Ethical Storytelling
Bucknell’s Division of Marketing & Communications develops and delivers branded content that advances institutional priorities and strategic goals. Our team works collaboratively with students, faculty and staff to identify, tell and share stories that convey Bucknell's excellence in various formats and through different communication channels, including media outreach, print, web, social media and newsletters.
In order to ensure that all with whom we partner are respected, fairly treated and accurately portrayed, we utilize an ethical storytelling framework to guide our work. Unique in higher education, this approach gives agency to sources around when and how their story is portrayed in words and images. In working with you, our campus partners, we pledge to adhere to the following principles:
Ethical Storytelling Principles
- As a liberal arts University, Bucknell's highest priority is the education of its students. We commit that marketing and communications initiatives will uphold that mission and not interfere with, disrupt or detract from the academic experience of students.
- Taking ongoing, actionable steps, we are dedicated to maintaining transparency about our mission and function within the Bucknell community. We pledge to evaluate and revise our storytelling processes periodically based on ongoing feedback from story subjects and the broader Bucknell community.
- Aligned with the University's definition of diversity in the current strategic plan, we actively seek to reflect the diversity of Bucknell in both written and visual content.
- We aspire to be transparent and consistent with all story subjects regarding the intent of our interaction and the purposes for which their narrative may be used (ex: admissions marketing, social media, fundraising), present and future.
- Every story subject will be afforded the opportunity to review their narrative before its original publication, and Marketing & Communications will honor all requests from subjects to remove or discontinue future dissemination of their story, to the extent possible. Through the source review process, we strive to ensure that every story we tell, regardless of medium or format, is accurate, and that no source feels that their story has been misrepresented.
- Marketing & Communications is committed to portraying the Bucknell of today and the value of a Bucknell education in order to advance marketing objectives and institutional goals. We acknowledge the distinction between the present and future makeup of the Bucknell community – and the array of experiences that exist in between – and strive to use our communications as a bridge to connect them in meaningful ways.
- We consistently acknowledge and address our personal biases, actively working to dispel any assumptions that might influence our storytelling.