if that style will serve you best or if circumstances require another approach.

3. Prepare. Gather the information you'll need. Think through how you want to handle the conversation. Don't hesitate to rehearse with someone else if you think the talk is going to be tricky.

4. Expect emotion. Emotion – yours and theirs- is a normal part of conflict and difficult conversations. Make certain you manage yours well. Don't let emotion overcome your reason. If the other person becomes angry, stay calm, defuse the tension and if need be, take a break.

5. Stay on track. The other person may try to deflect, deny, change the subject, or make you the subject of the conversation. Be prepared to herd the words back to your goal.

To read the rest of Geisler's tips go to “Walking the Tightrope: Dealing With Difficult Conversations.”

-- Kelli Polson

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