Ethics workshop offers videos, lesson plans

by Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE

When Kent State University and The Poynter Institute team up for their annual ethics workshop, they don’t forget high school journalism teachers and students who can’t come to Ohio for a day of top speakers and plenty of exploration into some aspect of media ethics.

Again this year, with Social Justice Journalism as the theme, they have provided detailed lesson plans to go along with some of the day’s events.

Keynoter — and the subject of one set of plans — was Jose Antonio Vargas, the opening speaker at the National High School Journalism convention in Los Angeles in the spring. Archived videos of his very personal and passionate talk about being an undocumented immigrant plus videos of all the other panels of the day are now available online.

A lesson plan about Vargas’s situation and one of a panel focused on the Flint water crisis — and what those could mean as student media topics  — are downloadable here.

Archives for previous workshops on topics such as Enduring Trauma, That’s Entertainment, Dirty Politics and Foul Play (sports issues) are also available along with lesson plans. (Archives in the top purple bar)