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TrevorIvan_Thesis.pdf (1.66 MB)

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A Framing Analysis of News Coverage Related to Litigation Connected to Online Student Speech That Originates Off-Campus

Ivan, Trevor J
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365025420

Abstract Details

2013, MA, Kent State University, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism.
Responding to a growth in technology, young people often turn to social media and online communication as their primary means of expression and interaction. However, some of the content students create and post while at home can negatively affect the school environment. School administrators have, at times, disciplined students for their off-campus online speech. This act has raised legal questions about how much control schools can and should possess over speech that originates away from the school’s physical boundaries. Some students and their families have sued their respective school districts when they perceive an overreach in school authority for such discipline. Despite this issue’s gravity among First Amendment scholars and advocates, the general public probably has little direct experience with these legal questions beyond what it learns through news reports. Because news is a basic social learning tool, the way journalists present information can profoundly affect the public’s understanding of any given issue. This study examined how the news media portrayed four court cases pertinent to this issue: Layshock v. Hermitage School District, J. S. v. Blue Mountain School District, Doninger v. Niehoff, and Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools. The researcher used textual analysis to investigate the frames found in 76 news stories by examining the way journalists presented the following items: legal context, the actions of the student litigant, the actions of school administrators, and the online speech itself that initially led to school discipline.
Candace Bowen, M.A. (Advisor)
Mark Goodman, J.D. (Advisor)
Danielle Coombs, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
117 p.
Education; Educational Leadership; Journalism; Legal Studies; Mass Media
student speech; online speech; off-campus speech; framing theory; news production; textual analysis; news frames; journalistic norms and practices; social construction; school administration; First Amendment law; free speech

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ivan, T. J. (2013). A Framing Analysis of News Coverage Related to Litigation Connected to Online Student Speech That Originates Off-Campus [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365025420

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ivan, Trevor. A Framing Analysis of News Coverage Related to Litigation Connected to Online Student Speech That Originates Off-Campus . 2013. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365025420.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ivan, Trevor. "A Framing Analysis of News Coverage Related to Litigation Connected to Online Student Speech That Originates Off-Campus ." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365025420

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1365025420
515
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.