Student journalism becoming more relevant in 2024, SPLC lawyer predicts
Effort to fight censorship in student media continues
Student journalists will continue to fill the local news void this year, the Student Press Law Center predicted while urging them to inform their peers about the “threat to our continued existence as a democracy.”
As the SPLC marks its 50th year, it reflected on the evolving student media landscape amid increasing censorship concerns. The organization plans to champion legislation in New York and Pennsylvania to secure student press freedom this year.
In recent years, student journalists have been recognized for stepping up to fill the local news void, as the industry struggles. Their reports have triggered federal lawsuits on mental health practices, led to the resignations of college presidents and prompted school district shake-ups.
While SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand acknowledged the importance of student voices and the trend continuation, he hoped the necessity for their intervention would diminish in the future.
According to a Medill School of Journalism report, the U.S. is losing an average of 2.5 local newspapers weekly, leaving 204 counties as new deserts. The industry is on pace to lose one-third of all its newspapers by the end of next year.
“It's a wonderful opportunity for student media, weirdly, I hope that it may be isn't needed as much in the future as it seems to be right now,” Hiestand said. “We need to figure out the new model.”
Anticipating further decline, Hiestand envisioned more programs from journalism schools to cover public affairs beyond their campuses.
That’s already happening in some states like Vermont where the University of Vermont created “Community News Service” to pair students with local media, Missouri where 51% of statehouse reporters are students and Georgia where a local newspaper is entirely staffed by students.
As an organization primarily focused on combating censorship, SPLC aims to engage with these new community news initiatives, recognizing the distinct challenges they pose.
“They're not creating work material for student news outlets so much as they're creating news for general consumption,” he said of the shift. “We're gonna have to kind of figure out what our role is in that.”
Anti-censorship bill
The SPLC, founded in 1974 to combat censorship, received over 750 inquiries in 2022-23 from over 2,000 students and advisors.
The group spearheads the “New Voices” bill, which essentially would counteract the 1988 Hazelwood Supreme Court case that limited freedom for public school curricular student newspapers.
Seventeen states have already enacted the New Voices proposal, with New York and Pennsylvania in focus for 2024, Hiestand said. The bill was proposed in both states last year.
“We’ve had a lot of success there in terms of the reception to the bill,” he said. “But New York is a tough state to get things passed.”
He explained that as most college speech is “already protected pretty significantly” by the First Amendment, the bill would impact high school student journalists the most.
“We’ve always known that high school students don't vote, they don’t have a lot of money, they’re not the sort of constituents that typically are able to get a lot of attention from lawmakers,” Hiestand said.
Asked how the center gets students involved, the senior legal counsel said this is in some students’ DNA. He said it doesn’t take a lot to get students to come on board.
In New York, more than 50 high schoolers went to Albany last year to plead their case for the bill. Similarly in Missouri, press associations, student journalists and teachers provided supporting testimonies.
‘Landscape is completely changed’
Over the past 50 years, Hiestand said it has become easier to campaign against school censorship, thanks to the internet and the rise of social media.
In the early 90s when everything was print-based, the center had to fight “really, really hard” to overturn each censorship. The primary avenue for garnering attention was sending letters to the editors of local newspapers.
“But that depended on the local editor deciding they wanted to publish it,” Hiestand said. “So the opportunities for student speech were pretty limited.”
Today, he observed that he has given school officials "a much shorter leash." Social media has enabled students to disseminate their messages swiftly, exerting more pressure on administrations.
“We’ve seen some pretty successful social media campaigns and things that have embarrassed school officials and, at least, held them accountable if they’re going to censor,” Hiestand said.
Beyond censorship concerns, the SPLC reported receiving requests for assistance with various legal issues, including copyright infringement and libel.
Looking ahead
When asked about the types of stories he believes student journalists should pursue in 2024, Hiestand said he hoped young people would be aware of what he called “the absolute threat to our continued existence as a democracy.”
Despite multiple reports indicating heightened political activity among young people, their knowledge about the U.S. government, history and civic engagement is in decline.
Hiestand said student media remains one of the few places where civic education not only survives but comes to life, placing student journalists in a “unique position” to engage with their peers on global affairs.
“I really hope that student media, like all media, step up and open their eyes and say that we need to do things a little bit differently,” he said. “It’s time to really point out without flinching the existential threat that exists at this moment in time.”
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Featured Opportunities:
Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute for a virtual conversation about how journalists can manage stress and burnout on Jan. 12.
The Chronicle of Higher Education’s deadline for 2024 year-long reporting fellowship and 2024 summer internship is Jan. 15.
Politico’s deadline for its 2024 Journalism Institute is Jan. 26.
Report for America’s deadline for more than 50 positions is Jan. 31.
NYC24: A college media convention takes place in NYC in March.
The National High School Journalism Convention takes place in Kansas City in April.