On news engagement day,
let’s engage others
with news about censorship
Oct. 7 is #newsengagementday, a national event created by AEJMC.
The idea is to encourage everyone to engage with news issues and ideas with students, family and, well, everyone.
National News Engagement Day was created to:
- Raise awareness about the importance of being informed.
- Encourage everyone to engage with news from reading and watching to tweeting and discussing.
- Help people of all ages discover the benefits of news.
- Educate the public about the principles and process of journalism.
- Ensure news engagement does not die out.
JEA has endorsed the idea and urges all to participate.
I know journalism programs do this daily anyway, but let’s take this one step further.
Let’s spend the day spreading the word about the banality of censorship, particularly that kind of destructive practice we have seen at Neshaminy High School, Highlands Regional High School, Fond du Lac High School and numerous others.
Numerous other resources exist for each school, all findable by searching.
Censorship practices at those schools, past and present is newsworthy in itself, but it also blocks students and related communities from experiencing news.
Making censorship and its effects the focus on news, and using the #newsengagementday hashtag to let others know, would be a worthy use of the day.