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Study Confirms Newspaper Readership Program's Effectiveness

By Andy Elder, Student Affairs Writer

When the Penn State Student Newspaper Readership Program was launched in 1997, the goal was three-fold: enhance the learning environment on campus, increase students' knowledge of community, national and world events and encourage a lifelong daily newspaper readership habit.

Now, eight years later, a pilot of a national survey on the program confirms those goals are being met nationally, and especially at Penn State.

"An initial review of the data indicate very positive findings with regard to the impact of newspaper readership," said Andrea Dowhower, Director of Student Affairs Research and Assessment."

Penn State's Student Newspaper Readership Program enables students to choose from among three different newspapers distributed through vendor boxes located throughout the University Park campus and the University's commonwealth campuses. Students can choose to pick up a copy of USA Today, The New York Times or a local paper, depending on campus location. The Daily Collegian, Penn State's campus newspaper, is also available. Local papers include:

Allentown Morning Call, Altoona Mirror, Beaver County Times, Courier-Express (DuBois), Erie Times-News, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Hazleton Standard Speaker, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pottsville Republican and Evening Herald, Reading Eagle, Record Herald, Scranton Times Tribune, Sharon Herald, Uniontown Herald Standard, Valley News Dispatch, Wilkes-Barre Citizen's Voice and York Daily Record.

Students need only insert their student ID+ card, pull the door, and take whichever of the three newspapers they are interested in reading.

Penn State was a trendsetter in this initiative. The program is now offered at more than 300 campuses nationwide.

The purpose of the recent study, conducted in partnership with Educational Benchmarking, Inc., was to:

• Assess the learning outcomes of the readership program
• Demonstrate the effectiveness of the program locally and nationally
• Inform how to improve the effectiveness of the program
• Compare effectiveness of readership programs across the country
• Expand student and faculty awareness of the readership program
• Measure behavior/improvement/change over time

"Representatives from Penn State and EBI adapted and expanded the existing Pulse survey on newspaper readership to delve more deeply into the patterns of newspaper readership, the use of   the newspaper in the classroom, and the educational and behavioral outcomes (e.g. civic engagement) associated with newspaper readership," Dowhower said.

The study found that 83 percent of students had read a newspaper in the last seven days.

Of those: 37 percent averaged more than 20 minutes of reading a day, 85 percent read the campus paper, 67 percent the local paper, 48 percent the New York Times, 36 percent USA Today, and 12 percent the Wall Street Journal.

Penn State President Dr. Graham Spanier has been an outspoken proponent of the program. He says, "It is critical that college students have an understanding of the world where they will live, have jobs and raise families. Reading a daily newspaper helps you gain that understanding."

With those words, and the initial goals, in mind, it would seem the study confirms the program is working. But that doesn't mean Penn State isn't interested in learning why and how it is working.

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