Teaching students to be strong journalists involves more than the inverted pyramid and open-ended questions. Students need to have an understanding of publication law and their rights. The Student Press Law Center offers numerous resources for teachers and students. Frank LeMonte of the SPLC gave a tour of splc.org and discussed important laws and court decisions that can impact student publications. He spent time discussing copyright law, an area I am particularly concerned with in my own classroom.
Whenever a student asks to publish a photo from the internet, my guards go up. I am hesitant to allow students to use any photo that they have not taken themselves. I am confident in settling the argument that always comes from students: What if I give them credit? I now have a quick, easy response: Copyright law cares nothing about credit.
I was relieved when LeMonte said students can use images from federal government websites to accompany stories on nation-wide topics. I also learned that students can use Google images to find images with a creative commons license. I’m ashamed to admit I was unaware of this, but I look forward to sharing this information with students.
Copyright law is something I take very serious in my classroom. I am thrilled to be leaving with information that can protect my students not only in the journalism classroom, but in the outside world as well.
Lynsie Brenner
Putnam City North High School
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Yes! Creative commons was what I was looking for on one occasion recently. I really want only our own images, but it happened we needed to see something very specific and it was the very last minute.
ReplyDeleteLynsie,
ReplyDeleteFrank LoMonte really opened my eyes and made me realize that I need to tighten up my policies on photographs. I also appreciated his sense of humor which made his presentation enjoyable,despite the seriousness of his subject.
Don
I valued Frank's instruction too, because there are always copyright debacles that occur. I particularly liked the comment: "Copyright law cares nothing about courtesy."
ReplyDeleteLucinda Hogentogler
Central York High School
York,Pa
I think I knew that taking pictures from online was wrong, and I always encouraged my students to get their own, but I didn't realize the extent of it being wrong. Now I know and the answer can be a definitive "NO" when they try to do it. Very valuable session! Thank you, Frank.
ReplyDeleteAngela Carter
Winfield High School
Winfield, Kan.