Discussion drawn from "Student Media in U.S. Secondary Schools: Associations with School Demographic Characteristics" by Bobkowski, Bowen, and Goodman
In 2012, a study was published comparing the demographics of high schools with and without student publications/media, particularly newspapers, radio, television, and yearbooks. They examined the number of minority students, poverty levels, and overall school populations. The study was directed toward helping journalistic outreach programs prioritize their activities. I've included the abstract of the article for convenience.
As someone who grew up in a small, but low-minority and low-poverty school district in central Kansas, I quite honestly took our journalism program for granted. I was Editor of the school paper, and involved in yearbook as well. We did not have a television or radio program, but I wasn't even aware that any high schools were able to support these programs. We had the option to put our newspaper online, but not enough staff members to keep such a website up-to-date.
This article revealed a number of interesting correlations within the statistical accounts provided, none of which I had been aware of with my narrow background. I've listed the top three and elaborated on their significance below.
1) Only a small portion of student media is available online.
According to the article, "Fewer than a third of the newspapers (27 percent), radio programs (29 percent), and television programs (22 percent) were distributed online. Only 2 percent of yearbooks of yearbooks were distributed online."
The researchers asserted that outreach programs should focus on helping student media to connect with their main audiences online, because that's where many students report getting their news, and I agree. Posting online is free, convenient for readers/viewers, and helps build very useful skills for future professional journalists. I was surprised that more schools hadn't taken advantage of technology available to them.
2) Large schools with more poor students are more likely to have television programs than large schools with fewer poor students.
The study suggests that this may be related to the poorer schools being more likely to receive grants funding these programs, and suggests that more research be conducted about this revelation. I was surprised by this because television is by far the most costly and time-consuming of the four programs to produce, and requires the most training to do so effectively. Furthermore, it is has the shortest turn-around for stories, assuming that other school papers, like mine, are produced monthly. It is interesting that poorer schools can support this when richer schools do not.
3) The relative size of minority populations only differentiated schools with and without yearbooks. Schools with higher minority populations were less likely to have yearbook programs.
Of the three demographic areas, researchers found the least significance regarding minority populations. This in and of itself was not surprising to me, but I had not expected any particular difference in whether or not schools had yearbooks, and wonder why there is any correlation here at all. The one element I had considered is that of the four programs examined, only yearbooks are directly purchased by students themselves, instead of the school budget. Perhaps fewer minority students are willing to invest in them, or there may be an entirely unrelated reason yearbooks are less prevalent in higher-minority schools.
This article revealed a number of interesting correlations within the statistical accounts provided, none of which I had been aware of with my narrow background. I've listed the top three and elaborated on their significance below.
1) Only a small portion of student media is available online.
According to the article, "Fewer than a third of the newspapers (27 percent), radio programs (29 percent), and television programs (22 percent) were distributed online. Only 2 percent of yearbooks of yearbooks were distributed online."
The researchers asserted that outreach programs should focus on helping student media to connect with their main audiences online, because that's where many students report getting their news, and I agree. Posting online is free, convenient for readers/viewers, and helps build very useful skills for future professional journalists. I was surprised that more schools hadn't taken advantage of technology available to them.
2) Large schools with more poor students are more likely to have television programs than large schools with fewer poor students.
The study suggests that this may be related to the poorer schools being more likely to receive grants funding these programs, and suggests that more research be conducted about this revelation. I was surprised by this because television is by far the most costly and time-consuming of the four programs to produce, and requires the most training to do so effectively. Furthermore, it is has the shortest turn-around for stories, assuming that other school papers, like mine, are produced monthly. It is interesting that poorer schools can support this when richer schools do not.
3) The relative size of minority populations only differentiated schools with and without yearbooks. Schools with higher minority populations were less likely to have yearbook programs.
Of the three demographic areas, researchers found the least significance regarding minority populations. This in and of itself was not surprising to me, but I had not expected any particular difference in whether or not schools had yearbooks, and wonder why there is any correlation here at all. The one element I had considered is that of the four programs examined, only yearbooks are directly purchased by students themselves, instead of the school budget. Perhaps fewer minority students are willing to invest in them, or there may be an entirely unrelated reason yearbooks are less prevalent in higher-minority schools.