Resources for student journalists

• What is collective bargaining? Here’s the National Labor Relations Board’s guide to “Employer/Union Rights and Obligations”
• Advice for covering strikes from the Online News Association
• Advice from a college reporter on the labor beat

Staying Safe

• “23 guidelines for journalists to safely cover protests” from the Poynter Institute
• The Committee to Protect Journalists created a series of safety videos to support journalists covering unrest globally. 
  • Preparing for a demonstration (video)
  • When demonstrations escalate (video)
  • Teargas (video)
• RTDNA: Protocol for journalists who are arrested or threatened with arrest in the United States
• How student journalists at Western Washington wrote a protest policy for their newsroom (Poynter.org)
• The Front’s protest policy

Rights and responsibilities

• Your rights to record video or audio in public: https://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide/washington/
• The SPJ Code of Ethics
  • “New NPR policy: It’s OK for journalists to demonstrate (sometimes)”
  • Case study: The Daily Northwestern reports on a protest, gets backlash, apologizes, gets more backlash
  • Case study: The ethics of showing protestors’ faces in news coverage
  • Case study: A gay reporter serves as grand marshal of a Pride parade and his newsroom reacts (note: in 2006)
  • The Center for Journalism Ethics’ on how news orgs are reconsidering journalists’ participation in protests

Assistance for student journalists on the job

• The Student Press Law Center Hotline: https://splc.org/legalhelp/
• Outside of normal business hours, call the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press for emergencies (i.e. reporters threatened with or being arrested): 1-800-336-4243.

Resources compiled by the WWU Journalism Department. Comments or questions contact Dr. Brian J. Bowe, Chair of the  Journalism Dept. at 360-650-7304 or brian.bowe@wwu.edu.