CSMA Adviser Update

We hope you are including media literacy in all your class this fall. Our students need the tools to discover the truth online.

The video below is a quick way to start your discussions.

From the New York Times on “deep fakes” – for discussion (3:39 in length)

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1161704103136964613

Do you have students interested in adding satire to opinion sections, blogs, and websites? Satire is always tricky, but check out this recent Snopes.com post on how often satirical sites are quoted as “fact.”

https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/08/16/readers-think-satire-is-real/

Some startling stuff, and worth another class discussion.

Many professional journalists do NOT use that final comma between “blogs” and “websites,” and the AP stylebook recommends not using the Oxford comma unless leaving it out leads to confusion.

CSMA recommends that you have the argument pro or con Oxford comma once, and then make whatever you decide part of your publication style rules.

We recommend that all student media use some sort of stylebook, which can avoid confusion and unnecessary arguments. We usually start with the AP Stylebook, and then add in our own “local” rules (how to refer to teachers and coaches, for instance, or how to identify the current grade level for a student). CSMA recommends that you have at least one copy of a recent AP stylebook in your news room.

Here’s a recent tweet from AP that all of us should follow:
"The period and the comma always go within the quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence."

Do you have a list of your Top Ten style “rules” that work for you? Share them with everyone by sending that list to jpkjournalism@gmail.com and we will include them in a future e-newsletter.