The Weekly Scroll for May 18, 2018

News, tips and advice from the Quill and Scroll International Honor Society
Compiled and written by Quill and Scroll journalist Caitlyn Martin

The Lede

Victims tell their stories

The New York Times last week published an online piece that tells 45 stories of sexual assault on American college campuses. This is both a collection of powerful personal narratives and an intriguing interactive online experience using the publication’s robust online platform. Click here to read, but be warned that the content can be disturbing for anyone who’s suffered through an assault. This is a part of the Times’ “Gender and Society” initiative.

Sports betting may spread

The Supreme Court earlier this week ruled that states may choose to allow gambling on sports should they choose to. In doing so, the country’s highest court invalidated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which purported to protect the integrity of athletics by not allow wagering on sports except in certain areas — most notably, in Nevada.

‘New Journalism’ pioneer Wolfe dies

Tom Wolfe, who gained notoriety first in the 1960s for a series of magazine essays on popular culture, died this week at the age of 87. Wolfe’s work was later anthologized as part of the era’s “New Journalism” movement in which journalists used literary techniques to tell stories more vividly. His influence can be seen today in just about any well written journalistic piece.

His most famous work was “The Right Stuff,” which was about the early days of the U.S. space program. It was possibly the greatest work of journalism of the 20th century. In 1983, it was made into a blockbuster motion picture.

Here’s a passage from Wolfe’s “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers,” published in 1970:

“Felicia is remarkable. She is beautiful, with that rare burnished beauty that lasts through the years. Her hair is pale blond and set just so. She has a voice that is ‘theatrical,’ to use a term from her youth. She greets the Black Panthers with the same bend of the wrist, the same tilt of the head, the same perfect Mary Astor voice with which she greets people like Jason, John and D.D., Adolph, Betty, Gian-Carlo, Schuyler, and Goddard, during those après-concert suppers she and Lenny are so famous for. What evenings! She lights the candles over the dining-room table, and in the Gotham gloaming the little tremulous tips of flame are reflected in the mirrored surface of the table, a bottomless blackness with a thousand stars, and it is that moment that Lenny loves.”

It’s An Honor

It’s never too late to induct

The offices here at Quill and Scroll are super busy this month as most of our charter schools choose to induct their members at or shortly before their graduation ceremonies. Sure, we’re busy, but we’re never too busy to receive nominations for students who have met our membership requirements and who have earned the right to be honored by their school and by Q&S. Here’s the page to get started if you haven’t already done so. Go ahead. Light the candle.

How do you Scroll?

Some schools choose to do their induction ceremonies in the fall or early in the spring so they don’t compete with all-school graduation ceremonies. Some schools choose to have only private ceremonies for Quill and Scroll induction because schools don’t allow cords at graduation. If there are 5,000 schools, there are 5,000 ways of inducting members. If you have any questions, please contact Executive Director Jeff Browne. Also, if you have any video of your induction ceremonies, please send an email to the same guy.

Yearbook contest is open

Quill and Scroll’s Yearbook Excellence Contest is online and open for business, about five months earlier than normal. Quill and Scroll successfully migrated its 2018 Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest online, and now the yearbook contest is following suit. We have the same 18 categories, the same two class divisions and the same rules and pricing as last year. But now you enter online. Go to our Yearbook Excellence Contest webpage to check out the new format so you can begin preparing entries before the school year is done. Fall-delivery book? No worries. You still have until Oct. 10 to get your entries in.

Quill and Scroll serv it up!

The Journalism Education Association has hosted an email listserv that for decades now has provided journalism teachers and adviser a chance to seek each other’s advice and to share curricula, stories and successes. Quill and Scroll is following suit with an email listserv for its members, who are overwhelmingly high school journalists and recent high school graduates. If you’re a member or about to become a Q&S member, click on this email link ([email protected]).

You’ll become part of the conversation among high school journalists about how to cover stories better, how to deal with ethical issues, how to manage your staff … well, just as a place to talk with others around the world who are in same place you might be in. Serv it up!

Need some constructive feedback?

The News Media Evaluation provides media staffs a one-of-a-kind self-assessment, thorough analysis and rating of your publication(s), with constructive comments and suggestions for improvement from qualified evaluators. The evaluation exercise and feedback are instructive and developmental. The ratings are motivational. High schools and junior high schools may enter their newspapers or news magazines during the submission period — April 1 through June 15, 2018. Entries and ratings are returned in September 2018. This service is open to non-member schools as well as member schools. Here’s the link to get started!

Summer Scroll?

The Scroll will take a break after June 8, but we’ll be back on Aug. 24 to start the new school year. Until then, we have three more Scrolls for this year.

What’s Viral?

Making gentler news apps

This designer started getting depressed by all the horrid news she’s reading about the U.S. and the world in which we live. She decided that, while the news may not get much better, the user experience of that news could be made more palatable. Here’s her journey, in which she thinks about how we all encounter the news we read on social media.

A lesson in the value of maps

This cartographer realized that often the most chaotic places in the world are refugee camps, and that finding one’s way around a camp is nearly impossible. And that makes delivering needed help to those refugees incredibly difficult. Here’s how he used mapping software to teach people how to make maps. Now think about how your readers can benefit from simple map solutions that you can make.

Just A Thought

A ‘piece’ of advice

“I saw your piece in the school paper. Nice.” Have you heard that? Have you ever thought why someone would refer to your brilliantly written and painstakingly researched work a “piece”? Well, there’s a “story” behind the “piece.” Here’s a piece from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Halal foods explained

Ramadan began May 17, and that means only halal foods for those observing the month-long period of fasting during the day. So what does “halal” mean? How are the food prepared? Why is that designation important? Is there a halal butcher or store in your town? Read up on the subject and think about stories from your community.

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