Community Engagement: WILL Youth Media Workshop Data Analysis

Community Engagement: WILL Youth Media Workshop Data Analysis

Youth Media Workshop

In Summer 2008, Kimberlie Kranich, outreach coordinator and co-director of the Youth Media Workshop (YMW) at WILLAM-FM-TV in Champaign, IL, began working with program evaluator Holly Downs of the University of Illinois College of Education and her colleagues to produce an analysis of interviews with program participants. The organization had been collecting the data since 2003. In Fall 2008, Kranich enlisted the help of three graduate students from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at University of Illinois (Hanna Ahn, Camille Chesley and Kristin LoDolce) to organize the 60 interview transcripts into data for the evaluators to use in their analysis. The following report is an excerpt of the analysis* in which the evaluators noted some themes that were commonly found in the interview data. These include participation (including how they learned about the program and why they decided to participate) and results of participation (including reported improvements in self-worth/change/growth). In addition the evaluators identified three themes for future study including relationships, future plans, and skills. Evaluators found that 36 students were interviewed between one to six times. The analysis states that while the data “began to show trends related to these themes” they were unable to make generalizations about some of the data given the inconsistency in data collection procedures. The interviews were conducted by YMW co-directors and, in some cases, program participants guided by YMW staff. This, along with variations in interview questions and program activities, and inability to conduct entrance and exit interviews with all participants contributed to the inconsistencies. However, from the responses, we can begin to see how the program has impacted participants on an individual level.

Ahn, Hanna; Chesley, Camille; LoDolce, Kristin

IDEALS

December 2008

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