Harrisburg, Ill. became the latest town to face the media spotlight that comes after near total devastation. An EF4 tornado struck Harrisburg in the early morning hours Feb. 29 changing the town forever. Six people died during those tragic few minutes and more than 100 were injured.
Local media were on the scene immediately. All three television stations in the area quickly dispatched reporters to the area.
A Cook County judge became the second state judge in Illinois to rule that the state’s tough eavesdropping law is unconstitutional. The judge said the law, which makes it a felony to record audio without the consent of all parties, criminalizes potentially innocent conduct.
The Gateway Journalism Review followed this story for over a year. Here are some of the previous stories posted on the issue:
A controversy is brewing at DePauw University.
On Feb. 29, the DePauw, the college’s student newspaper, ran a story about visiting assistant professor Mark Tatge. During his investigating reporting class, Tatge tried teaching his students about public records. He pulled out a 17-page packet that he handed out to his students, detailing the arrest of sophomore Alison Stephens for four misdemeanors involving under-aged drinking. (DePauw story here)
The packet was full of public documents, including her Facebook and Twitter profiles, the police report and court proceedings. After Stephens found out about the class, she told her parents and her parents complained to the school.
Kirkwood High School in suburban St. Louis is the latest public school to get caught in the uncertainties about how much free speech students have on social media.
The Kirkwood Call, the school’s top-notch student paper, reported (story) this week that a student was suspended for three days for a Tweet cursing a teacher. The student, Josh Spiller, sent the Tweet early this month after the teacher sent him to the office for refusing to surrender his cell phone. Spiller admitted his Tweet was wrong, but he still thought his rights were violated.
Principal Michael Havener explained that the high school considered tweets to be the equivalent of face-to-face communication. “…vulgar language toward a staff member or threats is just like saying it to the staff member,” he said in the Call story. “When you use it in a negative way toward staff members, it’s just like you’re saying it in the classroom.”
