Seeds of Cynicism: The Undermining of Journalistic Education - Softcover

Amster, Sara-Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761834923 ISBN 13: 9780761834922

Publisher: University Press of America, 2006

Synopsis

Based on a three-year ethnographic study, this book traces the operations of three high-school newspaper programs in Southern California: one serving a working-class Latino population and two serving primarily Caucasian and upper-middle class students. Seeds of Cynicism explores the differences in educators' approaches toward young journalists in each school, including their use of professional standards to explain issues of newspaper ethics, fair play, and sensationalism. The success or failure of school newspapers is based on a multiplicity of factors that influence student motivation-from each teacher's level of interest in journalism to financial issues to the top school officials' attitudes about journalism. This timely study finds that two of the three schools actually may increase student disinterest in news and politics in an era when political interest and newspaper readership is waning.

About this title

About the Author

Sara-Ellen Amster is Assistant Professor of Communication at National University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego and an Ed.M. in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University. As a daily newspaper reporter, she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize while covering the social welfare beat for The News Journal in Wilmington, DE.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of America
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0761834923
• ISBN 13: 9780761834922
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296