From mission to manual: Fitting the pieces into a strong Foundation

Part 4 of a series on pieces of the journalism puzzle: fitting the pieces into a strong foundation

The four pieces soft the journalistic puzzle – mission statement, editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual – complement each other in a way to show student participants and community members what they can expect.

Taken together, they lead journalists to carry out their key roles, information gathering, thorough interviewing, observing, researching and leadership.

Mission statements outline values and role.

Policies – board- and media- levels – dictate what principles focus the student media.

Ethical guidelines establish guides to apply the principles.

Staff manual procedures frame daily steps necessary to complete the beliefs, attitudes and standards of each of the previous points.

In the end you truly can have a package.

To help evaluate and discuss student media roles now and in the future, examine this exercise.

Part 1: Build a strong foundation
Part 2: Careful preparation creates strong mission statements
Part 3: Points to avoid in mission statements