Spartan Scroll Mission

Members of The Spartan Scroll believe that honesty, persistence, and integrity are the keys to a successful publication and we practice those beliefs when reporting.  Our publication prides itself on its innovative and tasteful content.

The duty of The Spartan Scroll journalist is to seek out newsworthy stories in the community and to report on those stories in a professional manner. The Spartan Scroll journalists strive to serve the student body with exciting and quality news and in order to do so, staff members share a dedication to always keep ethics in mind when pursuing stories and adopt this code to declare The Spartan Scroll’s principles and standards of practice.

We strive to provide the most accurate information in a truthful and fair manner.  Our goal is to maintain a respectful and professional reputation while still covering groundbreaking stories.  The journalists of The Spartan Scroll are dedicated to maintaining a high ethical standard by taking responsibility for their mistakes and provided equal representation for all sides. Additionally, we will remain objective in our reporting, and will focus on the facts. Stories shall be comprehensive while also remaining appropriate for the school grounds.

Our mission is to provide reliable, truthful, credible and appropriate content for the Lewis Mills student body, staff and extended community.  We will all uphold ethical principles so that we are respected in our community.

Ethical Behavior

1. Attribution
   1. Give credit where credit is due.
   2. Always give credit to your sources, both written and human.
   3. Try to identify source unless anonymity is absolutely required
2. Innovation
   1. Focus attention on consequential issues
   2. Presented in a format that people will watch and read
   3. Come up with new methods to gather news.
   4. Practice the agenda-setting function: inform readers on what’s trending.
3. Remain unbiased when reporting the news.
   1. Acknowledge all sides and opinions
   2. Avoid imposing values
4. Treat all sources equally
   1. Remain unbiased when collecting information
5. Always keep in mind who your audience is
6. Behave in a trustworthy manner so that people will be open and honest with you
   1. Own up to your mistakes
7. Respect your co-workers, their ideas, as well as your sources
8. Practice good taste
   1. When in doubt about good taste, ask an editor
9. Make sure there is equal representation of both genders in sports, music, art, etc.
10. Make sure the information you gather and use is credible.
    1. Always remain accurate, even when trying to be timely.
11. Always act in a professional manner
    1. Do not trespass to gain more information
    2. Respect your source’s comfort zone and don’t invade one’s privacy for the sake of a story.
    3. Minimize harm through awareness of people’s lives and have sensitivity to children and less experienced subjects.
    4. Don’t accept any bribery from your sources.
    5. Do not pay for information nor accept gifts from sources
    6. Do not pay for interviews or steal from another source
    7. Always keep your reputation in mind and the way you want people to perceive you.
12. Identify yourself avoid digital-door stepping
    1. Make clear that you are a journalist and who you are working for.
13. Come up with new methods to gather news.
14. Build trust with the public by avoiding situations that could create personal or professional conflicts that society could be made aware of.
15. We must act in the interest of the public
    1. Report on a wide variety of topics

Social Media

1. Never distort someone’s content from social media for the sake of a story.
2. Respect people’s privacy
3. Social media cannot be the only source of information, true or not. Rumors can spread quickly online.
4. Never reveal your source if doing so is detrimental to his or her life.
5. Be cognizant when using posts or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
6. Make it known what social media site from which you got your information
7. Seek out the source before using information.

Photo Journalism

1. Keep pictures and graphics relevant
2. Do not manipulate images.
   1. Do not invade or break the law to get photos.
   2. Use interesting pictures to capture readers’ attention
   3. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment
   4. Be unbiased in our presentation of photography
3. Do not use staged photo opportunities as authentic photo journalism.