Censorship of school newspapers is a good experience for journalism students. Students who become journalists will learn that editors will not allow all articles to be printed. In addition, articles that may seem benign to the writer may be malignant to some readers and it is up to the editor to decide if it is appropriate. There are also articles that call for an action from a reader or readers to do something that may cause disruption of the educational environment of other students.
Experiences from a simulated real world news environment are helpful to journalism students who aspire to be journalists. Some good experiences are the censoring of articles, correction of articles, and the assignment of articles. These experiences prepare students for their career by showing them what will actually happen when they get a job in journalism. Aside from learning on how interact with a subject and do research on a topic, they learn that the editor controls of the content of the medium of the information. Above the student editor-in-chief is the journalism teacher and then the school’s principal. They decide which articles are to be printed and which articles are not to be printed. If anyone of them feels an article is inappropri
ate they can make the decision not to include the article in the final version. Inappropriate articles are articles that state falsehoods, coarse language and/or obscene material.1
School officials should censor school newspapers by certain criteria. If an article falls into the criteria for inappropriate material then the article will be removed. If the school official just believes the article should not be printed and does not meet any of the criteria then the article will still be printed regardless of the preferences of the school official. Censorship is a good in a learning environment, but not excessive censorship.
Example Essays Home
