FIRST VOICES



Little things mean a lot at the Newseum
Indianapolis Star column
by Warren Watson

J-Ideas Director Warren Watson blogs regularly for the Indianapolis Star. Here are his latest offerings:

Photo ID law bad for voters

Too bad. At the height of the most intriguing presidential election in years, a campaign that is drawing new registered voters in droves, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday took steps that will discourage potential voters everywhere. <more>

-Thoughts from the annual U.S. editors convention
-Need for print journalism remains
-Sunshine:now more than ever
-Mean-spirited fans
-Peter Jennings' legacy
-The First Amendment at the Alamo
-A New museum for news
-Author creates First Amendment 'primer'
-Unlikely First Amendment hero
-Harrison represented Hoosiers proudly
-Online course wraps for the fall
-Religious freedom for all
-Reading is FUN-damental
-Nothing negative
-Blogs grow in influence, but beware of anonymity
-Parent rides the bench after blog posting
-Student journalist's actions serves profession poorly
-Examining free speech online
-Remembering the courageous Elijah Parish Lovejoy

Archive

More First Thoughts: journalism teacher Tom Gayda speaks out

Student journalists scoop professional press

By Gerry Appel

In an era where student journalists are often criticized for poor decision-making, one student newspaper should receive praise after scooping its professional counterparts. <more>

-Principal wrong in pulling paper

Mile high with the First Amendment...

By Randy Swikle

We were north of the Mile High City near the Rocky Mountains. The principals were voluntarily descending—not from the tall peaks but from their position abutting the summit of school hierarchy. When they reached level ground, we could see each other more clearly. And clear sight leads to insight. <more > 

Privacy Policy

J-IDEAS, a program of the Department of Journalism of Ball State University, collects personally identifying information on our users only when individual users choose to provide it to us. Examples of this type of information include but are not limited to: Information about contributors to J-IDEAS or persons appearing on live, videotaped or Web aspects or operations of the J-IDEAS program or Web site.

In some cases we request personal information in an attempt to verify the accuracy of information provided by our users. Some examples of this type of information include but are not limited to: Name, mailing address, and telephone number; employer or organizational affiliation.

How the Information is used

J-IDEAS does not provide the personally identifying information of its users to any third parties, for either nonprofit or for-profit use.

J-IDEAS may collect generic data about visitor traffic to our Web site. We do not attempt to personally identify visitors. We may collect data to analyze in aggregate to determine viewing or user trends and improve our services. This data may include, but is not limited to, pages visited; types of browsers used; and the date, time and duration of your visit.

J-IDEAS may use “cookies” to store information about your use of the J-IDEAS Web site. A "cookie" is information stored on your computer by a Web server and used to customize your experience on this Web site in some way. Cookies may also be used to enable interactive features of the Web site. You may disable the use of cookies by changing the appropriate settings in your Web browser’s preferences panel. Disabling cookies may limit your user experience when visiting the J-IDEAS Web site. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it.

Children’s Privacy Statement

Children under the age of 13 should not send any personally identifying information to J-IDEAS. We do not knowingly collect such information from children under the age of 13. If we unknowingly collect personally identifying information from a child younger than 13 we will delete it from our system as quickly as possible after becoming aware of the situation. If we change our practices in the future, we will obtain prior, verifiable parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13.

Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13, we also do not knowingly distribute such information to third parties.

We also do not knowingly allow children under the age of 13 to distribute personally identifiable information through J-IDEAS.

Users between the ages of 13 and 18 should obtain permission from their parents or guardians before submitting any personally identifiable information to J-IDEAS. In circumstances where J-IDEAS is involved in live or videotaped presentations or the making of live or videotaped programs to school classrooms, prior notice of such activities to parents and guardians of all students to be involved in such sessions must be provided by the appropriate school authorities, and written permission to fully participate signed by parents and guardians must be obtained in advance by the appropriate education or organizing authorities. Certification of such permissions shall be provided to J-IDEAS prior to any program.

J-IDEAS policy shall be that in any videotaping or audiotaping of groups of students, in classroom settings or elsewhere, that permissions from parents or guardians of all students present in the room or reasonable locale of possible taping, shall be obtained in advance – recognizing the technical impossibility of screening non-participating students in groups or areas from appearing in video images of the group and the potential of inadvertently collecting or broadcasting such non-permission images or audio elements. Non-permission students must be excluded from the specific room or locale where taping is taking place, to eliminate the inadvertent collection of images or audio.

If you have questions or concerns about the children’s privacy statement or the privacy practices of the J-IDEAS program, please contact us:

J-IDEAS
Department of Journalism
AJ-300
Attn. Warren Watson
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
(765) 285-8200
infomail@jideas.org

By submitting material to J-IDEAS, you grant J-IDEAS the right to edit and use and display and retransmit such material for nonprofit, educational purposes. If you provide material to J-IDEAS for any purpose, you are representing that you are the owner of the material (or you are making your submission with the express consent of the owner of the material), the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge, that you have made a reasonable effort to verify its accuracy and that you have disclosed any conflict of interest to J-IDEAS. In addition, by making such submission, you are granting J-IDEAS a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to: 1) use, copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, distribute, publicly perform or display any such material, and 2) sublicense to third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to your submitted material.

Framing

J-IDEAS prohibits you from framing any of the content of this Web Site. In addition, you may not incorporate into another Web Site or other service any material, content, or intellectual property owned by J-IDEAS.

Disclaimer

J-IDEAS makes reasonable efforts to ensure that the information it distributes is accurate at the time of publication. The information provided on the J-IDEAS Web site is provided “as is” and J-IDEAS expressly disclaims to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law all warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of any of the content provided or the fitness of the information provided for any particular purpose. Because news changes over time, J-IDEAS reserves the right to make revisions and corrections to published material. J-IDEAS does not warrant that its service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that any part of the J-IDEAS Web content or its site is free of viruses or other harmful elements. There may be delays, omissions, interruptions and inaccuracies in the news, information or other materials available from J-IDEAS.

Links to J-IDEAS

J-IDEAS does permit hypertext links to content on its Web site. Links shall not, however, create the appearance that J-IDEAS is sponsoring, promoting or affiliating with your Web site or any third party’s causes, ideas, Web sites products or services. In addition, J-IDEAS content may not be used for inappropriate commercial purposes. J-IDEAS is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education enterprise. J-IDEAS reserves the right to withdraw the permission for use of any link for any reason without notice.

Links to Third-Party Sites

J-IDEAS may link to third-party web sites. J-IDEAS linking to third party web sites does not imply any affiliation or sponsorship of such sites or of the information, products, or services offered on or through third party sites. In addition, J-IDEAS does not operate or control any information, products or services that third parties may offer on their web sites. Use of third-party Web sites is governed by the terms of each individual Web site and is at your own risk.

J-IDEAS Copyright

© 2007 Ball State University. All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, or prepare derivative works of any of the material found on this Web site without prior written consent from the director or assistant director of J-IDEAS, or alternatively, the chair of the Department of Journalism of Ball State University. Such consent will which shall not be unreasonably be withheld for legitimate educational purposes. For personal or educational noncommercial use you may download one machine-readable copy and print one copy of pages appearing on this Web site.

Other

These Terms of Service constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and J-IDEAS with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement and supercedes all other prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements or understandings between you and J-IDEAS with respect to the subject matter contained in this Agreement. These Terms of Service shall be severable, and if any provision is held or declared to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable, the remainder of these Terms of Service shall continue in full force and effect as though the void provision had not existed. These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the State of Indiana without regard to its principles or conflicts of law.

Consent to Terms

Your use of this Web site or contribution of materials or participation in J-IDEAS programs signifies agreement to these terms. Accessing this Web Site, in any manner, for the purpose of obtaining information constitutes use of the Web Site such that the party accessing the Web Site is bound by these Terms of Service. Do not use the J-Ideas Web site if you do not agree to these Terms of Service. We reserve the right to change these Terms of Service or impose new conditions on the use of the Web site at any time without notice. If we change the Terms of Service, we will post the revised Terms on this Web site. You accept any posted changes to the Terms of Service by continuing to use the J-Ideas Web site after we post the modified terms. You should check on a regular basis to see if the terms of use have changed as your use of this Web site after changes have been posted signifies that you have agreed to the changes.

Please address any questions about these Terms of Service to J-Ideas, AJ-300, Department of Journalism, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306.