Journalists find it difficult to report on public education issues, because it is hard to get access to public schools and have interviews with school board officials.
The first public editor for EWA, Linda Perlstein, describes how journalists find fewer resources. Due to restructuring of newsrooms, many education writers often answer to editors who don't understand the school systems.
The Education Writers Association resolved this problem by creating a new position, a Public Editor. The Public Editor is to serve as an additional resource for education journalists.
Perlstein, the Public Editor for EWA, will coach individual reporters, offering guidance and coordinating with their editors. She will also be writing a regular column that will be published on the EWA Web site.
Perlstein explains to Megan Garber of CJR, "If you’re expected to turn out two daily stories a day, and you’re expected to cover every hiccup of your local school board, it’s hard to get the time to sit inside a classroom, talk to teachers, or get to know administrators as anything more than potential sources for react quotes."
I believe that Perlstein is right, it is hard to write articles on public education. Finally, there is a person to help with journalists who are struggling to get facts on public education. A journalist doesn't have to be in a classroom to report the education news, look at studies, statistics, or data to find a story. They can now go to Perlstein for updates and find actual facts about public eduacation in this country.
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5 comments:
New sources always help journalist write on a topic especially when the topic is usually hard to write about and find sources to. This is wonderful that now journalist can go to Perlstein for information on education.
I think these journalist will begin to have much better stories now that they have a person to go to for assistance. I can only imagine how difficult it is to write on education, and if I were an education journalist, it sounds like Perlstein may be a savior!
New venues to get information help inform both the public and journalist about issues of importance. The best exapmles of these are freedom of informations act and Florida's own sunshine act.
Public education is a very serious matter in our nation and why it has taken so long to be able to have access to this information is beyond me. Dilemmas like this happen when people are trying to information. So, it is always important to keep up on new venues that open up.
Sounds to me like this educational liaison might help quell some of the misgivings that have, and could potentially, occur between the public and the educators. Hopefully having one source to go to will alleviate confusion when dealing with complicated or sensitive issues regarding our public education system.
I was unaware of this dilema but I'm happy to see someone is helping. Its important for the public to know whats happening in the school system and with administrators. This is a great move and I hope it will help reporters put out more factual stories.
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