Journalism as the future of civics curriculum

by Ashlei Williams, Robert R. McCormick Communications intern

What can journalism programs learn from civics education? In an August 15 presentation to Foundation staff, McCormick intern Alyssa Niese presented research on civic learning policy that has interesting implications for the Journalism Program’s work in news literacy.

During Niese’s presentation, she defined civics as the fostering of active and engaged citizens. She noted a national absence of civics caused by insufficient language in state constitutions and regulations of the “No Child Left Behind Act.”

Since as early as 1997, organizers have brainstormed solutions for civics education. One of the initiatives recognized is Illinois Civic Mission Coalition’s Democracy Schools, which requires curriculum evaluation, extracurricular opportunities and student government. Niese pointed out five ways that civics education could be improved in schools:
1. Require civics coursework
2. Add professional development workshops for teachers
3. Develop project-based assessments in schools
4. Implement service learning curriculum
5. Commit to the Democracy School model

These suggestions reflect recent academic discourse on how to improve journalism electives and programs in secondary schools. According to Elia Powers, a professor at American University’s School of Communication, journalism class requirements began disappearing when national achievement standards changed.

The Journalism Program has been actively supporting after-school journalism programs and news literacy education through in-classroom coursework.

In an interview with Education Week, noted education author Frank Baker said, “Media literacy is not an add-on: it is simply a lens through which we see and understand our world.”

The Civics Program conducted evaluations that showed that students found discussions and projects about current events particularly stimulating. Program evaluations also revealed that interactive methods are more effective with students than lectures. Also, research from National Assessment of Educational Progress Civics Assessment suggests that civics education can engage students and help them score higher on standardized tests.

There are numerous barriers to restructuring civics and journalism curricula, such as measurement of student comprehension and budgeting for new media technology as Niese and Powers noted.

The McCormick Foundation’s Journalism and Civics Programs are working to improve journalism and civics education in schools and communities.

For more information on the grant making and research being done by these programs visit www.mccormickfoundation.org.

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McCormick Journalism Program Welcomes New Program Officer!!

Jennifer Choi has been named a Journalism Program Officer at the McCormick Foundation. Ms. Choi had served as Chicago Public Media/WBEZ’s director of institutional initiatives. Previously, she was Chicago Public Media’s director of foundation and government relations. She also has held staff positions with the Illinois College of Optometry, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago and Korean American Women in Need. Jennifer began her career as an English Literature and Composition teacher at Wheeling High School. She is currently serving as grantmaking co-chair for the Asian Giving Circle, a donor advised subsidiary of the Chicago Community Trust. Her start date is Nov. 8.

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Journalism Schools, Training Groups May Apply to Host a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute in 2013

Workshop hosts receive funds from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to cover the costs of travel and teaching on critical topics for journalists

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Robert R. McCormick Foundation and The Poynter Institute announce that applications are open for organizations to host a McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute (SRI) in 2013.

SRIs are intensive reporting workshops designed to provide subject-specific expertise and practical skills to working journalists.  McCormick funded seven SRI workshops in 2012. Topics include covering Super PACs, war veterans returning home, child sexual abuse, social protest movements and violence in schools.

Details and an application for 2013 are on Poynter’s e-learning site, News University, at
https://www.newsu.org/resources/mccormick-sri/.

Deadline for applications is Nov. 16, 2012.

Most SRI workshops provide two days of teaching to about 20 journalists. To extend the learning beyond the workshop, SRI hosts work with Poynter, a non-profit journalism school, to produce an online resource page for reporters, a Webinar and either a live chat or how-to article on Poynter’s website, Poynter.org.

Best applicants in 2013 will be journalism schools, non-profit organizations or other training groups who propose teaching on a topic of keen interest to citizens, and therefore to journalists.

McCormick funds this program through a grant to The Poynter Institute.  Poynter and McCormick will select five to seven SRI hosts and topics for 2013, providing each host $30,000 to $50,000 to carry out this work.  Funds cover the costs of the training, including travel and lodging for participants.

For more information, e-mail McCormickSRI@poynter.org.

About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation 
The McCormick Foundation is committed to strengthening our nation’s civic health by fostering educated, informed and engaged citizens. Through its grantmaking programs, Cantigny Park and Golf, and museums, the Foundation helps citizens make life better in our communities. The Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The McCormick Foundation is one of the nation’s largest charities, with more than $1 billion in assets.  For more information, please visit www.McCormickFoundation.org.

About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute trains journalism practitioners, media leaders, educators and citizens in the areas of online and multimedia, leadership and management, reporting, writing and editing, TV and radio, ethics and diversity, journalism education and visual journalism. Poynter’s website, (www.poynter.org) is the dominant provider of journalism news, with a focus on business analysis and the opportunities and implications of technology. Poynter’s News University (www.newsu.org) offers training to journalists, journalism students, teachers and the public through more than 200 interactive e-learning modules and other forms of training. It has more than 220,000 registered users in 225 countries.

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Bittersweet news for the McCormick Journalism program

Janet Liao is leaving the McCormick Foundation to join GLC Custom Media as a managing editor/digital media manager.

Janet spent the last three years as a McCormick Journalism Program officer.

Her extraordinary contributions included development of the Why News Matter Initiative and directing the Journalism Program’s evaluation efforts. She is creative, unflappable and never cuts a corner.

During her tenure, Janet assumed key leadership roles as a board member for the Chicago Women in Philanthropy.

Janet also was among the first McCormick Scholars in the Medill School of Journalism’s graduate program.

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A “teaching hospital’ model to journalism education

The McCormick Foundation is among the leading journalism funders calling for reform of journalism education.

In an Open Letter to University Presidents, the foundation leaders recommend a “teaching hospital’ model that blends professional practice with research and scholarship.

The release of this letter was timed to the annual meeting of the Association for Education and in Journalism and Mass Communication, which begins August 9 in Chicago.

Journalism and communications schools need to recreate themselves if they are to succeed in playing their vital role as news creators and innovators, a group of foundations said in anopen letter to university presidents.

The foundations, all of which make grants to journalism education and innovation, urged more universities to adopt a model that blends practice with scholarship, with more top professionals in residence at universities and a focus on applied research.

“In this new digital age, we believe the ‘teaching hospital’ model offers great potential,” as scholars help practitioners invent viable forms of digital news that communities need, said the letter, signed by top representatives of Knight Foundation, McCormick Foundation,Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Scripps-Howard Foundation, Brett Family Foundation, and Wyncotte Foundation.

The model was described in the 2011 "Carnegie Knight Initiative for the Future of Journalism Education" and is practiced at the Arizona State University, where student-powered News21 has become a major national news source. But it is by no means widespread.

The funders said they would support efforts by The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications to modernize standards, including the integration of technology and innovation into curricula, and would not support institutions that were unwilling to change.

 “Simply put, universities must become forceful partners in revitalizing an industry at the very core of democracy,” it said. “Schools that favor the status quo, and thus fall behind in the digital transition, risk becoming irrelevant to both private funders and, more importantly, the students they seek to serve.

Schools interested in the ‘teaching hospital model’ could start by reading the Carnegie Knight report and New America Foundation’s report on journalism schools becoming community content providers. The University of Missouri boasts the nation’s oldest journalism program, runs a community newspaper as well as commercial television and public radio stations where journalism students learn by doing. Other examples of student-produced journalism include Neon Tommy at USC, the Medill News Service from Northwestern Universeity, Mission Loc@l by UC Berkeley students, reesenews at the University of North Carolina and the New York World by Columbia University students. Universities also may apply to participate in News21.  -- By Eric Newton, senior adviser to the President at Knight Foundation 

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GlobalGirl Media in Chicago



Chicago’s GlobalGirl Media (GGM) class begins with yoga and ends with hands-on youth journalism. The course teaches girls how to stretch their comfort zones, ask questions, find stories and share what they’ve learned with broader audiences, among others. According to Elizabeth Czekner, GGM program director, the girls have been arriving to the 4-week workshop around a half hour before class even starts—eager to get started each morning.

The McCormick Foundation-funded organization is dedicated to empowering girls from underserved communities around the world through media, leadership and journalistic training to have a voice in global issues. Chicago’s program, in partnership with Free Spirit Media (FSM) and Chicago Public Schools, launched July 9 and will consist of a four-week summer training academy designed to inspire community activism and social change through youth journalism.

Students who’ve expressed an interest in journalism and/or writing were chosen from schools around the city and range in age, from high school sophomores to seniors. By the end of the school year, the 15 students will complete a package of stories that will be featured on GGM’s website, including investigations into teen pregnancy, gun violence, health issues and the prison system.

“At this point, each of them has been in front of and behind the camera at least once,” Czekner said. “They’re in essence a news bureau.”

My Voice is Important (Chicago) from GlobalGirl Media.

Along with GGM groups in Los Angeles, South Africa and Morocco, Chicago’s team has been having conversations about media and news literacy.

“The goal is that [the groups] start to collaborate as well as report on stories in their own neighborhoods,” Czekner said.

To do that, the girls in all three groups are trained in a wide variety of mediums, including print, broadcast, photography and online news. Each student maintains an ongoing blog where she records her experiences over the course of the school year.

“My teaching philosophy is theory and practice,” said GGM/FSM program coordinator Ovetta Sampson, an experienced journalist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The San Jose Mercury News, among others.

“I’m so proud of them because they’re doing it all.”

At the end of the day, the girls show how media-savvy and literate youth already are. As part of GGM, they’ll learn to focus that innate knowledge on their future pursuits.

According to 15-year-old J’doria Taylor, her particular goal for the school year is “to inform other people and let other teens know that they can do the same.” 

Check out the following pictures from out trip to GGM's week two workday at George Westinghouse College Prep High School. For more info, videos, pictures and stories from GGM please visit their website and/or blog.

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