Effects of journalism education on student engagement : a case study of a small-town scholastic press programe

Abstract

Using social capital theory as the lens, this case study investigates how being part of a scholastic journalism program impacts the academic, social, and civic engagement levels of students in a small-town, rural setting by observing and interviewing journalism staff members at Canton-Galva High School in Canton, Kansas. Two journalism advisers and eight journalism students were interviewed, and observations took place during the Spring 2018 academic semester. The students were part of either the bi-weekly news magazine or the yearbook. Concepts of media literacy and pedagogical practices of the journalism advisers were also explored. Though the results cannot be generalized to encompass the experiences of students in all high school journalism programs, the study finds Canton-Galva High School students, who are experiencing increased academic engagement, fail to engage socially or civically directly as a by-product of participating in the journalism program largely due to weakness in pedagogy of the journalism courses. Students are increasing their social capital, though, by being exposed to tenets of social and civic participation.