Student newspaper

A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, or high or middle school, that covers local and in particular school or university news.

Working for one's high school newspaper is sometimes an extracurricular activity, but often a journalism class is taught, in which students learn about the journalistic profession and also produce the paper. Some schools have a basic class in which students only learn about newspapering, and a class that produces the newspaper.

Student press in the United States is protected in part by United States Supreme Court decisions such as Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, and numerous other decisions, including those at the regional and state levels. Some states have laws which enhance the U. S. Constitution in protecting student expression. For a more detailed and background, see the Student Press Law Center's site at http://splc.org . "Hazelwood" and "Tinker" offer conflicting versions of student free expression. Student-directed publications may indeed be considered open or limited public forums for student expression, offering students freedom of expression under both "Hazelwood" and "Tinker". "Hazelwood," for example, does not say administrators must prior review or censor. In fact, journalism education organizations, like the Journalism Education Association, argue prior review has no legitimate educational merit and is only a tool leading to censorship. Under certain limited conditions and situations presented by "Hazelwood", school administrators may be permitted prior review of student publications. Controversy over such actions has lead to some student newspapers choosing to become independent organizations, such as The Cavalier Daily (University of Virginia) in 1979.

In contrast, many student newspapers in Canada are truly independent from their universities and student unions. Such autonomous papers are funded by student fees won by referenda, as well as advertising, and are run democratically by their staffs, with no faculty interference. About 70 of Canada's student newspapers belong to a co-operative and newswire service called Canadian University Press, which holds conferences, has correspondents across the country, is run democratically by its member papers, and fosters a sense of community among Canadian student journalists. Well-known Canadian student newspapers include the Martlet, the Ubyssey and the Peak in British Columbia; the Gateway in Alberta; the Carillon in Saskatchewan; the Manitoban in Manitoba; the Varsity and the Excalibur in Ontario; the Link and the McGill Daily in Quebec; the Brunswickan in New Brunswick; the Gazette in Nova Scotia, and the Muse in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Student newspapers in the UK are also largely independent of the universities and student unions whose students they represent and are dominated by those published by the big three, The Oxford Student and Cherwell from Oxford University; The Cambridge Student and Varsity from Cambridge University; and Gair rhydd (free word) from Cardiff University. The latter courted controversy when, on 4 February 2006, it reproduced a controversial cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed. The issue was withdrawn from publication within a day of being released, and the editor published a public apology in the next issue. More recently, Gair rhydd was the first non-national British newspaper to publish a one-off full-colour Berliner issue, on 12 June 2006, to mark the end of the academic year.

The above UK university publications also have online versions, from which the newspapers can be downloaded. A complete listing of British student newspapers can be found at ^*.

External links

Ephemera | Student newspapers

Schülerzeitung | Studentenpers

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See also

External links