Scholastic Journalism Week

Test your knowledge of the fourth estate

Her nickname is “Barbara Wa-Wa,” the broadcast journalist known to chat up guests on “The View” and wring tears from celebrities during her prime-time interviews. But Barbara Walters also was the first woman to co-host the network evening news in 1976, and she arranged the first joint interview with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1977.

Hunter S. Thompson, who died Sunday at age 67, entered Generation Y’s collective conscience via a slick portrayal by Johnny Depp in the 1998 film “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Yet he helped revolutionize New Journalism and made an enemy of Richard Nixon during the Watergate era.

The Journalism Education Assn. sponsors Scholastic Journalism Week the last full week of February to precede the National Education Assn.’s Read Across America campaign.Students and other volunteers can take part in Read Across America activities at area school districts, often by visiting younger students; ask your teacher if you’d like to help out.

Media figures can fade to the background after a brief primer in social studies class, which is a reason why the Journalism Education Assn. sponsors Scholastic Journalism Week each year.

And here’s another reason: Some youths are unaware of what the First Amendment and American history mean to the press.

An observation from “The Future of the First Amendment,” a study sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: “High school students’ attitudes about the First Amendment are important because each generation of citizens helps define what freedom means in our society.”

And yet the study found that while 83 percent of the students surveyed agreed that people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions, only a quarter of those questioned realized that burning the U.S. flag as a political protest is constitutionally protected.

And so Scholastic Journalism Week offers other lessons: What First Amendment cases involving students are occurring nationwide, from seniors displaying guns in their yearbook photos to suspensions based on off-school Web site content; what obstacles the student press has faced trying to cover school news; and what ways aspiring journalists can improve their skills and plan for a career in the media.

So elsewhere on this page, check out online resources to learn more about Scholastic Journalism Week. Teachers may find them useful, but of course, any free speech kind of kid will tell you this much: There’s no reason to wait until an adult tells you to do something.

Perhaps teenage printing apprentice Benjamin Franklin would have agreed.

A) Benjamin FranklinB) Nellie BlyC) Bob WoodwardD) William Randolph HearstE) Katharine GrahamF) Yellow KidG) Joseph PulitzerH) Hunter S. ThompsonI) Barbara WaltersJ) Ambrose BierceK) Bill KurtisL) Lucy StoneM) Ida B. WellsN) Edward MurrowO) William Allen White

1. Publisher of the San Francisco Examiner and later The New York Journal; known for sensationalized coverage. Subject of the Orson Welles film “Citizen Kane.”2. This influential journalist and satirist mysteriously disappeared in 1913 in the Mexican Revolution. The writer was skilled in many genres, and you’ve probably read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” in English class.3. Founded The Women’s Journal in 1870 and acted as an abolitionist and women’s suffrage proponent.4. Debuted as the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program in 1976.5. Character in an early color comic strip.6. A pioneer of broadcast journalism whose series of reports that countered the Red Scare of the 1950s aided in the downfall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.7. This journalist in the late 1800s fought against racism and crusaded against lynching.8. Began career as a printer’s apprentice at age 12, published The Pennsylvania Gazette and is still quoted today from writings in Poor Richard’s Almanac (some material borrowed).9. This writer is famous for a trip around the world in 1889. A pioneer in stunt journalism, the writer also faked insanity to investigate what it was like to live in a mental institution.10. Kansas native respected nationwide as editor of the Emporia Gazette; also the namesake of the Kansas University journalism school.11. “Gonzo journalist” wrote in first person and often in narrative style; works were often featured in Rolling Stone in the 1970s.12. Worked with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate investigation, a series of Washington Post stories that led to the resignation of President Nixon.13. Publisher of the Washington Post during the turbulent Watergate investigation; took over the paper after the previous publisher and spouse committed suicide in 1963.14. Publisher of the St. Louis-Dispatch and later the New York World, also engaged in sensationalized coverage called “yellow journalism.”15. Broadcast journalist specializes in crime documentary programs. The reporter is a Kansas native and Kansas University graduate.

QUIZ ANSWERS1) D; 2) J; 3) L; 4) I; 5) F; 6) N; 7) M; 8) A; 9) B; 10) O; 11) H; 12) C; 13) E; 14) G; 15) K