Seeds of Cynicism

Based on a three-year ethnographic study, this book traces the operations of three high-school newspaper programs in Southern California: one serving a working-class Latino population and two serving primarily Caucasian and upper-middle class students. Seeds of Cynicism explores the differences in educators' approaches toward young journalists in each school, including their use of professional standards to explain issues of newspaper ethics, fair play, and sensationalism. The success or failure of school newspapers is based on a multiplicity of factors that influence student motivation—from each teacher's level of interest in journalism to financial issues to the top school officials' attitudes about journalism. This timely study finds that two of the three schools actually may increase student disinterest in news and politics in an era when political interest and newspaper readership is waning.