Newspapers in Education: a Critical Inquiry Into the Effects of Using Newspapers as Teaching Agents

Educational Research
Vol. 51, No. 3, September 2009, 341–363
Newspapers in Education: a critical inquiry into the effects of using newspapers as teaching agents
Ellen Claes* and Ellen Quintelier
Centre of Political Research, K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
(Received 1 October 2008; final version received 28 April 2009)
Background: More than 52 countries make use of the ‘Newspapers in
Education’ programme. In the last 10 years, in Belgium, an application of the international programme Newspapers in Education has become a well-known way of stimulating adolescents to explore the political realm and challenge the way they think about and participate in democracies. However, the longer-term effectiveness of the programme is not fully understood because studies tend to focus on a period shortly after programme participation.
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether pupils who participated in the
Newspapers in Education programme scored more highly on scales of media use/ habits and social and political attitudes, in a survey conducted more than half a year after programme participation.
Programme description: The programme Newspapers in Education was evaluated. Newspapers in Education makes newspaper reading accessible to young people by providing a free newspaper package containing a variety of national newspapers for each student. This way, the programme aims at connecting young people to current affairs, and wants to stimulate interactive ways of teaching to attain the goals that are often specified when the teaching of citizenship education is concerned. The programme, moreover, has the firm intention of creating a generation of critical thinkers and informed citizens.
Sample details: For the assessment of the effects of the Newspapers in
Education programme, the ‘Belgian Youth Survey’ was used. The Belgian Youth
Survey 2006 is a representative survey conducted in 2006 among more than 6000
15- and 16-year-olds in Belgium (both in the French

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