It's the energy of teenagers that will drive the next generation of journalists, and their curiosity is our best hope for the future. "Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive," Eleanor Roosevelt once said. Teenagers are enthusiastic and bright, just waiting for their chance to be adults. Your task is channeling their enthusiasm, while teaching the important rules of journalism that they'll need to know. It's not enough to learn just the techniques of journalism. The most important thing to teach is its guiding principles.
Here's the most important thing to teach a young journalist: it feels good to be fair. One exercise could involve writing about politicians they dislike - and then asking at the end if they'd learned anything that surprised them. They may want to "go easy" on sympathetic subjects - but don't all people deserve the same level of consideration? This is something journalists should feel at a gut level, and it can be boiled down to a simple formula: are you telling the truth? Withholding crucial context should feel wrong - and so should the inclusion of misleading details.
And there's a great way to embody this "personal code of honor" which journalists practice: have a real journalist speak to the class. Many reporters would be thrilled to share stories from their career, along with lessons about the principles that guided them. The students may feel special, like they're equals in an important and exciting field. But it also suggests the responsibilities that come with the role. Imagine a grizzled journalist describing behind-the-scenes decisions. ("We found out later that our source was mistaken. If we'd published that story, we'd be sued for defamation...") The lessons have more authority when they come from an actual journalist.
Human Costs
Journalism is fun, but make sure your students know what not to do. Describe libel - and how it's nearly impossible hard to find work if your past employer was sued over your libelous remarks - but describe its human toll, too. There's unforgettable stories about lives ruined by a false, malicious story. (Imagine a business being destroyed or a family torn apart.) At the same time, teach your teenagers not to be frightened by empty threats of a lawsuit. You can't sue a reporter for telling the truth, and a journalist should never be intimidated.
Checking Your Facts
Libel is an intentionally false story, but teach your teenagers that it's still wrong to publish bad information unintentionally. The 1948 headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" is one wonderful example of a newspaper getting it wrong, and it's fun to laugh at prominent reporters who've stumbled into a big mistake. But it also teaches an essential lesson: you don't ever want to be the reporter who's getting laughed at for wrong facts! Students will definitely enjoy stories about the all-time biggest journalistic mistakes.
There's something empowering about knowing that even CBS's Dan Rather had to retract a story, since it implies a challenge to the new generation: think you can do better? But it also reminds them about the difference between "getting it first" and "getting it right." It's crucial that your teenagers learn to value accuracy, so when reviewing the student's work, always look for any statement that isn't supported by their fact-finding. Confront them over every error, teaching they're responsible for every word that they write - and extrapolate the consequences that could follow from a small mistake!
Identify Impact
All future journalists must know the criteria for newsworthiness. Why is something worth writing about? My first-year journalism textbook identified seven traditional principals, but the first one was simply "value to audience." If your reader isn't affected by a story, then a reporter is better off focusing on another topic. This leads to the biggest factor: a story's impact. Has summer vacation been cancelled? If every student's affected, the event is definitely newsworthy.
Remember that if they're studying journalism, your students are already excited about writing stories and connecting with audiences. Get the students imagining the biggest possible stories - what exciting scenarios can they dream up - but then make them identify why they're newsworthy. Two other criteria are "prominence" and "proximity," so have them list local people who might qualify as important, and imagine local events worth covering. Come prepared with your own list, and choose examples they'll recognize. Was there a local fire, drought or natural disaster that everyone will remember?
Teach Responsibility
Participating in the class exercises will demonstrate that the teacher and students are equals in the conversation. While teaching the principles of newsworthiness, you're also showing it's a personal instinct, almost as natural as finding something that's exciting to talk about. And they'll learn a second valuable lesson in an open "editorial meeting" about newsworthiness. There's lots of possible ideas, and theirs are just as important as yours. Someday your students will have to go it alone, identifying their own stories and being responsible for what they write. So try to eliminate the idea the teacher is the all-knowing authority - when you're a journalist, YOU are.
Cherish Your Heritage
Someone once joked that half the students who entered journalism in the 1980s were inspired by "All the President's Men." Woodward and Bernstein's investigation ultimately led to the resignation of a U.S. President, and it was the single biggest news story of the 20th century. Students who read the entire book should definitely be given extra credit, but as a treat for the class, the class could watch the 1976 movie, which dramatizes newspaper reporters confronting the ultimate set of issues. "Nothing's riding on this," editor Ben Bradlee tells his reporters, " except the first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country... Good night!"