The State of Journalism in Illinois

This week one of Chicago Tribune's front page news stories was about the state of journalism in Illinois.  Vikki Ortiz Healy interviewed journalism teachers and stakeholders throughout the state to find out the status of newspapers in Illinois high schools.  She mentioned several programs that had been shut down because of money and cited an increase in pressure to increase test scores as another cause.  She did mention a Chicago high school's amazing ability to get millionaire magazine publisher Hugh Hefner to fund his childhood community's high school newspaper.  Overall she accurately portrayed that state of journalism in high school: declining.  Despite having started the entire journalism program at my school 5 years ago, I agree with her prognosis.  Even at my own school, I often wonder who is really reading The Phoenix Chronicle?  Do kids only read it because I make them?  If it disappeared tomorrow, would they even care?  These are troubling questions to answer when I have spent so much time and effort building what I consider a solid program that was meant to level the playing field between schools with money and ours.   A large reason I created the program was because I couldn't imagine a school without a yearbook or newspaper.  It just felt like another injustice.  Another normal high school experience that students without money miss out on. Because let's be honest it all comes down to money.  The best journalism programs in the state are at schools with money.  Why do programs get cut? Money.  Well that and good newspapers make the powers that be uncomfortable - no one wants a watchdog journalist on their tail, making sure they do what they say above ground. It's just sad that money dictates what our students learn or don't learn, what they experience or what they miss out on and what opportunities they have or don't.  That's why we have to keep fighting for our programs. And more importantly we have to encourage our kids to keep fighting.

Social Responsibility

Last night after Kentucky's winning streak came to an end, a Kentucky  player was caught referring to a Wisconsin player as the n-word.  The Kentucky player is African American and the Wisconsin player is white.  Today on ESPN Stephen A. Smith said in today's society African Americans are acostumed to using that term in a non disrespectful way, defending the Kentucky player. However, Smith did say that if the roles had been reversed and the white player said it about a blacker player it would be racist. I find it very disappointing that someone in the media is defending this athlete. The bottom line is that the n-word is a discriminatory word with a cruel history. No one should be "allowed" to say it.  I've never heard of a culture embrace a word that was once used to demean their race like African Americans use the n-word. Jews, Mexicans, Irish, Italians all at one point or another have been discriminated against with a derogatory term, yet none of these cultures have embraced the once hated word and made it their own. Many of my students use the n-word and I treat as a curse word. It has the same punishment as if a student said the n-word. What makes me even more infuriated than someone using the word, is when someone tries to defend the word saying it's okay because they are black.  If the roles had been reversed, there would be outrage right now. A similar event happened at a Chicago suburban high school recently. After the riots in Ferguson, Oak Park River Forest High School  held a Black Lives Matter assembly for only black students and staff. I was outraged and shocked that anyone would think this was a good idea. I didn't hear any mention of it in the local news, instead from a student. If the roles had been reversed much like this Kentucky-Wisconsin situation it would dominate the news. I believe the media  has the social responsibility to report any type of racism no matter who the victim. Blacks excluding whites or blacks using derogatory words towards whites should get the same reaction from the media and society. The media should not see color, just the truth.