What did you learn from your experience as a participant in the EchoXtra 2015 celebration at Cantigny ? Any insights about the potential of alumni voices ?
At the EchoXtra 2015 celebration at Cantigny , I probably talked to 40 dinner guests during the celebration and not one of them was making a living as a full-time professional journalist . There were lawyers , psychiatrists , college administrators , investment managers and even an astronaut , but not one person working in a newsroom . Yet they all felt a powerful sense of gratitude for their high school journalism experience .
That tells me that there ’ s a potentially powerful network of supporters across all industries and fields , people who may never have pursued a news-gathering career but who still value journalism and want the next generation to have the same experience . That is a resource that could benefit every journalism program if we simply put in the effort to identify and to connect with our most natural allies .
What does journalism lose when scholastic media alumni are silent about the value of their journalism education ?
Imagine what would happen if a school or a college tried to discontinue football . The booster community would rise up with such ferocity that the decision almost certainly would be turned around . But in the absence of
ACTION :
- To support SPLC efforts to expand freedom of expression laws to more states , use this link .
• A tax-deductible donation of any size to the Student Press Law Center also rewards donors with free resources provided by the EchoXtra 2015 committee as availability permits .
a fierce and well-organized “ booster club ,” journalism — which has civic benefits for the entire community far beyond those of athletics — is in danger of dying out at all but the most committed schools . We are living in a dangerous time for journalism because of the obsessive imageconsciousness of schools and colleges .
Those who understand and appreciate journalism need to speak up and explain how journalism is a solution and not a problem . They must explain how journalism prepares students for workplace success , how it makes students more civically aware and participatory and how it teaches ethical publishing habits at a time when there is such a dearth of responsible online behavior .
How could alumni be active supporters of freedom of expression and the efforts of the Student Press Law Center ? Why should advisers encourage media alumni to become financial backers of SPLC ?
Whether it is through the SPLC or whether it is through a booster organization in their school community , we hope everyone who has realized professional success attributable to the training obtained in a student newsroom will repay that debt by sharing the wealth .
The Student Press Law Center speaks for those in student media who are too frightened to speak for themselves , students and teachers who have been threatened for stirring up controversy or making uncomfortably candid observations about their schools ’ shortcomings .
Those who cannot donate financially can donate their time by joining or starting “ New Voices ” campaigns in their home states to enact laws that reverse the cancerous impact of the Supreme Court ’ s Hazelwood ruling . There are active New Voices organizations now in Illinois , Maryland , Michigan , Minnesota , New Jersey and Wisconsin . In addition , organizations are being formed in at least 15 other states .
Legislators need to hear from a diverse a cross section of citizens in every state that the censorship of students ’ journalism work is an outdated educational practice that needs to be outlawed .
Howard Spanogle
Howard Spanogle , retired adviser of the Glenbard East Echo ( Lombard , Illinois ), was drafted as consultant for a celebration of Echo staffs , 1967 to 1993 , at EchoXtra 2015 . The event , which included raising money for Student Press Law Center , welcomed approximately 200 alumni . The assistant editor of Communication : Journalism Education Today found himself advising and being advised by former students who wrote creative essays , designed a conceptual memory book , produced an Echo History CD and created four YouTube videos .
CONNECTIONS Retired Glenbard East adviser Howard Spanogle found new stories in every corner of the Cantigny banquet room . Before the event , Judy Coomes , a 1971 department editor and a French teacher in an innovative school in New Hampshire , began catching up with Echo history by reading the Teenagers Themselves Trilogy , published in the 1980s . She discovered her questions as an Echo leader had made a major impact on editors in later decades . Coomes learned she was part of a persistent Echo staff from 1967 to 1993 . Photo by Ray Cubberley