Why News Matters Resources

Here is more information about our impact and evaluation strategy for our news literacy work, as well as our current research projects.

Impact & Evaluation 

A news literacy evaluation logic model is being developed for the Why News Matters initiative. The model will provide baseline indicators and desired targets for the short-and long-term. 

To date, our progress indicators (benchmarks for success) in news literacy have focused on: 

▪ Number of schools implementing news literacy.

▪ Number of students reached by news literacy training. 

▪ Number of youth journalism programs infusing news literacy into curriculum. 

▪ Number of teachers trained in news literacy.

In the longer term (2015), we aim to achieve the following targets:

▪ CPS adopts a news literacy curriculum. 

▪ Expand news literacy classes at local colleges and universities 

▪ Extend reach of news literacy programs throughout Chicago.

Under Why News Matters, we are looking to expand our indicators to address questions in the Learning & Action Agenda section of the Request for Ideas.  Click here for a more comprehensive look at our program logic model. 

Current Research Projects 

To help us reach long-term targets, McCormick Foundation is partnering on several projects to evaluate the impact of news literacy training on young people. The effort includes developing a set of reliable tools for measuring news literacy impact that is shared with other funders, government leaders, school officials, teachers and parents. The evaluation initiatives in progress are summarized below. 

Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society is carrying out a multi-faceted project with McCormick funding to identify the news literacy approaches with the most impact on conducting focus groups in four cities, to help design a curriculum and toolkit. The goal of the Youth and Media Lab is to illuminate best practices from various disciplines to feed news literacy knowledge and practice.

What we will learn: Knowing how youth use the internet should feed news literacy programs and help them better engage their intended audience. What lessons can the news literacy movement draw from information literacy, media literacy, and youth media to help feed news literacy curricula?

University of Missouri: The McCormick Journalism Program is partnering with Stephanie Craft of the University of Missouri to explore a variety of news literacy evaluation issues. This project will help the determine if levels of news media literacy go hand in hand with pro-social attitudes and behaviors such as interest in current affairs, voting and other forms of civic engagement. Prof. Craft has created a survey tool but will conduct focus groups to further improve the model and then conduct a citywide survey of diverse Chicago teens.

What we will learn: What is the relationship between news literacy knowledge and attitudes toward civic engagement? What is the relationship between participants in youth media and scholastic programs and news literacy awareness? What are the best indicators to assess levels of news media literacy?

McCormick Foundation's 2012 News Literacy Grantees 

• Research Foundation for City of New York (Baruch College) for a NYC high school journalism initiative & news literacy symposium. 
• City Colleges of Chicago Foundation  for student media production and news literacy curriculum. 
• Common Sense Media for after school journalism training.
• Florida Gulf Coast University for newsmaker digital conversations with news literacy students. 
• Harvard University-Berkman Center for Youth & Social Media Lab research. 
• Heartland Alliance Social Impact Research Center for evaluation of youth media initiatives.  
• Radio & Television Digital News Association for news literacy training.  
• Pulitzer Center for support of Chicago youth media classroom project. 
• Strategic Human Services/North Lawndale Community for news internships and news literacy training. 
• News Literacy Project for news literacy programs in Chicago Public Schools, including Mt. Vernon Elementary.  
• Stony Brook Foundation Inc. for news literacy training & curriculum. 
• Univ. of Missouri for news literacy evaluation. 

Previous News Literacy Conferences 

Setting Learning Goals for News Literacy. Prof. Geanne Rosenberg of Baruch College directed the November 2010 Inaugural High School News Literacy Summit for high school students, educators and observers from journalism and youth media institutions. Baruch also hosted a dinner/brainstorming session for news/media/digital/information literacy funders, leaders and educators. As you set your own news literacy goals, check out the News Literacy Learning Goals that came out of the convening.

Stony Brook University News Literacy Conference. Visit the News Literacy Conference web site chronicling the first national conference on News Literacy. If you didn’t participate in the conference, this is an opportunity to “attend” the conference yourself. Stony Brook has arranged several layers of navigation so you can spend just a few minutes or a few hours exploring the conference. You will learn what News Literacy is. You will meet the conference attendees, including university presidents and top news media leaders. You can watch a presentation on how a course in News Literacy already is being taught to thousands of undergraduates at Stony Brook University. You can experience the conference “breakout” sessions for yourself and hear about a “Big Idea.”