Two high school newspaper editors and a student newspaper adviser who fought censorship attempts by school officials will be honored at the fifth annual Courage in Student Journalism Awards at the National Scholastic Press Association/Journalism Education Association National Convention in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Nov. 14.

This year's winners are Seth Zweifler and Henry Rome, editors of the student newspaper, The Spoke, at Conestoga High School in Pennsylvania; and Barb Thill, former adviser of the student newspaper at Illinois' Stevenson High School. The student winners will share a $1,000 prize and Thill will receive $1,000 to support student journalists at her school.

The Courage in Student Journalism Awards are presented each year to student journalists and school officials who have fought for student press. Rome's June 2009 story, "Obligation to Report," detailed how a janitor at the local middle school was able to remain on the school district payroll despite multiple run-ins with the law, including his arrest on bank robbery charges.

The article prompted the school administration to demand prior approval of all student newspaper content before publication. Zweifler and Rome fought the move. They sought support from Spoke alumni and publicity in the local media, and did research to counter the district's case for prior restraint. Eventually the demand for pre-publication review was dropped.

"These winners exemplify the sad fact of life that provocative, hard-hitting student journalism is often celebrated with retaliation," said Student Press Law Center Executive Director Frank LoMonte. "Exemplary journalistic work was met with a crackdown by administrators who believed that the best way to deal with unpleasant disclosures about their school systems was to stop the disclosures."

Thill is the former adviser of Illinois' Stevenson High School's student newspaper, the Statesman. Her students came under fire for a January 2009 package of articles documenting the prevalence of casual "hooking up" relations among teens, much of it alcohol-fueled.

The school's response was to impose mandatory prior review, robbing students of their autonomy to decide what would go into the paper. As a result Thill stepped down as journalism adviser.

"Thill is an example of the price some of the most talented journalism educators pay for their commitment to teaching quality reporting," said Mark Goodman, Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism, Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "All of the students who are missing her training are the ones who ultimately suffer."

The awards are presented by the Center for Scholastic Journalism, the Student Press Law Center and the National Scholastic Press Association.

Read more about how student newspaper advisers often face retaliation for controversial stories, and about a new California law that protects student newspaper advisers.

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One of the first things a student in a beginning journalism course learns about is Associated Press style, or AP style for short. AP style is simply a standardized way of writing everything from dates to street addresses to job titles.

AP style was developed and is maintained by The Associated Press, the world's oldest news service.

Learning AP style is certainly not the most exciting or glamorous aspect of a career in journalism, but getting a handle on it is absolutely necessary.

Why? Because AP style is the gold standard for print journalism. It's used by the vast majority of newspapers and news websites in the U.S. A reporter who never bothers to learn even the basics of AP style, who gets into the habit of submitting stories filled with AP style errors, is likely to find himself covering the sewage treatment board beat for a long, long time.

So get started here with the basics of AP Style, then test your knowledge with our AP Style quizzes.

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The Fox News-White House fracas raises issues aplenty about objectivity and fairness, especially at the cable networks. The Obama administration was clumsy in its attempt to single out Fox, but its larger point is well taken: Fox News (and MSNBC for that matter) are many things, but fair and balanced isn't one of them.

But there's another, more disturbing aspect to this: The tendency of more and more news consumers to tune in only the coverage and commentary they agree with.

This isn't theorizing on my part. A study done at Ohio State University found that people spent 36 percent more time reading articles that agreed with their point of view than they did reading text that challenged their opinions.

"We found that people generally chose media messages that reinforced their own preexisting views," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study. "In general, they don't want their views to be challenged by seriously considering other viewpoints."

The result? A decline in informed opinion formation, a more polarized and fragmented electorate, and reduced political tolerance, the researchers say.

In other words, right-wingers watch Fox, lefties choose MSNBC, and they're all living in an echo chamber that reinforces the views they already hold.

But it's the echo chamber that people seem to love. Fox News and opinion shows like "Glenn Beck" bring home ratings gold, while the newsier CNN's ratings are in the tank.

Jill Geisler, who teaches management and leadership skills at the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center, says the splintering of the once-monolithic news media has only aided this all-too human tendency.

"There was a time when we tended to hear multiple sides to a story in the mainstream media," she says. "The effort was there in traditional newsrooms to vet for bias and fairness."

Now, she says, "It's so easy to set up your RSS feed on your web browser to keep you in touch with a world that reminds you everyday that the opinions you have are right. All you hear everyday is that your opinions are right.

"People are more able than ever to expose themselves to things selectively, to choose to hear only what they believe already," she adds.

The only problem is, when all we hear are opinions that echo our own, real thinking stops, and a kind of intellectual autopilot takes over. We stop questioning our own assumptions and biases, and become ever-more entrenched in our own partisan positions. Real dialog between people of differing viewpoints is replaced by rancor and shouting that sheds lots of heat but little light.

Sounds like an episode of "The O'Reilly Factor."

Photo courtesy Getty Images

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Millions of Americans get their news from the cable networks CNN, MSNBC or Fox News. Yet two of those - Fox News and MSNBC - have gained notoriety not for their news coverage but for their prime-time opinion programming featuring such voluble hosts as Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann.

Critics say these shows shed more heat than light, and contribute little to their viewers' understanding of important issues. But opinion and controversy sells: Ratings for these opinionated shows have shot through the roof.

So what are the ethical implications of putting opinion before facts? We tackle that question here.

Photo courtesy Getty Images

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