Doing Learning: Investigative Reporting and Service Learning

CRAIG FLOURNOY

This study examines four classes of college students involved in service learning projects. Each class researched and wrote an investigative story that was published. The majority of students said they believe the projects provided them with the skills required for investigative reporting, increased their motivation to stud y, and enhanced their desire to make a positive difference in their community. The projects also prompted two foundations to award $150,000 in grant money to support similar work in the future. The study suggests that investigative reporting provides a viable approach for service learning. Service learning, a universityorganized, hands-on form of study that benefits a community and promotes civic responsibility, is increasingly being incorporated by educators into their curriculum. The National Survey of Student Engagement found that between 2000 and 2005, the percentage of college seniors who participated in service learning rose 22%.1 Service learning provides many benefits including making teaching more enjoyable and increasing student performance in the classroom and interest in society. 2 Some communication programs have made extensive use of service learning. The majority of journalism and mass communication departments at 190 universities incorporated service learning into the curriculum; public relations and media production and design were the courses most likely to include service learning.3 This study used a different approach: to determine if investigative reporting offers a viable approach for service learning, motivating students to become more involved in the classroom and in their community.

Literature Review
This study uses an operational definition of service learning that has

Craig Flournoy (CFWURNO@M AIL.SMU.EDU ) is assistant professor, Division of Journalism, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University.

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been adopted by the American Association of Higher Education. Service learning means a method under which students learn and develop a thoughtfully organized service that is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; is coordinated with an institute of higher education and with the community; helps foster civic responsibility; is integrated into and enhances the curriculum; and includes structured time for the students to reflect on the experience. This case study examines four classes designed to meet this definition. 4 Each included an investigative project that addressed a community need, was designed to promote civic responsibility, and included structured time for students to assess the service learning experience. Studies of service learning find numerous benefits. One examined two undergraduate ethics classes and found that the experience increased the students' moral reasoning. 5 Another found that the majority of students in an undergraduate class studying organizational development said the experience increased their commitment to social service.6 A 2005 study examined a class of high school students who produced three public service announcements and found that they developed the skills to work independently. 7 Other studies have found that service learning was less successful. An examination of eight communication classes found that most students said the service learning component did not increase their motivation to attend class or to study harder.8 A study of 220 students enrolled in a mass communication introductory course found that fewer than one in three said the service learning aspect taught them

more about the subject matter than their other assignments.9 Investigative reporting is original work produced by a reporter using information that others are attempting to keep hidden and that is important to the public. 10 Scholarly literature examining the subject is thin.11 This is particularly true of investigative reporting as service learning.12 Part of the reason for this may be that service learning has been executed in a manner that has little in common with investigative reporting. In a traditional service learning project, students team with a community partner and provide a service such as writing press releases, issuing brochures, or producing public service announcements. In addition, no one is attempting to hide the information. Nevertheless, an investigative reporting project, properly directed, provides a format that makes it particularly appropriate for service learning. Each approach attempts to inform the public about a social problem. Each also seeks to prompt authorities to address the problem being highlighted, thus helping the community and fostering the students' sense of civic responsibility. More generally, political theorists, media scholars, and journalism historians have long stressed that journalism is the linchpin of democracy because it provides citizens with the information needed to make informed decisions. 13 Investigative reporters have exposed abuses that led to reforms in virtually every area of society.14 In the classic 1956 work Four Theories of the Press, scholars who examined the press in democratic settings contend that only journalism can provide the check on governmental abuse essential in a democracy. 15 More recently, journalism historian James

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Carey argued that the two are inseparable. In his words, "Without journalism there is no democracy, but without democracy, there is no journalism either."16 Service learning, in turn, offers valuable assistance to investigative reporting as taught in the classroom. In many investigative reporting classes, each student reports and writes several individual stories during a semester. Stories may or may not address a social problem. Resources available to individual students to research each story are severely limited. And there is seldom time for the students to reflect on the learning experience. However, in the investigative projects examined here, each class would identify a social problem, research and write a story, and reflect on the experience. Having more than a dozen students spend up to a full semester focused on one story meant a more in-depth investigation, an increased chance of publication, and a greater likelihood that change would result. Publishing the story is essential to the service learning aspect because only then will the community be made aware of the problem and possibly take corrective action. This study's research questions are: RQ1: How can investigative reporting be used to teach service learning? RQZ: What are student attitudes toward investigative reporting as service learning? To explore the first question, service learning was incorporated into four classes: three undergraduate classes at a private university in the Southwest

and one graduate class at a public university. In each class, the students spent part or all of the semester working on an investigative story. To emphasize the service learning aspect, the researcher urged students to investigate a social problem afflicting the conimunity and provided structured time for the students to reflect on the experience. To address the second question, students were asked by the researcher at the conclusion of each project if they believed that combining service learning and investigative reporting helped them master the skills necessary to do investigative reporting, increased their motivation to study, and enhanced their desire to make a positive difference in their community. Skill mastery means that a student has the knowledge and skills to work independently.17 With this in mind, the researcher provided students with an investigative assignment that challenged them to take responsibility for the pro ject. Motivating students to learn means enhancing their desire to gain knowledge. 18 At least one scholar has suggested that students are apt to be motivated when they view their work as meaningful. 19 The researcher selected topics to investigate with all of this in mind. Enhancing the desire of students to make a positive difference in the community means promoting a student's passion to produce social change.20 Also known as civic responsibility or civic engagement, it has been included in the strategic agenda of virtually every national higher education association. 21 A project that enhances civic responsibility promotes the public-service mission of higher education. 22 The topics for investigation also were chosen with this in mind.

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Method
Forty-three students were involved in the investigative projects. Nine were working on master's degrees in journalism; they ranged in age from 22 to 26. Thirty-four undergraduates included twenty seniors and fourteen juniors; twenty-nine of these students were 20 or 21 years of age. More than 80% of the students were female. All were journalism majors. The students tackled three investigative projects. In the spring of 2004, thirteen students in an investigative reporting class examined the largest illegal landfill in Texas. In the fall of 2004, six undergraduate students and nine graduate students investigated violent crime and security at approximately 100 college campuses in Texas. In the spring of 2005, fifteen students in an investigative reporting class examined living conditions, crime, and management at the nation's largest private dormitory on a college campus. Many scholars who have researched service learning have devoted relatively little attention to the details of those projects. Several described what the students did in a few paragraphs. 23 This study examines each assignment in some depth in an attempt to determine what went right, what went wrong, and why. The students were given surveys at the beginning and at the conclusion of each project. In their open-ended comments at the beginning of the projects, six students said they were worried that no story would result. One graduate student asked, "What if we don't uncover anything?" Ten questioned whether they were prepared to do the research and writing required for an

enterprise project. Five wondered if they would get their work published. As it turned out, each class uncovered an important story that was published. Two stories led to significant changes in public policy. In many service learning projects, students partner with a community organization which assigns them a task. Since these projects involved investigative stories, the students partnered with a newspaper and chose a subject that was a community concern. Each class met with an editor and discussed possible stories. This provided several benefits. It created a more realworld environment and helped get the stories published. In addition, the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation, a private, non-profit group, agreed to provide free legal assistance in matters regarding requests for public records. Attorneys affiliated with the foundation agreed to advise students preparing requests for records and to help draft responses when agencies denied access to records or charged exorbitant amounts for copies.24 Students began investigating the landfill after a nearby homeowner contacted the researcher and complained that city officials for years had ignored requests from neighborhood residents, who were African American, to shut down the landfill. Finding something new was not easy. The landfill had been built twenty years ago. Eventually, the students found that city officials-who claimed to have fought the landfill-actually contributed to the problem by allowing city demolition crews to dump waste materials there. In March 2004, the students published "Garbage In, Misery Out," a 5,000-word story in an alternative weekly newspaper.25 The story showed that for years,

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officials allowed the operators of an illegal landfill to destroy an African American, working-class neighborhood in violation of state and federal law. For this first project, the researcher divided the class into teams and assigned areas of responsibility: environmental problems, governmental enforcement, and impact on the neighborhood. The researcher alsb created a master list of assignments and reviewed this with the students weekly. This allowed the students to see what they were doing in relation to the rest of the class. However, assigning tasks to teams rather than individuals may not have been the best approach. It meant some team members did much of the work while others did little. It also made it difficult to hold students accountable. The class put together the landfill story in six weeks. A new group of students launched their project after a member of the board of directors of the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation suggested that they investigate crime on college campuses in Texas. This second project presented a different set of challenges. First, the subject had received relatively little attention. Second, the project involved the collaboration of two universities-nine graduate students from one university and six undergraduate students from another. Students were divided into teams but tasks were assigned to individuals. The students began by constructing a database of crime statistics for some 100 universities. Initially, the students thought the story would focus on the campuses with the highest rates of violent crime. However, two students suggested examining campus police performance

in reporting crime to the student body. Federal law requires that universities publish crime logs and issue alerts, warning students of dangerous situations. The students obtained this information and compared it with the criminal offense reports for each university. From this, they developed a powerful story: police at many universities often failed to report violent crime to students in violation of federal law. In December 2004, the students published "Insecurity on Campus," a 6,000-word story in an alternative weekly newspaper. 26 It took the students the entire semester to put together this story. The third project also evolved into something different than what was envisioned initially. A student who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story suggested taking a closer look at one public university. A new class learned that four students had recently reported being raped at the Waterview Park Apartments, a privately owned dormitory with 1,200 apartments on that university's campus. The class discovered that ten rapes had been reported at Waterview over three years but police failed to issue alerts after eight of these. The story appeared to be largely a repeat of the "Insecurity on Campus" story. The students discovered otherwise. The students interviewed Waterview residents and found many living in abysmal conditions: broken toilets, black mold, and leaking ceilings. University officials refused to turn over Waterview's financial records. However, the developer who built the corriplex agreed to an interview. He said his company had cleared $10 million in profits on Waterview. This provided the final piece of the puzzle:

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while the students suffered, the developer made millions. In April 2005, the students published the "Dorm from Hell," a 5,000-word story in an alternative newspaper.27 The story examined the nation's largest private dormitory and revealed that for many students, life was a nightmare of substandard living conditions, poor maintenance, violent crime, and inadequate security. The students spent the full semester working on the story. The writing portion was challenging given the relatively large number of students on each project and the complexity of the stories. Some instructors have dealt with this by doing their own writing. That is the route chosen by David Protess at Northwestern University. For years, Protess has had students investigate cases involving persons who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. Those stories have helped free eight prisoners. 28 However, Protess's students only do the reporting; they do not write stories for publication.29 At other universities, students write or help write the investigative projects. That is the approach at Point Park University and its Innocence Institute. Students' stories, all published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have been partially to entirely responsible for the reversal of ten convictions ranging from armed robbery to capital murder since August 2001. Students learn how to write a sophisticated story, says Bill Moushey, Innocence Institute executive director and Point Park associate professor of journalism and mass communication. "Learning to write complex stories also helps the students to get jobs," he said.30 The students in these projects (whether called service learning or not, they are) also believed it was important

to report and write the stories. On each project, two students from each team wrote. The researcher then met with the writers and helped edit their sections and combine the parts into a whole. Each story was sent to the newspaper editor who suggested revisions. Each of the twenty-two students who served as writers said this was an indispensable part of the learning process. "We're journalists and that means we have to write for a living," said one writer of the "Dorm from Hell" story. "Without having to write what we found, we would miss the link between research and the final product." This comment, like the others, came from surveys completed by the students. The surveys asked for demographic information including age, gender, year in school, and major. The surveys included the three research questions; students were to answer "yes" or "no" to each and to explain why. Other questions were included to allow the students to reflect on their work, an essential aspect of service learning. 31 Grading each student's work involved answering several questions. Did the student meet deadlines? What was the quality of the work? Were there errors? Did the student do more than he or she was asked to do?32 In virtually every case, the answer to this last question was "yes." The best evidence of this was the work by the six undergraduates on the "Insecurity on Campus" story. All were volunteers who got no academic credit for their work. Each devoted at least fifty hours to the project during the semester. Service learning should promote civic engagement. These stories, which focused primarily on social problems, were designed to accomplish this. 1\vo, the "Insecurity on Campus" story and

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the "Dorm from Hell" article, led to significant reforms. In their open-ended comments, ten students said these changes represented their most significant accomplishment in college. "Our story forced officials to address horrible conditions they'd ignored for years," wrote a junior who worked on the "Dorm from Hell" story. "I was amazed to find that I could actually make a difference in people's lives."

Cases Study Results

This study suggests that investigative reporting provides a viable approach for service learning. The study also found that the majority of students who participated in these projects said they believe investigative reporting and service learning helped them master the skills necessary for investigative reporting, increased their motivation to study harder, and enhanced their desire to make a positive difference in their community. According to the surveys, all fortythree students who participated said they believe the projects helped them master the skills necessary to do investigative reporting. "It takes guts and stamina to deal with sticky situations that people do not want to talk about," said a senior who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story. "You cannot learn guts in a classroom lecture." Approximately two-thirds of the students said they believe the enterprise stories increased their motivation to study. Almost three-quarters of the students said they believe the projects enhanced their desire to make a positive difference in their community. The results are striking given that almost three-quarters of the students said they had never worked on an

enterprise project. In their open-ended comments at the inception and at the conclusion of the projects, students expressed a variety of concerns. At the beginning, nine questioned whether the persons they were to interview would take them seriously. At the conclusion, seven said the researcher did not clearly define their roles. Six said the story required them to spend an inordinate amount of time working outside the classroom. A 21-year-old journalism major said the demands of the landfill story could be overwhelming. "In order to do a story like this, you need to be available twelve hours a day," she said. Nevertheless, all of the students surveyed said they believed the projects were an effective way of teaching investigative reporting. A graduate student who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story said this was due largely to the nature of the assignment. "I am almost finished with my second journalism degree, and I have never had this kind of hands-on experience," the student said. "I learned about how to actually be a reporter. "33 In their open-ended comments, ten students said the project was their most important learning experience in college. These students said they learned a variety of lessons ranging from challenging officials who refused to turn over records to using a database to make sense of a wealth of statistics. "This class put theory into action," said a 20-year-old senior journalism major who worked on the "Dorm from Hell" story. "Lecture notes get thrown away at the end of the semester. But it's hard to get rid of calluses from our handiwork." Almost two of every three students surveyed said they believed the enter-

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prise stories increased their motivation to study. Of those who answered "no," almost half said their desire to study came from within. But the majority of those who answered "yes" said a challenging assignment with real consequences pushed them to perform at a higher level. "I knew we were in a unique situation that shouldn't be taken for granted," said a graduate student who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story. "This assignment made me want to work harder to become a good journalist." Slightly more than seven of every ten students said they believed the projects enhanced their desire to make a positive difference in their community. The majority of these students said the topic increased their determination to correct the problem. "I like the fact that we are working on something that serves a real purpose in Dallas," said a print journalism senior who worked on the illegal landfill story. "We're uncovering important information and facts that people otherwise would not know about-and that's gratifying." Results of these projects suggest that an instructor who plans to use investigative reporting to teach service learning should follow certain steps to enhance the likelihood of success. The most important is to find a public service project that will challenge the students and provide a service to the community. Avoid the meat grinder of daily journalism assignments such as covering a meeting or reporting a speech. Instead, focus on more substantive issues. The list of topics is long.34 Also, it is advisable that a teacher work closely with the editor of a newspaper, radio, or television station. This will make the experience more realistic, and it will help ensure the story is pub-

lished or broadcast. In addition, an instructor should consider contacting an organization that will assist the students in submitting requests for records and contesting denials by government agencies. Finally, time must be allotted for students to reflect on the experience. What students are most appropriate for a service learning project focusing on investigative reporting? At a minimum, the students should have strong backgrounds in research and writing. Experience suggests a professor work with journalism majors who are graduate students or undergraduates in their junior or senior year. They will have completed the introductory courses needed to prepare students for a more challenging investigative assignment.

Discussion
What accounts for the relatively high marks the students gave to these projects? The student surveys and the researcher's experience suggest the hands-on nature of the assignments and the responsibility given to students played key roles in instilling pride in the final product. In the words of a senior journalism major who worked on the "Dorm from Hell" story, "It's amazing to see the story come to life, becoming both a narrative about sexual assaults and the millions of dollars the apartment complex was bringing in." Students questioned many aspects of the investigative projects. Of the thirteen students who worked on the illegal landfill story, two wondered whether they made a real breakthrough. Of the fifteen students who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story, three said it was a mistake to

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spend an entire semester working on one story. "I wish that we each had the chance to do some individual reporting and writing and then get class feedback," wrote a 23-year-old graduate student. "That would have taught me a lot more." However, the other twelve students who worked on this project said their work paid off. Indeed, the story prompted a number of universities to institute changes to better inform students about crime on campus, and it won several awards.35 A 21year-old junior journalism ma jor observed, "Not only was it a boost to my resume and to my portfolio, it was a valuable learning experience and a great way to apply the sum total of my journalism education." This was not the only story that produced change and garnered awards. The "Dorm from Hell" story did likewise.36 The president of the university where the dormitory was located subsequently hired the university's first housing czar and told the police chief to increase the number of patrol officers by 50%. 1\vo students wrote five stories documenting these and other changes. 37 One, a junior journalism major, said the experience was eyeopening. "The only real way to learn is by getting your hands dirty and making your own mistakes," she said. "Otherwise, you will never know what you are capable of doing." The stories helped prompt other changes that will benefit future college journalism classes. As a result of the partnership between the investigative reporting classes and the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation, two non-profit groups awarded $150,000 to the foundation in 2006 to continue its work assisting students in their efforts to obtain public records.

The foundation's executive director, Katherine Garner, said her organization will use the money over the next three years to provide students with handson training using public records to produce investigative journalism. Garner said her discussions with students who worked on these stories convinced her that they provide an effective approach for service learning. "We have had a number of these students speak about their experiences at our board retreats," said Garner. "They have told us that they have learned how to do investigative journalism working on projects that made a difference in their community." 38 This study has a number of limitations. One cannot generalize the results with any degree of confidence because of the small sample size. It also is difficult to determine whether the success of these projects resulted from the satisfaction students often get from hands-on reporting as opposed to the investigative reporting and service learning approach employed here. In addition, some tools that were crucial in bringing these investigative projects to fruition-a newspaper editor willing to work with college students and a foundation willing to help them obtain public records-may not be available. Finally, no guarantee exists that future efforts to use investigative reporting to teach service learning will result in published articles, much less ones that prompt corrective action. An instructor considering this approach should understand that in many cases, investigative reporters spend weeks sifting through the evidence only to discover that there is no story.39 What lessons can be. learned from these projects? Three stand out. First, help the students find a story they care

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about. This may be the teacher's most important task. Experience suggests that a student's willingness to work on a service learning project is in direct proportion to his or her interest in the subject. "I like that our story deals with a topic that affects me first-hand," said a junior journalism major who worked on the "Insecurity on Campus" story. "As a college student, campus safety is an issue I think about every day." Second, spend the full semester on the project or assign it during the latter part of the term. Several students said they felt unprepared for the landfill project, which they worked on during the first six weeks of a semester. Third, allow the students to report and write the story. To do otherwise is to deprive them of a crucial step. In the words of a senior journalism major who worked on the "Dorm from Hell" story, "By both researching and putting the information into story form, I got the whole experience of being an investigative journalist." Many studies of service learning examine a single semester. This may not be the optimal approach. Instead, a teacher considering service learning should try to incorporate it into more than one course over multiple semesters. In this case, service learning was incorporated into investigative projects in four classes over eighteen months. There is some evidence that the researcher's performance in the classroom improved over time. 40 More importantly, the majority of students said they believed that they learned the skills necessary to do investigative reporting on their own, which some consider the real test of learning.41 In the words of a senior journalism major, "Working on this story and having to really dig for the information has boost-

ed my confidence in my ability to be a journalist. Baptism by fire was definitely the best way to go about this story and this class."

Endnotes
1. Personal communication with Robert M. Gonyea, associate director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, October 13, 2005; and National Survey of Student Engagement, Stud ent Engagement: Pathways to Collegiate S uccess (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, 2004). 2. Judith A. Boss, "The Effect of Community Service Work on the Moral Development of College Ethics Students," Journal of Moral Ed ucation 23 (1994): 183-90; Robert G. Bringle and Julie A. Hatcher, "Implementing Service Learning in Higher Education," The Journal of Higher Ed ucation 67 (March-April 1996): 221-39; Dwight E. Giles Jr. and Janet Eyler, "The Impact of a College Community Service Laboratory on Students' Personal, Social and Cognitive Outcomes," Journal of Adolescence 17 (1994): 327-39; and G.B. Markus, J.P.F. Howard, and D.C. King, "Integrating Community Service and Classroom Instruction Enhances Learning: Results from an Experiment," Ed ucational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 15 (1993): 410-19. 3. Daniel Panici and Kathryn Lasky, "Service Learning's Foothold in Communication Scholarship," Journalism & Mass Communication Ed ucator 57 (summer 2002): 113-25. 4. For an excellent overview of the case study as a research strategy, see Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Newbury Park,

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CA: Sage Publications, 1984). 5. Boss, "The Effect of Community Service Work on the Moral Development of College Ethics Students," 183. The students attended the University of Rhode Island. 6. Giles and Eyler, "The Impact of a College Community Service Laboratory on Students' Personal, Social and Cognitive Outcomes," 336. The students attended Vanderbilt University. 7. Mark Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Evaluating and Evaluated," Journalism & Mass Communication Ed ucator 60 (autumn 2005): 255. The students attended McClellan High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. 8. Julia B. Corbett and April R. Kendall, "Evaluating Service Learning in the Communication Discipline," Journalism & Mass Communication Ed ucator 48 (winter 1999): 66-76. In that study, the students worked with a community organization, prepared surveys, or designed public relations campaigns for local charities. 9. Jeremy Cohen and Dennis F. Kinsey, '"Doing Good' and Scholarship: A Service-Learning Study," Journalism Ed ucator 48 (winter 1994): 4-14. In that study, some students helped teach media literacy in public schools, while others remained on campus and developed brochures for community programs. 10. This definition is found in a number of standard texts on investigative reporting including William C. Gaines, Investigative Reporting for Print and Broadcast (Belmont, CA: Thomson, 1998), 1; and Steve Weinberg, The Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996), xvi. Civic journalism is akin to investigative reporting in that

both seek. to spotlight community problems. However, where investigative reporters focus on obtaining information that others are attempting to keep hidden, civic journalists concentrate on listening systematically to what citizens have to say. See David D. Kurpius, "Sources and Civic Journalism: Changing Patterns of Reporting?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (winter 2002): 853-66; and Paul S. Voakes, "A Brief History of Public Journalism," National Civic Review (fall 2004): 2535. 11. Much of it focuses on how to do investigative reporting (see footnote 9) or public opinion of the craft. Regarding the latter, see Lars Willnat and David H. Weaver, "Public Opinion and Investigative Reporting in the 1990s: Has Anything Changed Since the 1980s?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (autumn 1998): 449-63; David Weaver and LeAnne Daniels, "Public Opinion on Investigative Reporting in the 1980s," Journalism Quarterly 69 (spring 1992): 146-55; and Virginia Dodge Fields and David H. Weaver, "Public Opinion on Investigative Reporting," Newspa per Research Journal 3 (January 1982): 5462. There are a handful of important theoretical works. Two scholars attempted to create a theoretical model of the beliefs that guide contemporary American investigative reporters. See James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser, Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism and Public Virtue (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998). Seven scholars provide an historical overview of investigative reporting, examine six case studies, and formulate a theory of media agenda building. See David L.

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Protess et al., The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America (New York: Guilford Press, 1991). More recently, two researchers compare the ethical reasoning of investigative reporters with other professionals. See Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, "The Moral Development of Journalists: A Comparison with Other Professions and a Model for Predicting High Quality Ethical Reasoning," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81 (autumn 2004): 511-27. 12. The literature on service learning in journalism and mass communication is also relatively small. See Panici and Lasky, "Service Learning's Foothold in Communication Scholarship," 113. 13. Michael Emery, Edwin Emery, and Nancy L. Roberts, The Press and America: An Interpretative History of the Mass Media (Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2000), 37-40, 6262; Ettema and Glasser, Custodians of Conscience, 85-87; and The Commission on Freedom of the Press, A Free and Responsible Press (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1947), 6-9. Thomas Jefferson famously articulated the importance of journalism to democracy in a 1787 letter. He wrote, "The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." Jefferson as quoted in Emery, Emery, and Roberts The Press and America, 77. 14. As the publisher Joseph Pulitzer Sr. noted in 1878, "More crime, immorality and rascality is prevented by the

fear of exposure in newspapers than by all the laws, moral and statute, ever devised." Pulitzer as quoted in Judith and William Serrin, Muckraking! The

Journalism that Changed America (New York: The New Press, 2002), xx. See also Carl Jensen, ed., Stories That Changed America: M uckrakers of the 20th Century (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2000), 15-23. 15. Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1956), 5057 and 73-77. Siebert makes this case in analyzing the libertarian theory of the press. Peterson echoes this view in his examination of the social responsibility theory of the press, arguing that the framers of the Constitution saw the press as the essential balancing force to government. In Peterson's words, "Government was the chief foe of liberty, they believed, and the press must be free to serve as a guardian against governmental encroachments on individual liberty. If the press were free, men would be free." Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm, Four Theories of the Press, 76. 16. James Carey, "In Defense of Public Journalism," in The Idea of Public Journalism, ed. Theodore L. Glasser (New York: Guilford Press, 1999), 51. 17. Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Evaluating and Evaluated," 252-56. See also Howard R. Muscott, "A Review and Analysis of Service-Learning Programs involving Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders," Ed ucation and Treatment of Children 23 (August 2000): 346-68. 18. Shawn M. Glynn, Lori Price Aultman, and Ashley M. Owens, "Motivation to Learn in General

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Education Programs," The Journal of General Ed ucation 54 (April 2005): 150-70. 19. J.E. Brophy, "On Motivating Students," in Talks to Teachers, ed. D. Berliner and B. Rosenshine (New York: Random House, 1988), 201-45. 20. Kim E. Spiezio, Kerrie Q. Baker and Kathleen Boland, "General Education and Civic Engagement: An Empirical Analysis of Pedagogical Possibilities," The Journal of General Ed ucation 54 (2005): 273-92. 21. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse and John R. Hibbing, "Citizenship and Civic Engagement," Annual Review of Political Science 8 (2005): 227-49; John Saltmarsh, "The Civic Promise of Service Learning," Liberal Ed ucation 9 (spring 2005): 50-55. 22. Audrey J. Jaeger and Courtney H. Thornton, "Fulfilling the PublicService Mission in Higher Education: 21st Century Challenges," Phi Kappa Phi Forum 84 (fall 2004): 34-35. 23. See Boss, "The Effect of Community Service Work on the Moral Development of College Ethics Students," 186; Cohen and Kinsey, '"Doing Good' and Scholarship," 7-8; Corbett and Kendall, "Evaluating Service Learning in the Communi- cation Discipline," 70; and Giles and Eyler, "The Impact of a College Community Service Laboratory on Students' Personal, Social and Cognitive Outcomes," 331. An exception is the work of Mark Giese, who devoted considerable time to detailing his service learning project in which high school students produced three thirtysecond public service announcements. See Mark Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Spring and Summer 2004," Journalism & Mass Communication Ed ucator 59 (winter 2005): 342-46;

Mark Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Fall 2004, Guiding the Course through Pedagogy," Journalism & Mass Communication Ed ucator 60 (spring 2005): 72-75; and Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Evaluating and Evaluated," 25256. 24. For example, one class asked campus police at several universities to provide copies of offense reports involving violent crime. Most agreed to do so at no charge. But one public university demanded more than $100 for these records. Following an appeal, which the Texas Freedom of Information helped prepare, the university dropped the charge. See Craig Flournoy and Dan Malone, "Student Training," The IRE Journal (May/June 2005): 36-37. 25. A Project of SMU's Investigative Reporting Class, "Garbage In, Misery Out," Fort Worth Weekly, February 25, 2004, http://www. fwweekly. com/ content. asp?article= 3660 (May 5, 2006). 26. Megan Connolly, Christine Dao, Farrar Johnson, Pablo Lastra, Jennifer McDowell, Jessica Savage, Shalandys Anderson, Rebecca Ekpe, Jaclyn Gonzales, Christina Jancic, Elizabeth Lee, Lindsay Marshall, Brooke Scoggins, Hannah Seddelmeyer and Taylor Timmins, "Insecurity on Campus," Fort Worth Weekly, December 1, 2004, http://www.fwweekly. com/content.asp?article=862 (May 5, 2006). 27. Scott Anderson, Genevieve Barr, Alicia Booker, Kelsey Guy, Cecilia Lai, Regan Cumming, Allison Denman, Julie Derham, Hill Fischer, Ariel Hammond, Kristen Mosteller, Teresa Nguyen, Austin Payne, Kristin Weber, and Kindal Wright, "The Dorm from Hell," Dallas Observer, April 28, 2005,

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http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/ 2005-04-28/news/feature.html (May 5, 2006). 28. Pam Belluck, "Death Row Lessons and One Professor's Mission," the New York Times, March 6, 1999, sec. A, p. 7; Mark Jurkowitz, "Crusader's Message Obscured by His Story," Boston Globe, June 17, 1999, sec. C, p. 1; and Ana Medieta, "Prof Awarded $100,000 for Freeing the Innocent," Chicago Sun-Times, December 4, 2003, p. 28. 29. E-mail from David Protess to author, January 6, 2005. 30. Author's telephone interview with William R. "Bill" Moushey Jr., October 3, 2006. 31. Among the other questions students were asked: What did you dislike about this assignment? What aspect of the project taught you the most? How important was the writing aspect of the project? 32. Students in some classes also were given individual assignments. The students who worked on the landfill story were each asked to profile an investigative reporter, including a personal statement comparing their experience on the group project with the profile each wrote. After the "Dorm from Hell" article and the landfill story were completed, each student was asked what grade he or she should get and why. Every student suggested a grade that was equal to or less than the grade he or she received. This suggests that by the end of each project, the students had become their own toughest critics. In addition to the group projects, students were given quizzes on guest speakers' presentations. Each student also received a participation grade based on class attendance and his or her contribution to class discussions.

33. Italics in original. 34. On campus, students might investigate security issues, the availability of childcare, the treatment of minority students, or the number of female professors and administrators. Off campus, students could examine the quality of nursing homes, the oversight of mental health clinics, inequities in city services, or the criminal records of school bus drivers. 35. Several schools spotlighted in the story subsequently improved their crime notification policy significantly. For example, see Jessica Savage and Kristen Mosteller, "SMU Strengthens Crime Policy," the Daily Campus, April 7, 2005, p. 1. The story received the 2005 Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award, the top national honor given by Security on Campus, Inc., an authority on campus safety. The story also was awarded first place in the student category of the 2005 First Amendment Awards, a multi-state competition sponsored by the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. 36. "The Dorm from Hell" was one of four finalists for the 2006 national collegiate investigative reporting award given by Investigative Reporters and Editors, one of the country's top investigative journalism groups. It also was awarded first place in the student category of the 2006 First Amendment Awards, a multi-state competition sponsored by the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. 37. The president also vowed to improve lighting, to add emergency call boxes, and to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve living conditions. See Kelsey Guy, "UTD Orders Investigation of Waterview," Dallas Observer, May 5, 2005, p. 19; Kelsey Guy, "More Cops for UTD

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Dorm," Dallas Observer, July 14, 2005, p. 16; Cecilia Lai, "Wrist Slap," Dallas Observer, September 8, 2005, p. 15; Kelsey Guy and Cecilia Lai, "Better Homes," Dallas Observer, September 15, 2005, p. 19; and Kelsey Guy and Cecilia Lai, "First Things First," Dallas Observer, December 22, 2005, p. 15. 38. Author's telephone interview with Katherine Garner, September 25, 2006. 39. The author bases this statement on his twenty-two years of experience as an investigative reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper. 40. The author first used service

learning in the spring of 2004 when his investigative reporting class put together the landfill story. At the author's university, students evaluate a professor's performance on a scale of one to five with five being the lowest score and one being the highest; the author's average score in the spring 2004 class was 1.2. In the spring of 2005, the author's investigative reporting class put together the "Dorm from Hell" story, his third project using service learning. The author's average score in that class was 1.06. 41. Giese, "An Educator's Journal: Evaluating and Evaluated," 255.

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