For students preparing to seek a badge from the Scholastic Journalism Credentialing Program, it might be helpful to review the broad objectives and standards being tested for each module. These lists are not designed to be inclusive or exhaustive of all the questions asked on credentialing exams, but mastery of these concepts might indicate that a student is ready to seek the credential.
Broadcast Objectives and Standards
1. Demonstrate Foundational Knowledge of Broadcast Terminology and Concepts
- Define and apply common broadcast terms such as VO/SOT, PKG and NATS.
- Understand and distinguish between various types of microphones and audio concepts.
- Explain key production roles and responsibilities in a broadcast newsroom.
- Identify appropriate aspect ratios and formats for different media platforms.
2. Apply Ethical and Legal Practices in Broadcasting
- Recognize and avoid bias, distortion and sensationalism in reporting.
- Apply media law concepts such as intellectual property and defamation.
- Understand and practice the principles of accuracy and objectivity.
3. Produce and Curate a Professional Broadcast Portfolio
- Demonstrate storytelling techniques and technical proficiency across various broadcast formats.
- Create a 5-minute portfolio reel showcasing diverse production skills, including at least five types of broadcast content (e.g., news packages, features, anchor segments, or audio productions).
- Clearly document individual contributions (e.g., editing, reporting, on-camera work, production) for each clip included.
Design Objectives and Standards
1. Demonstrate Understanding of Fundamental Design Principles
- Identify and apply core design concepts such as balance, unity, emphasis, rhythm, repetition, and movement.
- Understand Gestalt Theory and explain how viewers perceive visual compositions holistically.
- Explain how to utilize white space, external margins, internal spacing and dominant visual elements effectively in designs.
- Differentiate among typefaces and fonts and select appropriate fonts for various purposes.
- Define and correctly apply typographic terms.
- Create clearly aligned and justified text layouts for readability and aesthetic appeal.
- Explain color concepts and apply appropriate color combinations in designs for both print and digital media.
2. Adhere to Ethical and Legal Standards in Design
- Apply key legal concepts related to design including copyright, fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons licensing.
- Provide sound reasoning regarding the use and concerns surrounding generative artificial intelligence in design.
- Recognize when licensing or attribution is required for images, fonts and graphic elements.
- Understand when a model release is necessary for commercial designs.
3. Produce and Curate a Professional Design Portfolio
- Demonstrate proficiency across various design formats, highlighting originality, creativity and technical skills.
- Develop a publicly accessible webpage showcasing diverse design artifacts, such as publication spreads, infographics, webpage designs, graphics, advertisements, illustrations, prototypes, or style guides.
- Clearly describe individual roles and design processes associated with each artifact included in the portfolio.
Editing Objectives and Standards
1. Apply Grammar, Punctuation, and Style with Accuracy
- Correctly use punctuation marks.
- Identify and correct common grammatical errors in subject-verb agreement, pronoun usage, verb tense, and sentence structure.
- Distinguish among commonly confused words.
- Select appropriate vocabulary to clearly convey intended meaning and nuance.
- Recognize correct usage of commonly misused terms, ensuring clarity and effectiveness in communication.
2. Ensure Accuracy, Ethics and Clarity in Written Communication
- Edit headlines, captions and copy to accurately reflect content and maintain reader engagement.
- Recognize how tone and platform affect headline styles and techniques.
- Identify and correct errors in capitalization and formatting in written materials.
- Apply appropriate editorial judgment to improve readability and conciseness.
- Demonstrate fairness, objectivity, and sensitivity in editing journalistic content.
3. Produce and Curate a Professional Editing Portfolio
- Exhibit growth-oriented editing practices that effectively foster capacity-building and excellence in journalistic writing.
- Create an online portfolio showcasing editing proficiency through diverse artifacts, such as edited news stories with clear feedback, social media posts, written headlines, and editorial resources.
- Clearly document individual editing contributions, emphasizing improvements made to original content.
Law & Ethics Objectives and Standards
1. Understand and Apply Key First Amendment Principles
- Identify freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
- Explain significant Supreme Court cases affecting student journalism.
- Distinguish between protected and unprotected speech in scholastic journalism contexts.
- Understand privacy and intellectual property laws.
- Explain the principles of open records and meetings laws.
2. Recognize and Apply Journalistic Ethical Standards
- Identify and key journalistic ethical principles.
- Showcase an understanding of journalistic best practices to ensure accuracy and credibility.
3. Produce and Curate a Professional Law & Ethics Portfolio
- Clearly document your contributions to each artifact and describe their relevance to law and ethics in journalism.
- Create a publicly accessible webpage showcasing your expertise and/or advocacy in law and ethics, with artifacts such as articles advocating for free speech or press freedom, case studies developed for classroom discussion, resources created such as news staff manuals and ethics guides, and white papers, policy studies, or speeches on free speech and press rights.
Marketing & Audience Engagement Objectives and Standards
1. Understand and Apply Core Marketing Principles
- Define marketing strategies including advertising, branding, public relations, digital publicity, and product marketing.
- Explain how to use market research effectively.
- Apply concepts such as SWOT analysis, market segmentation and audience targeting.
- Understand how to use engaging and ethical social media campaigns, posts and digital content to enhance audience interaction.
- Identify effective fundraising techniques.
- Create clear, compelling advertising sales contracts and scripts.
- Understand financial aspects such as budgeting, pricing and profit analysis to achieve financial sustainability.
2. Showcase Effective Branding and Public Relations Initiatives
- Explain methods of creating a positive public image through consistent branding strategies and ethical conduct.
- Apply public relations strategies to build and maintain audience relationships and effectively manage audience interactions and feedback.
3. Produce a Professional Marketing & Audience Engagement Portfolio
- Clearly describe your role in each artifact and its relevance to marketing and audience engagement strategies.
- Curate a publicly accessible online portfolio demonstrating diverse skills in marketing and audience engagement.
- Possible artifacts include recruitment brochures, advertising sales materials, social media campaign examples, distribution plans, fundraiser pitches, budgets, and comprehensive yearbook theme proposals.
News Writing Objectives and Standards
1. Demonstrate Fundamental News Writing Skills
- Identify essential news writing structures.
- Understand using active voice and precise word choice.
- Explain the use of direct, indirect, and paraphrased quotations, correctly attributing information to sources.
2. Apply Principles of Journalistic Objectivity and Ethics
- Recognize and appropriate news values to determine the relevance of stories.
- Employ ethical standards in news reporting, ensuring accuracy, fairness, and appropriate attribution of information.
- Differentiate clearly between news and opinion content, avoiding editorializing within news reporting.
3. Produce a Professional News Writing Portfolio
- Exclude opinion content such as reviews, editorials and columns from your portfolio.
- Curate a publicly accessible online portfolio showcasing diverse news writing artifacts such as event coverage, investigative reports, features, breaking news, obituaries, explanatory stories and Q&As.
- Clearly describe your role in each story and its journalistic value, focusing on factual reporting and objectivity.
Photojournalism Objectives and Standards
1. Demonstrate Mastery of Photographic Techniques
- Understand and apply camera settings effectively.
- Incorporate best practices in file management, including understanding of digital photography formats.
- Define common and advanced compositional techniques to create visually compelling images.
- Explain how different photographic equipment can enhance image quality and achieve desired artistic effects.
2. Apply Ethical Standards in Photojournalism
- Understand the pitfalls of unethical image manipulation or misrepresenting subjects through photography.
- Know how to create accurate and respectful captioning, including proper identification and contextual information for subjects.
3. Produce a Professional Photojournalism Portfolio
- Clearly describe the context and photographic techniques used for each image, reinforcing their narrative impact and journalistic value.
- Curate a publicly accessible online portfolio displaying a diverse array of images in categories including general news, spot news, documentary storytelling, sports, and portrait photography.
- Ensure images demonstrate technical skill, creativity, ethical standards, and storytelling capabilities.