Scholastic Journalism 2003 Abstract
Scholastic Journalism Division
I’m a Good Writer…Aren’t I?: Predictors of Student Self-Efficacy and Writing Performance in a Mass Communication Writing Course • Kimberly L. Bissell, Alabama, and Steve J. Collins, Central Florida • This study sought to identify variables that predicted writing performance and/or self-efficacy (confidence in one’s ability) near the end of the semester in a basic media writing course at a public university in the South. Surprisingly, just one variable predicted success on the writing test: high school grade point average. Students appear not to be very good judges of their own ability, as both a general self-efficacy scale and a more specific task confidence scale were both unrelated to writing performance.
Convergence and Writing Instruction • David W. Bulla and Julie B. Dodd, Florida • College media writing instructors are dealing with a recent phenomenon in the media world: convergence. The researchers interviewed instructors from universities and colleges from across the United States to determine how they are dealing with convergence in their media writing classes. The researchers discovered two camps: (1) innovators and (2) resisters. The former work in programs that tend to embrace writing in a converged media environment; the latter work in programs that have adopted a go-slow policy.
Characteristics of Journalism Educators and Journalism Educators in Inner-City High Schools • Jack Dvorak, Indiana and Candace Perkins Bowen, Kent State • This national study of 2,089 U.S. high schools compares journalistic activities in nearly 300 inner-city schools with suburban and rural/small-town schools. Specifically, it examines the prevalence of newspapers, news magazines, radio, television, online publications and yearbooks in the three major classifications of schools. Also, it compares various demographic and psychographic characteristics of the journalism educators within inner-city schools and compares those traits with teachers in schools generally.
The Theft (and Censorship) of Student Newspapers • Mark Paxton, Southwest Missouri State • More than 30 years of court decisions have barred administrators at publicly funded college and university campuses from directly censoring the student press. But over the past 10 year, students have begun censoring the campus press by stealing part or all of a day’s edition. This paper argues that administrators who refuse to take disciplinary action against the paper thieves are engaging in a new form of censorship.
September 11, 2001: How Yearbook Journalists Covered a National Tragedy • Melanie Wilderman and Laura Schaub, Oklahoma • This paper presents a review of the methods used by twenty-two junior high, middle school and high school yearbook staffs in their yearbook coverage of the terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. It also contains a content analysis of the types of stories, secondary packages and photos included and the total percent of coverage in 107 junior high, middle school and high school yearbooks.
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