PressEthic

When an organization, agency or educational institution releases an “official” study or report, it often draws media coverage. Each media outlet receives the same information, but its coverage is not uniform. Take, for example, a report released on September 18 titled “Educating School Teachers.”

Many newspapers highlighted the same findings and recommendations, but how much of the journalist’s own interpretation plays into how they present the article to their readers?

The report was authored by Author Levine, the president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and released by the Education Schools Project. Levine presented findings from the report during a news conference on Monday.

Doing just minimal research reveals how four papers with different audiences covered the release of the report. We can see general trends and some important differences. The papers I looked at were the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Toledo Blade and the Honolulu Advertiser.

They all included the five general recommendations from the report in their online coverage (typically as a side bar), included comments from opposing view points (including Aurthur E. Wise, President of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and Sharon Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), and pulled similar quotes from Dr. Levine. Specifically the following quote appeared in all four articles:

Teacher education right now is the Dodge City of education, unruly and chaotic. (Dr. Levine)

The four articles had leads that pointed out the report’s main finding that education programs for teachers are sub-standard. The lead in the New York Times article, for example, read:

Most American teachers are trained in university programs with low admission and graduation standards, and with faculty members and courses that are often unimpressive and disconnected from what takes place in elementary and secondary schools, according to a study released yesterday.

Despite the similarities, each article covered a different aspect of the report. For example, In the Honolulu Advertiser the third paragraph read:

And while the study points to several exemplary programs, it concludes overall that teacher colleges are preparing teachers "moderately well" for the needs of students with disabilities, diverse cultural backgrounds or limited English skills.

The New York Times article did not address the issues of students with disabilities, diverse cultural backgrounds, or limited English skills at all in its coverage choosing instead to focus on the characteristics/demographics of the educational institutions in the meat of the article.

The Chicago Tribune article included the following statement in its article (appeared as the 3rd paragraph).

If dramatic changes are not made, elementary and high school students will find themselves unprepared for the global economy.

However, it was not attributed to the report’s author or any other official. It seems to just be editorializing by the journalist.

The Toledo Blade did not include direct quotes from the opposing view points and instead relied on quotes used in “official” statements released by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to supplement its article. The reporter for the Blade and the Chicago Tribune also interviewed local education programs and used their statements to provide a local perspective to the article.

Even similar coverage has different elements that the reporter selects because they deem that particular aspect of the story important. While this is a relatively non-controversial example, it does serve as a reminder that the information we receive from media outlets goes through filters first—journalists and their editors to name only two.

Take one final example, an industry publication titled eSchoolNews included this statement on the report that did not appear in the other articles:

Because universities tend to rely on schools of education as "cash cows," the report said, the quality of teacher education is compromised by setting low admissions standards to help boost enrollments and revenues. Although the SAT and GRE scores of aspiring secondary-school teachers compare with the national average, the scores of future elementary-school teachers fall near the bottom of all test takers, with GRE scores reportedly 100 points below the national average.