Journalism Lesson Plan

Overview:MySpace is a social network of personal pages, music, photos, a chance to make new friends and connect with old ones. But now it may also been a place police can spot wrongdoers. A Texas teen has been charged with animal cruelty after posting a video of his encouraging his dog to maul a cat. And California teens showed off their graffiti and now are paying the price. Is this a good method for catching criminals or an unfair approach for law enforcement?

Suggested time allotment: Two weeks to research online and find experts and to survey students at school about their experiences. One week to write the news feature.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Read background about MySpace and Facebook and find experts who can talk about what is being posted. These can include someone representing WiredSafety online (see link below) Be sure sources go beyond just what students in the school believe.
2. Interview local experts, especially if the police have an Internet crimes unit as many do.
3. Investigate what the school’s policy is, especially if it has just changed or administrators are discussing a change.
4. Write a news feature about how local school disciplinarians and law enforcement are handling MySpace or Facebook; are they using it for arrests? Are they monitoring it? Has anyone been charged or punished for anything?
5. If the school is using MySpace for to find wrongdoers, discuss writing an editorial about this. Is it better to uncover problems and deal with them? Or should students be able to conduct their off-school activities as they choose without the school becoming involved? The stand will depend on the Editorial Board’s opinion, but be sure to support it with facts.

Standards: National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association Standards for English Language Arts:

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).

Resources and materials:
Web sites with information:
• The Virginia Informer ran “Who’s Reading Your Facebook?” by Chris Peterson, Feb. 13, 2006. Get a good overview here.
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• Other sources pop up in Devon Lash’s article, “Site used to aid investigations,” in the Daily Collegian at Penn State, Nov. 10, 2005.
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• Matthew J. Hodge, a candidate for the Juris Doctorate degree at Southern Illinois University in May 2007, researched “The Fourth Amendment and Privacy Issues on the ‘New’ Internet: Facebook.com and MySpace.com.” What can police legally “seize” and how do these online social networking sites relate? (It’s long but very readable.)
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•MySpace a statement about privacy that includes a line about disclosures to a “third party” to respond to a subpoena.
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• Tracy Mitrano, director of IT Policy and of Computer Policy and Law Program at Cornell University, has a clear explanation of that private university’s policy related to Facebook. It might give you some ideas about what to ask your administrators and a way to compare policies.
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• A California teen posted a video of his smoking marijuana, and that led to his arrest on numerous charges. View Sacramento’s Channel 13 streaming video coverage of the May 11, 2006, story on the station’s Web site.
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