Celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week: Feb. 24-28

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It’s Scholastic Journalism Week! Join the Journalism Education Association (JEA) in celebrating the hard work of student journalists asking important questions, reporting to benefit audiences and investigating trends, issues and stories in their communities.

JEA and schools across the country will be promoting student journalism online and on social media with the following hashtags:

#SJW2020 each day

Monday, Feb. 24: #Askedandanswered — Highlight stories with impact.

Tuesday, Feb. 25: #Tacklingtruth — Tackling tough and controversial issues, maybe even including some lessons about fact-checking.

Wednesday, Feb. 26: #OurNeighborhood — Highlight community and everyday journalism, stories that are important but maybe don't get a lot of recognition.

Thursday, Feb. 27: #Press4Education — Highlight importance of scholastic journalism with the Society of Professional Journalists.

Friday, Feb. 28: #WhoweAre — Show the students and faces behind scholastic journalism and why students chose to participate in scholastic journalism.

Suggestions for ways to participate in promoting scholastic press include:

  • Work to have a broader impact in promoting the ideals of scholastic journalism. Involve local media. 

  • Hold an all-school program in which staff members teach their peers about ethical journalism and how it’s practiced in their publications; or how students can tell the difference between fake news and real news, and ethical reporting methods.

  • Host a school journalism movie series or night, after which students and/or professional journalists can discuss how real-life journalists go about their jobs.

  • Run a social media campaign to draw attention pressing social issues among high school students, such as:

    • Sexual harassment

    • Bullying

  • Publish some sort of photo essay mixed with writing and stories to show just how important journalism is. We could have reaction shots of students, parents and community members reading our school newspapers, students laughing at the yearbook, etc, to show how much journalism, especially student journalism, can have an impact on society.

  • Spread Random Acts of Freedom

    • What sort of work has been done in scholastic journalism because students have the freedom to publish?

  • Tweet “Why the First Amendment is important to me.” “Why ethical journalism is important to me.”

  • Use Snapchat or Instagram Takeovers to feature schools. Make a public story.

  • Have a movie night focusing on ethics.

For more ideas on how to celebrate student journalism, visit the JEA website.