“We are your audiences and your future. We have plenty to say, and plenty to give. In an interactive multi-media world, there is no excuse for excluding us.” This was the essence of the message that fired up young activists, presented to UN and government officials, senior TV executives, academics and development agencies at the 5th World Summit on Media for Children (5WSMC). This Summit, which gathers once every three years, occurred most recently on March 24-28th in Johannesburg, South Africa bringing together over 1,000 producers, media regulators, researchers and youth media experts. Over 300 young people from over 90 countries were active 5WSMC participants.
The vision of 5WSMC was to produce a global, interactive conference with discussion and debate on issues involving children and media leading to tangible, workable and sustainable outcomes. Youth media professionals and organizations offered workshops to help young people acquire various media skills. These young people took on visible leadership roles in advocating for access to, and participation in, mainstream media outlets.
“Children should hear, see and express themselves, their culture, their language and their life experiences, through the electronic media which affirms their sense of self, community and place,” a tenet from the African Charter which characterizes the synergy harnessed at 5WSMC between youth and youth media practitioners. The 300 young people (ages 13-16) who attended the 5WSMC made films, produced a daily newspaper, and demonstrated other media-related talents. The excitement and importance of this work was palpable. Clearly, the presence of youth eager to learn higher order media skills and develop an active voice in the mainstream media should be captured, learned from, and followed in the future.
Youth media professionals and organizations used 5WSMC as an opportunity to teach local African youth media skills and emphasize the importance of youth-led technology to their peers amongst a broader, more mainstream audience. In addition to advocating for electronic media to strengthen youth development and sense of self, 5WSMC provided a nexus for professionals in the youth media field to meet and discuss best practices. The gathering featured skilled practitioners working to ensure that children’s voices are heard and that youth have learning opportunities with music, graphics, photos, animation, and video. By offering workshops and opportunities to learn media, youth media professionals amplified important messages that youth had to say about their involvement in mainstream media.
For example, DK (founder of MediaSnackers) and his team trained and prepared over 15 youth delegates to become ‘digital journalists’ who documented speakers and workshops, as well as interviewed conference delegates. In addition, MediaSnackers made vodcasts of the conference after the event. These vodcasts and insightful youth comments regarding the conference can be viewed at www.5wsmc.com/blog. TK—a twenty year old South African girl who studies film and attended the conference—posted, “I find such initiatives [as 5WSMC] very profound especially because our country is crippled by so many atrocities. If the world can come together to talk and find solutions, [I am] cool and down with that.” It seems as though the ‘world of youth media’ came together to do just that at 5WSMC.
Organizers of 5WSMC were committed to making certain that youth attendees would be recognized, have a leadership role, and be a focus at the gathering. Firdoze Bulbulia, Chairperson of 5WSMC, explained in a post-conference statement that the 5WSMC worked to incorporated youth in the conference by:
• including children as keynote presenters during each day’s plenary, which were selected and empowered through a partnership with the organization Plan International;
• creating a space for youth delegates to interact and attend workshops about diverse media strategies;
• building an electric interactive exhibition space for daily school visitors to the 5WSMC, which was broadcast live in two hour daily segments by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC);
• providing a platform for youth-participation, which began several months prior to the 5WSMC with pre-summit activities in all nine provinces in South Africa; and
• offering pre-summits to international partners four days prior to the opening of the 5WSMC.
Adding youth to 5WSMC was a new addition this year, a key ingredient to the success of the gathering. In keeping with the main goals of 5WSMC, the focus for youth media professionals, leaders, and media practitioners included:
• creating guidelines to formulate a global children’s media rights policy;
• researching production projects designed to amplify children’s voices and cultures through media created locally and shared globally;
• developing an African Media Centre for Children;
• analyzing types of training available to adults and young producers of children’s media; and
• discussing ways children participate meaningfully in the creation of their own media, research, and comparative skills.
The 5WSMC goals and focus on young people in media was very much in line with media practitioners in attendance who acknowledged the overall importance of listening and involving young people’s voices and talents in mainstream media. In addition to MediaSnackers’ vodcasts for example, UNICEF (joined with Oneminutesjr.org and the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam) ran a five-day video training session for 14 young people from South Africa, Burundi, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The young people who attended these trainings learned about camera techniques, props, and sound as well as how to edit, produce and direct their own stories in a one-minute format. As Guy Hubbard and Jabu Tugwana (co-writers of the article “Lights, camera, action! South Africa hosts 5th World Summit on Media for Children” for UNICEF) state, “the annual summit [celebrated] the power of youth and [emphasized] the role that media [plays] in shaping young minds.” Media practitioners, alongside youth media makers, helped—and continue to help—these young minds shape media through necessary skills and media-based road maps.
Other media practitioners, who wrote reflective pieces on their experience at 5WSMC, heralded the gathering for providing a space for youth to be heard in what they often experience as a “closed world.” Mike Jempson for example, Director of MediaWise and Visiting Professor in Media Ethics at Lincoln University, wrote a press release about 5WSMC entitled, “Children’s media summit reveals fresh talents.” He explains how youth at the conference put a message out to mainstream media, and that message informed: “listen to young people, and let [them] in on the closed world of mainstream media production.”
The gathering was important in providing a space for youth to have a voice and take leadership in having their voices accounted for. Youth are demanding a space to be recognized and be included in mainstream media. As a young conference blogger named Kanjanga Muwena applauds, “thanks to Firdoze [Bulbuilia, Chairperson of 5WSMC and CBFA], for organizing [an] event that has enabled to bring hundreds of children together for one purpose, to improve children’s media.” Media practitioners ought to continue to incorporate and celebrate youth voice and media making within more traditional and mainstream media.
Youth had the power to hold a mainstream audience captive at the 5WSMC by clearly and thoughtfully expressing their needs and desires to be part of media. Adults in media can offer young media leaders insight, media skills, and guidance in achieving their desires. Incorporating youth voice is already a focal point for the youth media field. It will be interesting to follow how the field, and the youth within it, work to enter and alter mainstream media locally and across the globe as a result of this conference.
The Summit website provides up to date information of all activities and papers presented including a 5WSMC blog with a picture documentary on YouTube. Go to: http://www.5wsmc.com. The next World Summit will be held in Karlstad, Sweden in 2010.
Author: Ingrid Hu Dahl
An Alliance for Young Women Who Rock
The Girls Rock Camp Alliance—comprised of representatives from across the globe who run rock n’ roll camps for girls—met for the first time last month to brainstorm ways to organize what has become a grassroots movement of burgeoning non-profits. The alliance is dedicated to empowering young girls through music-making as well as an enhanced understanding of gender and political identity. It is a great example for youth media professionals to learn from, as many of these campsites across the nation, and now the world, work to maintain a collective mission that unites and supports young women in music.
The founding member camps of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA) are from the U.S.—Portland, OR, New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, Philadelphia, PA, and Murfreesboro, TN—as well as from Sweden and the United Kingdom. The alliance met in Portland, Oregon—home base for the Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls—the first rock camp founded in 2001. The non-profit was created in response to the social oppression female musician’s face, in which girls are not encouraged to play instruments and have female role models that share their same experiences. Unique to this non-profit are the hundreds of volunteers dedicated to the rock camp mission, so much so that they work for free during the summer (or throughout the year depending on whether or not local campsites have year round after-school programs like in Portland, OR) motivated by their deep desire and dedication to the cause of empowering young women.
I met with the GRCA in Portland, Oregon late February and had the opportunity to interview STS, a friend, colleague, and program officer at camp. She explains, “every decision [we make at rock camp] we put up next to our mission statement. We serve girls and follow an empowerment model that examines power. We are a community and resource that builds self-esteem and empowerment for young women through media education.” She continues, “Girls need to have access to music education and female mentors who speak to them as peers. At rock camp, we provide great opportunities for young girls interested in music and them to lead in their own ways in a safe and empowering space.”
Many of the 8-18 year old girls who attend camp every summer say that the week long experience changed their lives, opened their eyes, and encouraged them to better handle a sexist and ‘identity-boxing’ world. These girls often sign up for the Girls Rock Institute, an after school version of camp that occurs year around, and often make up the camps’ youth advisory board, who form internship programs, teach skills, act as role models, and build upon the camp community.
Having volunteered at the rock camp in Portland, Oregon and being a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, I know first hand what STS means when she explains, “camp is powerful—it is all inclusive, embracing, and [evokes] positive energy. It’s a punk, anarchist organization that values music, esteem, and life skills.” Rock camp thrives on sharing, collaboration, and giving back along with a very attractive do-it-yourself (D-I-Y) approach and progressive model of leadership, which has become a fast moving grassroots movement.
The energy and empowerment of rock camp in Portland has influenced the creation of several rock camps across the nation and over the world. Around 15-25 rock camps have existed to date—a number that is growing—which Portland’s camp saw as an opportunity to create an alliance amongst.
At the first meeting of the GRCA, the group wrote their mission statement, which defines the alliance as an “international coalition of organizations whose shared mission is to empower girls and women using the tools of music education to foster self-esteem and confidence.” To this end, the GRCA “promotes, strengthens, and expands services provided by its members.”
Overall, the alliance is a professional organization that provides accreditation, resources, and networking opportunities for its members, and promotes the establishment of like-minded institutions worldwide. The alliance works to provide support in the development and quality of programs, financial stability and transparency, and accountability to the rock camp mission.
Core Values of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance are the:
• power of music as a means to create personal and social change;
• efforts that actively expand opportunities for girls and women;
• positive approaches to fighting sexism;
• integrity, honesty and respect;
• appropriate sharing of resources, cooperation, and collaboration;
• using collective voice to further the mission of rock camp;
• importance of diversity and not tolerating racism, sexism, homophobia, or other discriminatory behavior or expression
The alliance believes in creating a learning community that empowers young girls, builds strong relationship among women and a network of musicians, fosters an environment for gender and social change, and values collaborative learning. As STS explains, “we do not want to homogenize all rock camps for girls but collectively recognize core values while valuing our differences. We do not want future rock camps to reinvent the wheel. We offer structure, curriculum, and ways to match the sparks and fire we’ve all experienced at rock camp.”
Professionals interested in creating a rock camp for girls can join the alliance to share leadership models, become a chapter, register to become a non-profit, and/or support a movement of empowering girls through D-I-Y music education. The GRCA is a success model for professionals in the youth media field to engage with. The alliance freely supports and encourages the development of programs that value girls, confidence-raising, and music as a vital medium to empower young people.
The goals of the GRCA, such as sharing resources (material, knowledge, and skill) and providing a model for all burgeoning camps, are important ones for youth media organizations and professionals to pay attention to. GRCA has made its own niche directly outside the youth media field, and ought to get incorporated into the great work the field continues to produce. Simultaneously, the field can learn a great deal from the progressive leadership model of the GRCA. The GRCA gives relevance to music in media, theorizing and practicing gendered and social change, and valuing youth voice, empowerment, and creative expression.
Learning upon the ways in which the Girls Rock Camp Alliance provide nonprofit umbrella support for each chapter at the grassroots level is a case study with solutions youth media organizations may draw from—especially those that value centralizing a sharing of resources, collective identity, and the ‘spark’ that keeps movements and effective youth media programs alive.
Ingrid Dahl is a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls where she develops curriculum for workshops, acts as a band coach, and sits on the advisory board. She has been involved with the Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, OR since 2004, where she incubated a collaborative workshop on identity, media, and feminism. She is the guitarist in the bands Boyskout and The 303s and plans to write a book on empowering young women through music.
this month’s youth media professional (4)
Katina Paron, Co-founder and Editorial/Program Director of Children’s PressLine began her youth media career in 1995 with the Boston-based Teen Voices magazine. It all began while she was waiting for her interview in the magazine’s basement offices at the YMCA on Huntington Ave. Before she even finished flipping through the pages of the magazine she was hooked on the concept that media could validate the voices of young people while empowering those who produced it.
While working through varies titles—intern, section editor, bulk mail volunteer expert, mentor, submissions coordinator, board member, NY fundraising co-chair—she also managed a professional career as a journalist writing about home automation, literary arts and health for various publishing companies and newspapers. Katina might be the only youth media practitioner who has ever attended a trade show on radiant floor heating and interviewed Allen Ginsberg.
In March 2000, she dedicated herself to youth media full-time as the managing editor of Children’s Express. In October 2001 she co-founded Children’s PressLine after CE had closed its doors.
When she is not “doing” youth media, Katina is on the editorial board of “Our Truths/Nuestras Verdades,” a bilingual abortion zine and was a “REAL hot 100” 2006 Winner (“See how hot SMART can be”). You might not know that Katina used to train as a boxer and h-e-a-r-t-s coffee. She currently lives in Brooklyn and enjoys studying charts of the muscular skeletal system, making bread, and listening to folk rock music. The photo is a sculpture of Katina, one of four that her husband made of her for their wedding.
letter from the editor (volume 1:issue 4)
Letter from the Editor
Welcome to April 2007 (Volume 1: Issue 4) of Youth Media Reporter (YMR).
Over the past few weeks, several conferences have occurred that apply to the youth media field. This issue of YMR documents four of these convenings, capturing lessons learned and highlighting key findings useful to professionals in the field.
The articles in this issue cover the following conferences:
• The 5th World Summit on Children in Media (5WSCM), Johannesburg, Africa
• Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA), Portland, Oregon
• The 18th National Service-Learning Conference (NSLP), Albuquerque, New Mexico
• World Young Readers Conference (WYRC), Washington, D.C.
From these articles, it is clear that the youth media field is—as one article title suggests—“bigger than we think.” In Africa, youth are demanding to be involved with mainstream media in every aspect: representation, voice, and technology. Youth at the 5WSCM have captivated a large audience of mainstream media figures. Their message has expressed the incredible importance with which they view youth participation in media. Through media trainings, workshops, and blog vodcasts, youth media professionals from the U.S. and across the globe artfully displayed and shared their expertise. As youth voice is amplified with increasing intensity, mainstream media is bound to change.
The Girls Rock Camp Alliance, comprised of representatives from across the globe who run rock n’ roll camps for girls, recently met to brainstorm ways to organize what has become a grassroots movement of burgeoning non-profits. The Alliance is dedicated to empowering young girls through music-making. It is a great example for youth media professionals to learn from, as many of these campsites across the nation, and now the world, work to maintain a collective mission that unites and supports young women in music.
Witnessed at the National Service-Learning Conference in New Mexico, youth media has begun to make a bridge with the service-learning field. In the article, “The Field is Bigger than we Think,” this bridging has enabled youth to use videography to capture the oral histories of elders and those who work for change in communities across the country; to actively document, raise, and portray issues in their schools and communities; and to meet to share their own cultural and native stories with youth from afar. The combination of media and service-learning engages youth in social justice work, community development, and civic and political activism.
Lastly, the World Young Readers Conference in D.C. gave professionals in the newspaper business ideas on how to incorporate youth voice and leadership into the content and management of their papers. Many young people attending the conference gave compelling testimonials about the importance of youth involvement with news media as spokespeople on youth editorial boards and on other policy setting structures. Newspapers will only benefit from the opinions and priorities of the younger generation. Youth must not be mere subjects covered (oftentimes negatively) by mainstream media but instead be taken seriously as readers and respected for the insightful opinions they offer.
Next month, YMR will feature new innovations of digital communities that use vodcasts, blogs, and/or personal profiles to engage youth with the field. Blogs and organizations such as MyBlock.net, MediaSnackers, Gurl.com, and Feministing.com will be showcased.
If you would like to be published in YMR or request a site visit, please contact me at idahl@aed.org. If you would like to provide feedback about any of the current articles, simply use the comment feature box available on our website.
Warmly,
Ingrid Hu Dahl
Editor, YMR
Report from the field and make a difference!
Urban Visionaries Retrospective
For ten years, Urban Visionaries Film Festival has been New York City’s film festival produced, promoted, and presented by youth.
On Tuesday April 3rd, the Urban Visionaries Retrospective was held at Tribeca Cinemas, hosted by Adobe Youth Voices, Listen Up! and Tribeca Film Institute. The evening began with a screening of the festivals best in ten years followed by an awards reception honoring Time Warner (accepted by Luis Castro, Director of Development), Jim McKay (Adult Artist Acivist Award), Vanessa Bateau (Youth Artist/Activist), and Jamal Hodge (Urban Visionaries Alumnus).
It was an honor to hear the two youth honorees mention the impact youth media organizations had in their work and personal filmmaking projectory, namely The Educational Video Center, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, and Listen Up! The event was charming, inspiring, and feedback from most who attended felt the screening did an excellent job capturing the power of Urban Visionaries.
Urban Visionaries is a collaboration between youth and educators from New York City youth media organizations including The Educational Video Center, Downtown Community TV, The Ghetto Film School, Global Action Project, Listen Up! Youth Media Network, MNN’s Youth Channel, The Museum of Television & Radio, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, and T.R.U.C.E.
Bravo to a great event and work done in the youth media field!
Applications Now for Summer Rock Camp for Girls
Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls (New York, NY)
Founded in 2004, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is a non-profit summer day camp serving girls aged 8-18 in New York City. The program offers girls the chance to learn how to play musical instruments, write songs, perform, learn about different types of music, and generally “rock out” in a supportive environment that fosters self-confidence, self-esteem, creativity, tolerance, and collaboration.
Rock camp is dedicated to youth empowerment through music. The program is founded on the proposition that music can serve as a powerful tool of self-expression and self-esteem-building for girls and young women, and can help combat racism and stereotypes by building bridges of communication and shared experience among girls from diverse communities.
Session 1: August 6 – 10
Application Deadline: April 16th
Session 2: August 20 – 24
Application Deadline: April 16th
Final concerts are held on Saturday the week camp ends.
Tuition: $50-500, sliding scale. Full financial aid is available
How to Apply:
Applications can be downloaded HERE
Location:
Urban Assembly School of Music & Art
http://www.williemaerockcamp.org/
Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls (Portland, OR)
Summer Camp is where it all began. Every year since 2001, girls and young women come from all over the world to attend this intense, week long day camp. Over the course of five days, each camper learns a new instrument or improves skills, attends workshops, dances to lunch time bands, and works together in a band to write a song she will perform at a sold out showcase Saturday night!!! No musical experience is necessary, just a desire to play rock, punk, hip hop, country, pop, indie, lounge, blues, reggae, jazz, ska, metal, experimental, hardcore, emo, screamo, alternative, classic, or any other musical genre. No covers, no limits!
Session 1: June 25 – 30
Application Deadline: Apr 30
Session 2: July 9 – 14
Application Deadline: Apr 30
Session 3: July 30 – Aug. 4
Application Deadline: May 5
How to Apply:
Download an application HERE
http://www.girlsrockcamp.org/
Girls Rock! Chicago
August 13 – 17th
www.girlsrockchicago.org
KPFA Radio’s Women’s Magazine is looking for a few good women
KPFA Radio’s Women’s Magazine is looking for a few good women:
‘Cause The Revolution will be broadcast on radio!
The Women’s Magazine is an hour long radio show that is aired the first three Monday’s of every month from 1-2pm on KPFA radio at 94.1 FM or online at www.kpfa.org.
Women’s Magazine is a multiracial, radical and feminist/mujerist/womanist show that examines the lives and struggles of women locally and globally and looks at the issues of gender as they intersect with race, sexuality, class and the nation.
We are looking for feminist women with some radio skills who are committed to producing radio in order to bring voices of women that are not represented in the media to the airwaves. Women of color, Queer women, women who are multilingual and other underrepresented women are strongly encouraged to apply.
For more information please contact us at 510-848-6767 X 608 or at womensmagazine@comcast.net. You can also check us out on the web at www.kpfa.org/womensmagazine.
Article: “Being a Girl in a Post-Soviet State”
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Thinking-East in 2005.
Fardona (20, from Uzbekistan) tells us about her life – a life that is not easy, living in a country in which women’s rights are becoming ever more difficult to retain. She explains:
“I want to draw for you a descriptive picture of the present-day situation in my country. I’ll touch upon issues which are a pain in my neck, but I must share them with you. Yet, while negative shades shall dominate my picture, there are so many positive colours that are obscured but are really there. (After all, it is my country.)”
FULL ARTICLE AND FEED-BACK OPTIONS AT: http://uzbekistan.neweurasia.net/?p=164
Two job openings at VOX Teen Communications
Writing Program Coordinator
VOX Teen Communications seeks a committed, creative, resourceful, motivated journalist-turned-teacher to coach and support Atlanta-area teenagers in writing, editing and producing a citywide, independent, uncensored newspaper and Web site created by teens for teens. This full-time position with a growing non-profit after-school program (founded in 1993) splits time between teaching teens journalism and creative nonfiction with coaching them through several drafts of stories to get them ready for publication.
To apply, send resume, cover letter and no more than 3 writing/editing samples to meredith@voxrox.org or 145 Nassau Street, Atlanta, GA 30303. No phone calls please.
Application Deadline: April 16, 2007
Visual Arts Coordinator
VOX Teen Communications seeks a committed, creative, resourceful, motivated visual communications specialist-turned-teacher to coach and support Atlanta-area teenagers in designing and producing a citywide, independent, uncensored newspaper and Web site created by teens for teens. This full-time position with a growing non-profit after-school program (founded in 1993) splits time between teaching teens visual communications and managing VOX’s publications.
To apply, send resume, cover letter and no more than 3 design/art samples, no larger than 1 MB, to meredith@voxrox.org or 145 Nassau Street, Atlanta, GA 30303, attention hiring team. No phone calls please.
Application Deadline: April 16, 2007
For more go to: http://www.voxrox.org/who/jobs.html
Interview Dorin Babeu at the Tokyo Video Festival
Thirteen year old Dorin Babeu, who made the one minute video baby-trees, was
the lucky winner of this year’s Tokyo Video Festival sponsored by JVC. He
was nominated out of 120 one minute videos and won a trip to Japan to
receive his prize, a certificate and 600 Euros. Find out how he experienced
his first visit ever to an Asian country in his interview at oneminutesjr.
www.theoneminutesjr.org