MTV's "The Paper"

Perhaps I just can't organize my life well, but I ended up watching all 8 episodes via streaming video from the MTV web site (rather than on TV).

We watched it in class when there was an extra 25 minutes, and most students got into it, but there was disappointingly little actual journalism depicted. There is one truly horrifying scene in the final episode in which two staff members take proofs of the paper to an assistant principal who objects to a front page story she claims is not fully reported. She wants the story pulled and only the efforts of Amanda (the editor-in-chief) save the day. So there is good news. It's just that seeing prior review depicted so nakedly made me sad about scholastic journalism, and sad for the poor adviser. Can you imagine the football coach at Cyprus Bay running his play calls by an assistant principal each game?

On the bright side, this short series illustrates one of my personal favorite sayings: "High school journalism is more about high school than about journalism." And the kids on this Florida high school journalism class remind me of any number of highly-motivated, over-indulged students I have met over the years. Perhaps we can find some way to use this series to help our students see the importance of following a story over time, and of how important characters, setting, conflict and resolution (even if fleeting) are to good story telling.

Check it yourself by going to http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/the_paper/series.jhtml to find full episodes and all sorts of background on this series that ran this spring.