Measuring up: the value we bring to media
There are many positive testimonials to the work of the foundation over the years from the thousands of alumni who have benefited from our training. The most heartening compliment, repeated often, is that a Thomson Foundation course has been “a life-changing experience”.
In an age, however, when funders want a more quantifiable impact, it is gratifying to have detailed external evidence of our achievements.
Such is the case in Sudan where, over a four-year period, we helped to improve the quality of reporting of 700 journalists from print, radio and TV. An independent evaluation, led by a respected media development expert during 2016, showed that 98 per cent of participants felt the training had given them tangible benefits, including helping their career development.
It is gratifying to have detailed external evidence of our achievements.
Our 2016 annual review is online. View it here
The evaluation also proved that a long-running training programme had helped to address systemic problems in a difficult regime, such as giving journalists the skills to minimise self-censorship and achieve international standards of reporting.
Measuring the effectiveness of media development and journalism training courses has long been a contentious issue. Sudan shows it is easier to do over the long term.
As our digital training platform develops, it will also be possible to measure the impact of a training course in the short term. Our interactive programmes have been designed, and technology platform chosen, specifically so that real-time performance data for each user can be made easily available and progress measured.
Our annual reviews
Making headlines
Turning point: in 2015, we had undertaken more large-scale projects than ever before
