U.S. Student Media Associations’ Mission Statements Provide Discursive Leadership in Support of Civic Culture

As political division and polarization continually increases in the United States, civic knowledge faces decline. Journalism education provides a potential remedy for these democracy-endangering harms by imparting valuable instruction regarding civics and the role of the media in society. However, with no standardization in the country, individual educators and school districts largely must develop their own curricula. Luckily, student media associations provide support and leadership to student media programs, which is articulated through their mission statements. Filling a gap in the existing research, this study conducted a thematic analysis and found discursive leadership within the mission statements of such associations.