Last Updated: July 28, 2000
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ASNE on the move
ASNE, Knight team up to improve high school journalism
A $500,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will
launch a major ASNE initiative to link the strengthening of high school
journalism with improved diversity within the nation’s newsrooms.
The initial one-year grant is for the first phase of a multiyear program.
ASNE intends to focus on improving the waning health of high school journalism,
with emphasis on the importance of the First Amendment to the strength
and vitality of a democratic society. Knight and ASNE hope that by building
a larger group of students with firsthand experience as journalists, they
can help broaden and deepen the pool of prospective newsroom professionals.
During the next year, ASNE will work with collaborators in universities,
school districts and the news industry to develop a long-term strategy
with the help of Knight’s $500,000 grant. The partners expect a comprehensive
program aimed at reaching high schools in communities across the country
will be put in place thereafter.
Key goals will be development of a program of education and inspiration
for journalism teachers and school newspaper advisers, establishing a process
to build newspaper and school district partnerships, and building a Web
site to serve journalism students and educators. Starting, restarting and
re-energizing high school newspapers both on newsprint and the Internet
will be an important element of the program.
The initiative is an example of how Knight’s two overriding interests
— journalism of excellence and stronger communities — come together. The
community emphasis of this endeavor is different from the majority of Knight’s
journalism programs, which are generally national and even international
in scope.
“It’s hard to attract students to something about which they have little
firsthand knowledge,” said Hodding Carter III, president and CEO of the
Knight Foundation. “We hope that our collaborative venture with ASNE will
significantly improve the condition of high school journalism and consequently
boost the number of youngsters interested in a journalism career. At the
same time, the point is to make it more likely that the nation’s newsrooms,
whose mission is to reflect America’s reality in their reporting, will
also reflect its reality in their work force.”
“We are very pleased to collaborate with Knight on this fundamental
investment in the future,” said N. Christian Anderson III, 1999-2000
president of ASNE. “It is testament to ASNE’s connection to America’s newspapers
and Knight’s commitment to journalism and local communities. We hope this
is only the beginning of a continuing effort to improve the understanding
of the First Amendment and the quality and stature of high school journalism
in this country.” Anderson is publisher and CEO of The Orange County Register,
Santa Ana, Calif.
Knight has made grants amounting to nearly $3 million since 1980 to
ASNE for various projects and initiatives, but this is the largest by far.
