A social issue that I think really applies to all three categories of community, health, and wellness is student journalistic rights. Being a student journalist, I think that our rights are just as important as any other journalist.
Everyone who is an American citizen is granted the freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, petition, and freedom of speech. Freedom of the press and free speech are the two biggest ones in my world. Journalism is writing that expresses the news and events that have long-lasting effects, normally by making the important interesting.
Professional journalists get treated as professionals. There are a lot of things that go around in politics, especially right now with Trump and Clinton arguing back and forth, about how the media only reports on the bad things and how they want to paint these ugly pictures of people of power in the minds of the public. Which I don't think is true. It's our job to report with the truth and to be loyal to the people.
A lot of professional journalists do not face prior-restraint and prior-review before publication like a lot of student journalists do. Last year in Journalism 1, our class did a mock trial about a high school newspaper. The school's mascot was the redskin and the newspaper refused to publish the word because of its negative connotation. The newspaper is real and so was the principal's act of prior-restraint. This is just one example of how student journalist rights were violated.
I want to know about more cases of when student journalist rights were violated. And more specifically, at Manual. Being a student journalist, it is important that I know that I can write about controversial topics and won't have to worry about the article being taken down or edited by an administrator to make sure that the "wrong" reaction is not spurred. I want to discover why people think that student journalist rights are not as important and on the same level as professional journalist rights.
This social issue can be related to community and wellness. There is an entire community of student journalists who care about what they publish and who want to be treated as real contributors in the world of journalism. For this specific issue, I though about wellness as more of the term well-being. I think that it has to do with the well-being of the public. Because of prior-restraint/review, the public doesn't get the full story and it can effect them in the long run.
Piper, I really enjoyed reading your first blog. You're writing is very strong, and your journalistic background is evident. I am intrigued by your issue as well, its different, and it is something that I'm sure the majority of the population is not thinking about. Some things I would like you to consider would be:
ReplyDeleteHow does this topic directly relate to the overarching theme of community health and wellness, and how can you continually focus your research into this theme?
What are all of the sides of this issue? When would journalistic rights for students be in conflict with other student rights? Are students ever screened or articles edited for a reason that benefits community health and wellness?
Just playing devel's advocate here- but I think your issue is really interesting.
More specifically, when you say "Because of prior-restraint/review, the public doesn't get the full story and it can effect them in the long run," how does this effect the public in the long run in terms of community health/wellness?
ReplyDelete