Mission Statement / Purpose
The BUV Communications Department seeks to serve Christ and the
Victorian Baptist Community as responsible communicators of the Baptist
Union of Victoria. One of their key responsibilities is The Witness.
The determination of Witness content lies with Communications staff who
select, write and gather content according to The Witness Editorial
guidelines and their department user-manual.
It is hoped these guidelines will be embraced and welcomed by all as
they guide The Witness and ensure that it remains a quality Christian
publication serving the BUV and churches with balanced, relevant,
interesting and encouraging news. They were formed and researched by
the Communications Strategy Group, reviewed by Alan Marr and submitted
to Executive Council for comment.
The application of these guidelines (i.e. - how effectively they have
been used and followed) will be reviewed after each year in
December/January. The Witness will also be reviewed each year to
ensure the paper is staying true to its roots, readership, foundation
and guidelines.
Witness Editorial Guidelines
Formed by the BUV Communication Strategy
Group – the Guidelines serve several aims:
• AIM 1: The existence of guideline requirements for Witness content
protects The Witness from indulgence of ‘agendas’. The Witness is
regulated by these guidelines which Communications staff, using their
professional judgement and skills, are employed to carry out. Hence
they will help to ensure staff adhere to their roles and understand the
purposes and content requirements of The Witness.
• AIM 2: To be used by Witness staff to guide story selection, story
writing and to be used when managing/juggling a queue of content from
outside parties.
• AIM 3: To raise general awareness about Witness content protocols and
the reasons/guidelines behind editorial decisions; To ensure non-BUV
persons, churches, affiliates, and readership properly understand the
purposes of The Witness, the role and responsibilities of Witness staff
and to know that staff base content decisions on written guidelines
(not ‘on a whim’ or arbitrarily). Hence, being followed, these
guidelines will and can be used to explain or defend content decisions
if or when the need arises.
• AIM 4: To ‘put into writing’ and lift the integrity and
accountability of the Communications department as they produce The
Witness.
• AIM 5: To ensure the Witness stays relevant and on track. A single
paper can never please all people and some information is always going
to be left on the ‘cutting-room floor’ – this is the nature of
newspapers – they simply cannot publish all the information they are
sent. Hence editorial guidelines ensure that a publication remains
relevant, appropriate and ‘on-track’ in terms of its intentions and
goals. Just as a train needs two tracks on which to run, so does The
Witness - these guidelines run alongside the Witness ensuring the
intention and reality of the publication are constantly aligned.
Principles and Purpose of The Witness
Operating completely in accord with the BUV’s mission ‘We help
Victorian Baptists to share the love of Jesus with everyone - the paper
is devoted to informing the churches and members of the BUV about this
core mission - as seen in the life, witness, events, news, growth,
struggles, changes, people, faith, action, ministries and developments
of the Victorian Baptist community and the BUV. By so doing The
Witness promotes cooperation and mutual support between our churches
and the Union.
The paper is to serve the Baptist church in Victoria (not any
individuals agenda) – reflecting stories and news about a wide spectrum
within the Baptist church, not just particular ‘sections’ (i.e. not
pro-city churches at the neglect of rural ones, etc). At all times it
is aligned with, promotes and supports the mission and ministry of the
Baptist church and the biblical gospel message of
Jesus Christ.
Communications staff are employed to coordinate, produce and decide the
content, placement and presentation of The Witness, adhering to these
guidelines at all times.
Summary of Editorial Guidelines
All content included in The Witness should do one or both of the following:
1. Inform and educate readers about their fellow Victorian Baptist
communities, BUV developments and interesting Christian news in order
to promote cooperation and mutual support between our churches and the
BUV;
2. Encourage or help readers grow in their faith and commitment to
Jesus Christ inspiring them to be active members of their Baptist
communities (i.e. - Witness content should not weaken or discourage
their faith
in Christ!).
The Witness is 32 pages in length and endeavours in each edition to
have a balance of: LOCAL NEWS STORIES (about Baptist churches,
ministries, new faces, developments); FEATURE STORIES (lengthier
articles with more background information); BUV NEWS (official news
about the BUV); WIDER NEWS (relevant or significant news about the
worldwide church, international Baptist news, social justice issues);
‘REGULAR’ COLUMNS (generally, as a rule of thumb, ‘regular columns’ are
for BUV ministry staff to communicate to the union of churches; the
designated BUV ministry-head is responsible for providing their monthly
content to The Witness as they are in the best position to illuminate
the stories/people in their area); CHURCH NOTICES; LETTERS; and
ADVERTISING.
Local news stories involving Baptists, feature stories and BUV news are
featured in greater degrees and must take prominence over ‘wider’ news
more removed from the readership. Note: where there is a
controversial/significant issue to be covered in a story and
conflicting views about that issue arise from various Baptists, those
contrasting views must both be reported in the coverage of the issue:
External Articles / Stories
Sometimes The Witness is sent pre-written articles. Communications
staff have a responsibility to use their training and good judgement in
accessing the relevancy, accuracy, interest, fairness or
appropriateness of a story submitted by an external contributor. Some
of these are appropriate and relevant and of great interest to the
readership, but not always. Hence – with external articles and also
with letters – there - is a ‘deferred publishing’ approach where
material submitted is matched against criteria to see if it is fit
/relevant to publish. In addition – external articles must adhere to
or be edited to comply with word-limits (as a guide –
200-350w).
Letters
The Letters Page (when included) is usually a half page where
responsible comment concerning issues important to the life of the
church and Baptists are expressed by external contributors who have
sent in letters to be published. A word-limit of b/w 100-150 applies.
Letters do not always appear in each edition as sometimes letters are
not received at all, at other times – there are several but not all
meet the criteria of responsible comment that is relevant, accurate,
timely and appropriate to the edition and readership. A ‘deferred
publishing’ approach applies with all letters received by Witness
staff. Witness staff use the following criteria: -Ensure the topics
discussed in the letters/story are of relevance and interest to the
wide majority of the Christian readership. Ensure the letters offer
insightful comments that aids and improves understanding (i.e. don’t
publish letters of abuse or letters that are clearly factually
misinformed). Ensure a balance of views are being expressed
(particularly where the same issue is being debated in different
letters). Ensure letters ‘speak the truth in love’, and if the author
is offering rebuke or an aggressive point of view, Witness staff edit
accordingly to ensure the language used is not offensive, demeaning,
patronizing or insulting to any person or group(s).
Deferred Publishing Approach
There is no such thing as ‘automatic entry’ into The Witness (or for
that matter any quality publication!) – so ‘deferred publishing’ is the
standard editorial discretion used by most newspapers which means that
external material received is first examined to see if it meets various
criteria or news-values (see below).
News-Values / News Criteria
Witness writers apply news-values to the content/information they
receive. News-values ensure that a publication meets its aim and that
its content remains relevant to its readership and goals. When Witness
journalists/writers are ‘news gathering’ – they should inherently have
a grid of ‘news values’ as they go about their day-to-day work Standard
news-values are basically a set of neutral criteria that are applied to
all the information a paper receives. News-values, so to speak, sort
out the wheat from the chaff. Eg –
- Is it newsworthy to a majority of the readership? (E.g. timing;
relevance; proximity; impact; prominence of the news/information).
- It is relevant to the Baptist church? Does it involve Baptists? How does it impact or affect Baptist?
- Does it fit the edition ‘theme’? (e.g.- Christmas/outreach edition)
Additional ‘news values’ include whether the news/information is
edifying for the Baptist audience and encouraging and promoting
faithfulness to Christ and to the Baptist Church. These ‘values’ are
applied to all news, stories and information to determine if it is
suitable and relevant for The Witness readership. Note: in exceptional
circumstances where Witness staff are hesitant or unsure about a piece
submitted by an external source – they consult the Field Staff
Coordinator who will consider the matter appropriately.
BUV Communications Department:
Our Commitment
In our enthusiasm to reach our goals, we need to ensure we do not
overstep the mark or move away from our commitment as a Christian paper
to serve the Union of Churches and
the BUV -
The Witness writers/staff have a responsibility and commitment to:
• Uphold the Christian faith trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ
• Support the ministry and operations of the BUV
• Accurately report the decisions and activities of the BUV and the Victorian Baptist Community
• Be sensitive to the needs of all sections of the
Baptist community and wider community of Christians which make up the
Witness audience and potential audience
• Work and report with honesty, fairness and respect
for the rights of others striving for accuracy and disclosure of all
essential facts
• Work cooperatively with the leadership of the BUV
• Have a firm understanding of the readership, editorial guidelines and the goals of The Witness
• Produce original stories that:
- adhere to these guidelines
- are well researched and accurate
- are proof read by a second pair of eyes
- are relevant and encouraging to the Baptist
readership and balanced (where
there is a controversial issue/story and conflicting views about that
issue arise, those contrasting views must both be reported in the
coverage ofthe issue).
Witness History: Faithfulness Through Change
• The Witness has been a key part of the formation and growth of
the Baptist Church in Victoria. The first edition of The Victorian
Baptist Magazine appeared in 1868 – it was a 32-page document, printed
monthly and the editors stated its primary aim was to help overcome the
isolation of Victorian Baptists. The ‘journal’ was never officially
adopted by the Baptist Association and for the next seven years there
was no Victorian Baptist paper. It reappeared in 1876 as The Victorian
Freeman and subsequently became The Victorian Baptist (1890); The
Southern Baptist (1895); The Australian Baptist (1913); The
Propagandist (1921) and finally The Victorian Baptist Witness in 1931.
• Since then, The Witness has informed, enlightened and encouraged
Victorian Baptists as they walk with God and one another and is still
relied upon by thousands as a key and reliable source of information
that connects Baptists to one another and to the Baptist Union.
• Today The Witness has retained its credible reporting but has
departed from the text-heavy/hard-news, lengthy paper it once was, to a
more ‘feature-story/graphic-driven’ model. Whilst maintaining its
relevancy to its readership, it has also sought to improve readability,
the presentation of the paper, and to make ‘reading the Witness’ an
encouraging and enjoyable experience.
• As part of the goals resulting from the 2002 Witness Review Committee
meetings, The Witness has also sought to widen its readership base,
attempting to appeal to a varied age-group of readers and not just the
over 45’s.
• The Witness is one aspect to the workload carried by the
Communications Department, a department that seeks to bring BUV
Communications into the 21st century whilst staying faithful to our
Christian message, roots and ethos.
• Part of this has been enabled by the updated and revamped BUV website
that enhances the accessibility of information. Local, national and
international news features in the News sections of the web where
congregations can also catch up on the latest good news story from the
churches.
• A further aspect to the work of the Communications Department
involves re-branding and ensuring that our vision and purpose as a
union is reflected accurately in our image and perception. There is
much to look forward to in the Communication Department as we serve
God, the union and the churches day by day.
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