Journalism/ English SGI

Jesse McLean, Alexis Bunka, Sandi Stupica, Jeremy Whiting

Oct. 27, 2008
Primary sources

Julie Price
priceja@haslett.k12.mi.us
(517) 420-8391

Julie is a journalism, newspaper and photography teacher at Haslett High School in

Haslett, Michigan. She is in the enviable position of having a newspaper class that is fed
by a beginning journalism class. Haslett also has a strong photography program,
including traditional darkroom instruction. Students from the journalism and photo
classes make it into the newspaper and yearbook classes at the school. Julie also is the
Newspaper Chair for the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association. She has been
involved with the organization for many years, and teaches new advisers about
photojournalism at the MIPA summer adviser workshop. Students from Julie’s program
have won many state and national awards.

Lydia Cadena
Lcadena@novia.k12.mi.us
810.923.3266
Lydia is the adviser for both yearbook and newspaper at Novi High School. She has
experience in working with diverse learners in both a journalism classroom and a social
studies classroom. She also talked about the differences of teaching in a journalism
classroom and a core studies classroom, acknowledging students learn differently in a
hands-on approach. She has seen how students develop working one on one with each
other rather in with a teacher being the main source of knowledge. In our interview we
conducted with her, she gave good information about how teachers can be involved with
organizations and have other advisers be mentors through your career. This interview
allowed us to gain insight from an adviser’s perspective on issues in the classroom that
we can bring back to our classmates and help relate how a journalism class works in an
English classroom.
Pam Bunka
pbunka@fenton.k12.mi.us
810.519.2967
Pam is an adviser for both yearbook and newspaper at Fenton High School. She has
experience in working in an English as well as journalism classroom. Because she not
only teaches the two production classes, but also a basic computer course, which anyone
can enroll in, she has experience working with different skill levels of students as well as
disabled students. Bunka has experienced the change of technology with her students in
the classroom. She is also the English department chair at the high school where she must
keep in mind the different skill levels of all students when making curriculum and talking
to the other teachers. She has also been a teacher at the Michigan Interscholastic Press
Association summer journalism workshop for high school students as well as many other
workshops in the country where she has worked with different skill levels of students
around the country.

Roger Smith
rsmith@lakeorion.k12.mi.us
(248) 693-5420 ext. 6039

Roger is a broadcasting teacher at Lake Orion High School in Lake Orion, Michigan. He
teaches a beginning broadcasting class (entitled “Broadcasting 1”), an advanced video
class where they create things like short films and music videos (“Video Projects”) and an
advanced application-based production class where they create a daily show for the entire
school (“Television Production Workshop”). He has been teaching there for over 5 years
now and says he has learned a lot over the years. He believes Journalism is great when
applying to diverse learners and has implemented a lot of unique and interesting
techniques into his program to cover the diversity of his students. One of the techniques
he shared with us during our interview was an “A la carte” points system that he uses
with his TPW class. Smith gave us some very good insights and advice for our futures as
journalism teachers.

Secondary sources

ProQuest
Multicultural Journalism Education
In journalism classes, such as newspaper and yearbook, the consideration of students’
diversity and knowledge of other cultures is key for success. To conduct an effective
interview or create a non-biased article is the result of various cultures interwoven into a
classroom education. The article, “Multicultural Journalism Education in the Netherlands:
a case study,” delves into how teachers can find a place for multicultural issues in their
everyday practices. Even though the article reports research conducted in the
Netherlands, it provides useful insight for any journalism instructor. For instance, it
identifies three broad themes regarding multiculturalism and management of a program
in journalism education: knowledge, representation, and responsibility. “Knowledge is
concerned with what journalists know about different cultures and people.”
Representation is how people are featured in the workplace, media content, and various
other interactions. Responsibility focuses on how journalists can play different roles in
the multicultural democratic society. Interweaving these three themes as well as
suggested methodologies of the article allows teachers to give a deeper understanding of
diversity and cultural interpretations.

ProQuest
Diversity Begins in J-School Classrooms
The article, “Punto Final!” Diversity in Newsrooms Begins in J-School Classroom,”
provides the statistics for the startling lack of diversity in the profession of journalism.
The author, Stave Malave, suggests that teachers should reflect the belief that minority
students’ involvement is important in mass media. This is important to convey because
people’s dominant perspectives will be perceived as the “reality” of our society.
According to the article, the percentage of minorities represented in broadcast news
includes: 8.9 percent Latinos, 10.3 percent African Americans, 2.2 percent Asian
Americans, and .5 percent Native Americans. Contrastingly, 78.2 percent of Caucasians
are involved in this field. These statistics do not differ much from the percentage of those
involved in radio broadcasting. In the future, for communities to reflect an accurate
depiction of the population, this diversity needs to be represented in the classroom.

Michigan Interscholastic Press Association

mipa.jrn.msu.edu

Michigan Interscholastic Press Association’s (also known as MIPA) website is a

wonderful source of information, guidelines, and ideas for our project and journalism
teachers in general. The organization (ran by Michigan State’s own, Cheryl Pell) offers
tons of workshops and conferences throughout the year for both advisors and students
and also holds contests for student’s work. The organization has truly become a staple in
high achievement journalism programs around the state and offers a plentitude of useful
information, advice and advancements for programs so it will function as somewhere to
go to get ideas, gauge the usefulness of information we are giving to our peers, and so on.

Journalism Education Association

jea.org

The Journalism Education Association is a national organization that provides resources

for journalism educators and students. JEA’s Web site hosts many lesson plans for the
basics of journalism, including writing, technology, design, photography and classroom
management. These resources are great for the curriculum portion of a production class.
Besides the online resources, the JEA also runs awards and contests for scholastic
journalism to encourage students as they are learning and producing publications.