Engaging young people in their communities starts with getting news and information about that community. With so many entertainment and information options on the Internet, there is a risk that young people won’t connect with their community news if they don’t get a local newspaper or access a local news site.
Two reports from the Newspaper Association of America underscore how getting community news into the hands of young people is critical to deepening community engagement.
The 2004 NAA Foundation report, Growing Lifelong Readers, documented that newspapers delivered to students via formal, teacher-directed lessons, promotes life-long readership. The NAA report, Driving Civic Engagement shows that students who read news are more likely to vote and become civically engaged as adults.
This past year newspaper education programs reduced or eliminated the print delivery of their product to classrooms in favor of delivering e-editions. Severe declines in teacher participation resulted. And the teachers that receive e-edition classroom subscriptions have not used them as often or as effectively as the print editions.
Supporting the effective use of a variety of digital news media including the electronic editions of newspapers in the classroom is of the essence. With the aggressive push by many newspapers to stop sending printed newspapers into classrooms and offering teachers e-editions instead, there is a risk that teachers will discontinue the use of community news and information in the classroom all together.
Today, this issue is compounded by the fact that many young people do not see a newspaper at home. They are not as a group reading news in print or online. We risk the creation of a generation that is disconnected and disenfranchised.
Training is key to addressing this crisis of literacy and citizenship. Few newspapers have the staff or budget for the training that is needed to get large numbers of teachers using digital news resources quickly.
Teachers and newspapers alike need turn-key training materials. The Kid Scoop Foundation intends to utilize non-profit and charitable foundation funds to develop practical resources and networking opportunities to support teachers in the effective use of digital media in the classroom. This will enable teachers to quickly transition from using print to digital news as a teaching tool – insuring community news readership and an engaged public for a new generation.