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Keywords: Editorial Leadership, Scholastic Journalism, Journalism Education
Exploring Editorial Leadership:
The Role of Leadership in Scholastic Journalism In the 21st century, nearly every norm, value, practice and role within journalism is being questioned (Ryfe, 2012). There is no doubt journalism leaders are currently facing unprecedented challenges (Ornebring, 2018). Under those consequences, research and investments are being made in professional journalism newsrooms across the country to train newsroom leaders to improve journalism (Callinan, 2001; Herndon & Krueger, 2016; Killebrew, 2003; Mierzejewska, 2011; Mulrennan, 2018; Perez-Latre & Sanchez-Tabernero, 2003). Until this study, little to no research has been conducted on high school journalism advisers and how they teach leadership. The premise is that high school journalism advisers teaching editorial leadership can further advance the future of media excellence.
This study was designed to address the significant role leadership has within high school journalism education, which is known as editorial leadership (Newton, 2018). This current study revealed advisers perceptions of the role leadership plays within high school news labs. Advisers considered the role of leadership as a behavioral process influencing their students towards set goals. Overall, when leadership is exhibited the adviser is striving for established goals through built trust and consensus.
The body of evidence reviewed leads to recommendations for actionable editorial leadership ing, and change within journalism educators curriculum. Ultimately, this study examines the critical role editorial leadership plays within scholastic journalism and considers how advisers teach leadership in journalism classes, a previously unresearched realm. As such, the following research question was the basis for this study:
RQ1: What role does leadership play in K-12 journalism education?
Review of Literature
Little has been known about high school journalism advisers perspectives and how they teach leadership. Educators need to transform media education at every level, from the nature and work of a media professional, to the content, organizational, and financial structure of media and their relationships with the public (Pavlik, 2013). To date, research has focused on how to train professional newsroom leaders, but not in high school news labs, which resulted in under-researched facets of leadership in journalism education. The scholarly conversation in journalism education has focused on a two- directional tension. In one direction, there has been an effort to educate both reporters and...