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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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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MF Youth Impact Study 2010

The McCormick Journalism Program conducted a survey of its 2010 news literacy and youth journalism grantees to determine the impact of programs in Chicago.

MF staff created a 12-question Survey Monkey questionnaire that asked about partnerships with high schools, youth reached, teachers trained and neighborhoods where programs take place. Data was collected from the CPS Office of Performance, and was later used by the Urban Data Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago to produce maps using ArcGIS.

Findings:

• Some 23 MF-funded youth journalism and news literacy organizations served 6,874 young people in the Chicago area.
• These students live in 43 of the city’s 77 neighborhoods, with the most activity in Roseland, Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.
• Grantees reached students in 87 Chicago schools and 23 other schools in the suburbs. 
• Grantees trained 153 teachers.

News Literacy:

• 2,484 students in 32 Chicago Public Schools were directly reached by news literacy programs. 
• 53 teachers received news literacy training.

Youth Journalism:

• 4,390 students in 78 Chicago Public Schools were directly reached by MF youth journalism grantees. 
• About 100 teachers received youth journalism training.

The 2010 maps can be found below. For additional information on the maps, data sources and the Urban Data Visualization Lab, please take a look at this slideshare presentation.

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Visiting the McCormick Foundation

The McCormick Foundation is located at 205 N. Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street) in the Michigan Plaza building complex.  You will see a CVS on the ground floor of the building—that’s how you’ll know you’re here.  (Transit options:  Train – Red Line to Lake Street, then walk over to Michigan Avenue; Brown Line to Clark and Lake, walk over to Michigan.  Bus Lines – 3, 20, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151 all run along Michigan Avenue.  Get off at the South Water stop.) 

We’re located in Suite 4300, which is on the 43^rd floor.  Go to the security desk at the top of the stairs/escalator to check in.  They’ll present you with a visitor’s badge, which you can use to open the turnstile at the furthest bank of elevators (floors 33-44) by touching the bar code to the red circle of light on the side panel (not the green square).

Parking

There are several public parking decks nearby.  There is one connected to the building itself at 111 E. Wacker (enter off of Wacker Drive just East of Michigan Ave.), next to Lakeshore Athletic Club at 200 N. Stetson Drive, and the Aqua Building at 200 N. Columbus Drive.  All are within easy walking distance of our offices.  Parking averages $20 per day.  Be sure to get a receipt and send it to us for reimbursement.

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Thank You for Submitting Your Ideas

Thank you to all of those who submitted a letter of inquiry (LOI) this May. We received many stellar, forward-thinking projects. Some of the exciting trends that we’ve seen this year include:

•    Investigative projects around topics such as racial profiling, clean energy and carbon cap trading;
•   Organizing innovation camps in various cities, bringing together journalists, IT experts and community-based groups;
•    Photographic initiatives to document ways in which America is changing;
•    Creation of databases to help reporters in various fields, and cross-outlet coverage of issues such as homelessness;
•    Creation of phone applications to help reporters cover various issues, as well as initiatives harness mobile phones for citizen reporters;
•    Fellowships for reporters to help improve their coverage of environmental issues, how families are changing, and other issues;
•    Various initiatives to help feed young people’s curiosity around world issues;
•    Initiatives to help everyday people – as well as ‘news junkies’ – to rate the news they read online;
•    After-school programs encouraging young people to write about the world of sports;
•    Awards contest to stimulate IT programmers to create Apps to further a city’s efforts at transparency;
•    Surveys to determine in what ways reporters of all stripes – mainstream, ethnic media, weekly, writers and photographers alike – are prevented from accessing information, data and people they need to carry out their work  

With our new guidelines, we’ll be able to move forward on some. Others – despite how outstanding they are and how much we’ve learned from their sheer creativity – we won’t be able to partner around at this time. We encourage everyone to continue innovating in the name of journalism.

To learn more about our grantmaking process click here.

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NewsTrain comes to Chicago

Want to learn new media skills from the top journalists?

The Associated Press Managing Editors' (APME) NewsTrain came to The Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Illinois, on March 26-27. The two-day, traveling, training workshops are designed to help editors become more effective in their newsrooms by keeping abreast the latest technology trends.

This particular NewsTrain event awarded McCormick Educator scholarships to 20 Chicago-based journalism educators who are fostering the next generation of journalists.

The workshops featured two tracks: “The Nimble Leader” and “The Evolving Journalist” and featured courses on:

• News Ethics and Values – Breaking News Without Breaking Trust / Mitch Pugh
• The Skeptical Editor / Kathy Schenck
• Creating a Constructive Culture / Bob Zaltsberg
• Content Planning for Multiple Media and Multiple Deadlines / Jane Hirt
• Your Data Strategy – What info to collect and what you can do with it / Derek Willis
• Alternative distribution – Putting links, RSS and social networking to work / Mark Briggs
• Covering communities in new ways / Mark Briggs
• Knowing Your Audiences / Mark Briggs

Derek Willis, Web developer at The New York Times, led a workshop about data strategy that was particularly timely, given the proliferation of free and nominal-cost tools available today for enhancing reporting. Willis passed on some words of wisdom when designing user-friendly interfaces that "appeals to Bart Simpson's simplicity and Lisa Simpson's depth and curiosity."

Read more about data strategy on Willis’ handouts.

We hope that you can attend the next NewsTrain in Nashville, Tennessee from Sept. 23-24, 2010. Click here to get more information on how you can attend. Journalism educators can click here to apply for a McCormick Award that will pay for your workshop expenses up to $400.

Check out the photos posted to McCormick Journalism Facebook Page.

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2010 High School Media Awards Announcement

Take a moment to check out the McCormick Foundation 2010 High School Media Awards announcements. The winners were announced March 18, 2010 at the 18th Annual Scholastic Press Association's Chicago conference. Thirteen Chicago high schools participated in this year’s conference. The competition highlights some of the best Chicagoland high school newspapers, news websites, articles, photos, drawings and graphics.

Congratulations to all the participants for putting forth their best work!

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McCormick Journalism Tips To Preparing a Letter of Inquiry

In the first segment of a series of videos, McCormick Foundation Journalism Program's Aaron Smith explains the first step in applying for a grant, preparing a letter of inquiry.

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2009 New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit

We were delighted to see more than 80 women convene on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, at J-Lab's 2009 New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit, funded by the McCormick Foundation, to exchange ideas, best practices and tips on creating successful community news sites. Thirteen of the past grant award winners had a chance to show off their sites, talk about challenges and opportunities, and field questions from the audience--journalists, creative writers, producers, media specialists and social media mavens. Topics covered included: Covering communities with startup hyperlocal sites, training citizen journalists, launching niche sites, building partnerships and sustaining operations.

A few highlights:

• 5 Tips on Training Citizen Journalists from Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck: 1) Start with the basics: 5 W's: who, what, where, when and why; 2) Show, not tell; 3) Understand the power of positive feedback; 4) Dole out rewards and swag (ideally with your logo) 5) Stay constantly connected with writers via e-mail.

• Lisa Williams, keynote and NMWE of the year, talked about the importance of putting personality into your site. Williams, the founder of placeblogger.com, gave some inspiring advice and talked about how she got her start. See her presentation here (really funny). William's advice to the crowd: "Don't do anything for free that you wouldn't do for free indefinitely." 

• Courtney Lowery, editor at NewWest.net shared advice about what it takes to keep a non-profit news site running, and how passion and sweat equity helped her get where she is today. NewWest.net's business model is unique in that it generates revenue conferences and offers CE credits to attendees, which really boosts attendance. 
•  J-Lab announced the findings of its latest McCormick-funded research on New Entrepreneurs: New Perspectives on News. Read more about the new forms of journalism, characterized by a shift in objectivity and a drive for community conversation.
  

Thanks to all the savvy bloggers who have compiled live twitter feeds and summarized great tips and takeaways from the event . Here's what we've seen so far (and please let us know if you have more to add to the list): 

• Knight Digital Media Center's Michelle McLellan's compendium of Good Ideas from the summit in her Leadership 3.0 blog. 
• Greg Linch's live blog coverage.
  

Have a great new media business idea, or know somebody who does? We encourage you to apply or nominate somebody for the award. Read more about the initiative at http://www.newmediawomen.org/. The deadline is April 12, 2010.

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Washington State Hosts Specialized Reporting Institute on Second Life

Word was that the questions from the Avatars were tougher than those that came from the real world audience.

WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication has just wrapped up a two-day, MF-funded conference for reporters on covering virtual reality, with real-life and 2nd Life speakers Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer converging on stage at the same time. There was, as you’d expect, a good amount of new media coverage of this one as it unfolded.

To follow some of this fascinating event, visit links below.

Some great coverage can be found at:
http://nwn.blogs.com
http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/2009/04/launch-of-journalistic-experiment.html

Live photo stream at:
http://www.koinup.com/sim/WSU+II

Twitter round up at:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22virtual+journalism+summit%22

A humorous read at:
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/04/virtual-journalism-heavyweights-gather-in-virtual-journalism-summit.html

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Don't Forget About May 1

A friendly reminder to all our current, former and potentially new grantees: Don't forget to send in your letter of inquiry for requests of support greater than $50,000 by May 1. We need all requests in by that time to begin planning for our annual Journalism board meeting in September.

For more details on applying for McCormick Foundation Journalism Program grants, visit: http://www.mccormicktribune.org/journalism/journalismguidelines.aspx.

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McCormick Hosts Ethnic Media Leaders

The recent “McCormick Ethnic Media Conference: Strategies for Growing the Sector” brought some 30 leaders from across the nation to Chicago to discuss strategies, obstacles, lessons learned and impact of the work they do. The conference featured a public panel Friday, June 20 on “The State of Ethnic Media: Boom or Bust?” This public discussion was moderated by Community Media Workshop’s Thom Clark and featured Sandy Close of New America Media, Cristina Azocar of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University and Juana Ponce de Leon of New York Community Media Alliance. Here are video excerpts from that lively exchange:

• Thom Clark of CMW introduces the panel and discusses the results of his organization’s research into Chicago’s 200 ethnic news outlets (click here)
• Panelists discuss challenges facing ethnic media
(click here
• Juana Ponce de Leon discusses the vibrancy of the ethnic media in a city where 40% of residents are foreign-born (click here)
• Cristina Azocar discusses the research conducted by SFSU on opportunities and threats to EM nationally (click here)
• Sandy Close on the role and strengths of EM (click here)
• Sandy Close on EM and advertising potential (click here)
• Closing comments on MSM v EM v the death of journalism (click here)

A highlight of this event was a spoken word performance by Esther Ikoro and Adam Gottlieb of Young Chicago Authors (click here)

Photo above by Demetrio Maguigad of Community Media Workshop

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We've Changed Our Name!

Dear Partners and Friends,

The McCormick Tribune Foundation's board of directors yesterday approved a name change. We now are the McCormick Foundation.

You can visit the link below that provides a press release with more information that clarifies the Foundation’s long-standing position as an independent organization committed to serve children, communities and country. The new name also aligns us more closely with the legacy of our founder, Robert R. McCormick.

We are confident that this change will better position the Foundation for long-term growth and flexibility. The Journalism Program -- and our partnerships with each of you -- will not be affected by this name change. We will continue to invest in organizations that encourage a free, vigorous and diverse news media though leadership development, journalism education and training, youth media and free speech initiatives.

We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Clark Bell
Director, Journalism Program

http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/news/2008/pr051508.aspx

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Planting the Seeds for the Liberty Tree

The First Amendment is taking a beating, but a group of top-shelf journalists and First Amendment advocates aren't going to stand by anymore. Enter the Liberty Tree Initiative, a new campaign that aims to improve the public's perception of the First Amendment and journalists.

The project kicked off this past week at McCormick Tribune Foundation's Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., with a two-day brainstorming meeting organized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Describing the group assembled as a "League of Nations of First Amendment professionals," Liberty Tree mastermind and USA Today editor Ken Paulson charged participants to come up with ideas and strategies for improving public sentiment on the First Amendment freedoms.

With the help of communications firm Weber Shandwick, the Liberty Tree Initiative should have a solid foundation for a campaign by early next year.

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