In the current cultural moment in which “journalism” can seem like a dirty word, in which biases on both sides insidiously dismantle once-respectable media institutions, and in which popular belief and trust in the journalist craft seems on its way out, it is interesting that a dedicated population still pursues journalism as a career and passion. Perhaps the crumbling of old norms and uncertainty towards how reporters interact with their subjects calls upon that investigative quality intrinsic in most journalists—the building is burning, but let’s get closer.  

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Journalism is an ongoing exercise in civic education. Civic involvement involves the four basic skills of critical thinking, communication, organization, and collective decision making (Verba et al. 1995). These skills are especially crucial when applied to young people establishing a sense of civic self, as those early habits can indicate future behavior. Previous research shows that students who participate in extracurricular and cocurricular high school activities such as journalism are more likely to be civically engaged in early adulthood, defined by voting, political campaign participation, community discussion, and community engagement (Bobkowski 2016).

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Connected to the idea of civic involvement and activities of civic activity are the more nuanced notions of self-actualization, self-fulfillment, and personal expression that derive from a sense of duty (Bennett 2008). The “duties” of citizenship include voting, consuming news, and abiding by the laws, of course, but they increasingly also include activities such as volunteering, engaging in activism, and advocating for positive public policy. Whereas other involvements and classes focus on the content of civic education, journalism focuses on the process of identifying value in a collective. When a student is writing for a particular audience such as their school community, they naturally have to consider the needs and interests of that community.

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High school journalism can definitively aid in the development of this self-actualizing citizenship (Clark 2011). For example, participating in a scholastic journalism program gives young people the opportunity to experience a sense of collective and shared public culture. Reporting on one’s peers and immediate community—and then seeing the positive feedback from that—can demonstrate the benefits of empathizing and identifying with different groups. In addition, it shows young journalists the process and costs of advocating for disenfranchised groups within their immediate community. This intentional thought given to people outside one’s self and immediate social circle encourages socialization into the collective concerns of a democracy (Clark 2011). A high school journalist must consider issues of importance beyond themselves and their friends.

A study by Clark (2011) demonstrates high school journalists’ attitudes towards citizenship show a common understanding of the self-actualized citizen who participates in “direct actions that would benefit the overall community.” Her interviews with various high school journalists demonstrate that through the process of reporting on the complete student body, the journalists have a more holistic understanding of their community that extends beyond typical high school archetypes (Clark 2011).

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High school journalism programs also produce tangible results as far as overall student performance. According to a 2008 study from the Newspaper Association of America, students who worked on high school newspapers or yearbooks got better grades, got higher scores on the ACT, and earned better grades as college freshmen. Students on a newspaper or yearbook staff had an overall average GPA of 3.38, while non-affiliated students had a 3.28 (NAA 2008). Journalism students earned a 21.92 score in ACT English compared with 21.3 for their non-journalism counterparts.

 

Those findings beg the question, of course, of whether  journalism classes create better students or if better students simply get involved with journalism classes. That same study does not prove that association with a high school journalism program improves that student’s grades or ACT scores. Perhaps journalism students have a trait that draws them to the program, whether that is because of the challenging work, opportunities for self-fulfillment, and possibility for positive community change. The types of students journalism programs attract may already have a developed critical thinking process and strong work ethic (Becker et al 2014) that is enhanced, not created, through high school journalism.

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Most high schools in the United States offer some type of student media. The 2011 Scholastic Journalism Census from the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University reported that 96 percent of public United States high schools “provide some sort of opportunity for students to participate in student media” (Goodman et al 2011). That 4 percent without media translates into tens of thousands of students denied the opportunity to foster the collective citizenship skills discussed earlier. That same report found that 94 percent of schools have a yearbook, 64 percent have a newspaper, 29 percent have a television or broadcast program, and 3 percent have a radio program. Small, poor, and minority-heavy schools are among the least likely to offer any sort of media program.

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There is not a lot of research on high school journalism in the South or in, more specifically, the state of Alabama. Alabama has a higher concentration of small, poor, schools, however, and that could indicate fewer thriving journalism programs. The Alabama Scholastic Press Association is housed at The University of Alabama and offers support and resources to its member publications through conventions, workshops, and networking. There is a need to conduct an in-depth study into the health of Alabama high school journalism in order to identify the strengths, existing supportive structures, and barriers to access. This study attempts to take a snapshot of the Tuscaloosa-area scholastic journalism, but it fails to provide any meaningful conclusions.

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High school journalism affects students in how they develop concepts of citizenship, critical thinking skills, and their ultimate career goals. The timeless, simple analysis of its importance can be summed up by this quote from “Death By Cheeseburger,” an assessment of the state of high school journalism in the 1990s that is truly a pleasure to read in its entirety:

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“A few students usually gain the direct benefits of learning to report, write, edit, and manage time and resources among other skills that are fundamental to the production of a newspaper. But the entire school is better for having a vehicle of expression, a means to exchange ideas, to raise issues and even to promote controversy. These lessons of free expression and of a free society based on free flow of information are the essence of our democracy in the USA. A high school without a newspaper is a poorer school indeed”  (Freedom Forum 1994).