FW: Female High School Journalists Bear The Burden of Censorship, New Research Finds

March 9, 2016

*********

Regina Cassell

Director of Student Media

Lecturer, Mass Media

(785) 670-1801

Henderson 313

From: Student Press Law Center <[email protected]> on behalf of Student Press Law Center <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Student Press Law Center <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 at 12:20 PM
To: Washburn University <[email protected]>
Subject: Female High School Journalists Bear The Burden of Censorship, New Research Finds

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New research finds female high school journalists bear the burden of censorship

On Tuesday, University of Kansas researchers released the results of a survey that showed that young women report experiencing censorship — either overtly by a school official or self-imposed — more often than young men.

“School administrators and teachers appear more likely to prevent girls from covering the issues they see as important in the student media than they are to prevent boys from doing so,” said researcher Peter Bobkowski. “Instead of empowering girls and building up their confidence, journalism classrooms appear to be one more setting where girls’ voices are disproportionately devalued and muted.”

Female student journalists are almost twice more likely to self-censor than males, and 41 percent of female student journalists were told by a school employee to not discuss a topic in student media, compared to 28 percent of male student journalists, according to the survey.

This research, conducted in partnership with the Student Press Law Center for its “Active Voice” initiative, lent credence to a growing body of anecdotal evidence from the makeup of calls to the SPLC’s attorney helpline: the girl from Arkansas forbidden from writing about LGBT rights to the girls in Michigan ordered not to discuss their struggles with clinical depression.

“We know that teenage years are a crucial development time at which young women are prone to self-doubt and insecurity, and when authority figures devalue their voices, it feeds that uncertainty at a time when we should be building confidence and courage,” SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte said.

Read the full survey results. Explore what we’re doing about it on our website, Active Voice. And find out how you can get involved.