Community Colleges' Use of the Web to Communicate Their Mission: Slights of Commission and Omission

Abstract

This basic interpretive qualitative study identified, described, and interpreted community college mission statement messages as they appeared in print and on the web site. The study analyzed each institution's similar, different, unique, and unintended messages. The within-case inductive analysis found emergent mission statement messages in the print materials and on the web site. A deductive analysis then was conducted using Newsom and Hayes (1990) mission statement component framework. Inductive and deductive cross-case analyses were completed to compare and contrast institutional messages resulting in the 3 themes discussed in this article: access, diversity, and service area. The authors recommend that community colleges use an inductive and deductive checklist to examine their print materials and web site for message consistency between the two mediums and their mission statement.