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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

Grantor dc:publisher

Kent State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Ivan, Trevor J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bowen, Candace
• Goodman, Mark

• 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

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365025420

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:kent1365025420