MILA is delighted to be associated with a new project, ‘Evaluating Media Literacy with a Theory of Change’, led by Professor Julian McDougall, Head of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University.
The project was recently awarded through the Media Literacy Programme Fund, following a call for proposals, during the summer, from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The work has three strategic objectives:
- to provide DCMS with a robust evaluation framework, aligned with a holistic theory of change for measuring the impact of media literacy interventions;
- to provide a review of recent, existing and current UK media literacy projects, using the evaluation framework and theory of change
- to deliver to DCMS a fit-for-purpose, sustainable and transferable evaluation framework and guide for use beyond this project, to evaluate all work funded in the DCMS Programme.
The project will meet the urgent need for the independent, consistent and robust evaluation of media literacy interventions. It will provide a framework that goes further than existing media literacy metrics in the UK by providing a stronger understanding of ‘what works’ in different contexts. It will do so by focusing on the who, why, what and how of media literacy and, crucially, what results for society. The project will thus contribute to the broader UK media literacy community of practice in the UK, informing future research and intervention design, as well as being used to assess the impact of projects.
MILA and its Board will provide critical evaluation at key stages of the project, including through the convening of a stakeholder workshop. It is anticipated that the project will be completed during Spring 2023. More details on the Bournemouth University website.
