Author: Ingrid Hu Dahl

2:30 pm, Wed (Aug 26)
Join youth media educators and stakeholders as they participate in an official “Report Out” of the National Youth Media Summit. The Summit was a two and a half day convening in Lake Forest, IL from August 5-7, 2009 attended by a 12 person steering committee and 30 stakeholders in the field (including academics, practitioners, youth producers/young professionals and funders) diverse in geographical location, ethnicity, and approach to youth media.
At the Summit, the participants will build strategies necessary to sustain the youth media field in six issue areas. These issue areas will be released publicly in Fall 2009 as “The State of the Field” white paper. As an attendee at this report-out, you will receive a copy of this document and be asked to contribute/sign off on a collective plan of action (an Investment Prospectus of the Youth Media Field, which will also release in Fall 2009).
To RSVP to this pre-conference, please email Christine Newkirk at christinen.newkirk@gmail.com. For more information, please email Ingrid Hu Dahl at idahl@aed.org.
Please forward this invitation to all interested colleagues. Note that it is not necessary to register for the NAMAC conference in order to attend this event.
Address
Multi-Purpose Room, Piano Row Building, Emerson College
150 Bolylston Street
Boston, MA
See map: Google Maps

(Left) Ingrid Hu Dahl, editor of YMR & (Right) Tom Bailey, YMR peer review board member/Community Television Network
Letter from the Editor
Welcome to YMR’s Chicago Volume 3: Issue 3, where practitioners in Chicago, IL investigate youth media practice and share their insights to the field. With support from the McCormick Foundation, these practitioners and their colleagues met on April 17 at Columbia College to discuss the most pressing challenges of their work. Twenty two people were in attendance. To see a short snapshot of this meeting, click here.
Following this meeting, contributors wrote and revised drafts that were reviewed by a local peer, a member of YMR’s national peer review board, and AED/YMR staff, as a means to engage a youth media rich and yet underrepresented region to the field.
These articles present an insider’s view of the landscape of the city as well as how youth media can:
• partner with schools;
• eradicate systemic, local and gendered violence;
• use Google My Maps to map the youth media community;
• learn from the Chicago Youth Voices Network;
• develop marketing and advertising sources and clients;
• use journalism to create history and identity for the displaced;
• incorporate family and community resources in program structures and goals; and
• provide “safe passage” for young people.
A warm thanks to all fourteen contributors for their dedication and hard work:
• Margaret Catania (After School Matters)
• Salome Chasnoff and Jesse Wheeler (Beyondmedia Education)
• Mindy Faber (Interactive Arts & Media, Columbia College)
• Mark Hallett (McCormick Foundation) and Sarah Karp (Columbia Links)
• DeAnna McLeary and Na Tae’ Thompson (True Star Magazine)
• Ethan Michaeli (We The People Media, Residents’ Journal)
• Natasha Tarpley (Young Chicago Authors)
• Babylon Williams (proud parent)
• Jeff McCarter (Free Spirit Media) * Vodcast
• Manwah Lee (Street-Level Youth Media) *Podcast
• Tom Bailey (Community TV Network) * Vodcast
A special thanks to Kelly Nuxoll, YMR’s writing coach for her stellar coaching and edits as well as to YMR’s Peer Review board for giving helpful feedback to each writer.
Many thanks to Mindy Faber from Interactive Media Arts at Columbia, who convened the meeting; and, to Tom Bailey, YMR’s peer review board member based in Chicago, who was instrumental in organizing and leading the cohort. The following is Tom’s introduction to readers of the Chicago issue:
“Five years ago, when I began working with Chicago youth, I had never even heard the term “youth media.” I was a filmmaker with a passion for teaching, and I jumped at the opportunity to combine the two. I did not see myself as a member of a local community of practitioners, let alone a national or international field of professionals.
Recently, thanks in large part to the Youth Voices Network (YVN), I’ve been fortunate enough to develop relationships with many of my Chicago colleagues, resulting in a deep and abiding admiration for their work. YVN, now over a dozen organizations strong, is like an extended family of sorts: we are diverse, geographically dispersed, and at different stages in our organizational lives. And like all families, there are disagreements, differences in philosophy, and generation gaps. We are a work in progress. But we share one common trait: a belief that young people in our city should have a voice. As a reader of YMR, you are a part of this youth media family.
In this issue of YMR you will find perspectives that truly reflect the strengths of the Chicago youth media cohort: our diversity, our dedication, and our D-I-Y work ethic. As an eclectic mix of artists, journalists, entrepreneurs, activists, teachers, and more, we bring a wealth of experience to the field at a time when Chicago youth are most in need. Dropout rates are soaring. Violence among youth dominates the headlines. Schools are being forced to cut arts and journalism programs. Yet the youth media field is as vibrant and strong as ever in Chicago, providing a crucial platform for thoughtful youth expression.”
We welcome you to join the conversation for each of these articles using YMR’s “comment” feature. You can also send feedback or comments directly to idahl@aed.org. If you are interested in posting a pod or vodcast response, please contact YMR’s media crew or email idahl@aed.org.
To reserve your copy of YMR’s annual print journal (Volume 3), you can subsrcibe and purchase via credit card or by check.
Warmly,
Ingrid Hu Dahl, Editor, YMR

Youth Media Reporter is managed by the Academy for Educational Development

Participate in the Seventh Youth Media Blog-a-Thon
Topic: Getting Grown During a Recession
Building on the success of 2008’s virtual events, YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia and WireTap Magazine are proud to announce our sixth weeklong Youth Media Blog-a-Thon to kick off on May 13th.
We are calling all young bloggers (between the ages of 14-26) – along with any bloggers dedicated to writing about youth issues and youth media – to blog from May 13th to May 20th about: “Getting Grown During a Recession”.
We want to know what it’s like for young people to come of age during one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history. What is like to search for your first job. Go to college? Share new family responsibilities?
Here are some ideas to address in your blog posts:
*Are you looking for a job? Describe your experience, and how does it compare to your past experience looking for a job?
* Are you graduating from school? Are you nervous about entering the job market? Explain.
* How has the economic recession affected your future plans? College? Etc.
* Have you gone through any major changes in your life recently? Involving, friends, family, work, personal life. How have you coped with these changes?
* As a high school student, while applying to college did you pick a major taking into consideration which fields pay the most money? Why or why what?
* As a college student, do you feel your degree will help you get a job in today’s job market? Why or why not.
* How has your community gone through any major changes? Were they positive or negative?
* Do you think Obama’s presidency has changed your community, the nation, and the world’s perception of America since his election? Why? Why not? Explain.
If you are interested in being a part of the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon, please email Eming Piansay at epiansay @ newamericamedia.org.
Sponsoring Organizations:
For over 15 years, YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia has been a leader in youth-produced content in the Bay Area. Through our active website (http://www.youthoutlook.org), YO!TV – a weekly 30-minute television show on Access 29 in San Francisco, and our weekly YO!Radio segments aired on KMEL 106.1, YO! gives young people a voice on the issues they most care about. YO! content is also regularly syndicated in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oakland Tribune and more. The YO! blog has been active since 2007.
WireTap is a national news and culture magazine by and for socially conscious youth. Our online community promotes social justice, inspires action and gives young people a voice in the media. Wiretap provides free, daily content to over 60,000 monthly visitors and 14,000 weekly newsletter subscribers. Our award-winning journalism and youth commentary is syndicated every week on www.thenation.com, www.AlterNet.org and Chicago Sun Times, college papers, and hundreds of our stories get linked to in widely read blogs and websites from Mother Jones blog to Fear of a Brown Blogger to social networking site www.MyBloc.net.

Youth media screening with Youth Media Reporter, Thursday, May 14!
The Sixth Annual New York City Grassroots Media Conference (NYCGMC): HOPE TO ACTION is just around the corner—May 30th!
Before we kick off this important media event, we are dedicating a special night to the invaluable contributions YOUTH make to grassroots/independent media.
Thursday, May 14, 2009, 6-8pm
Academy for Educational Development
100 Fifth Avenue, between 15th & 16th Street
(L,N,Q,R,W,4,5,6 to Union Square; F,V to 6th Ave)
The NYCGMC, in partnership with Youth Media Reporter, will host a screening and discussion of short youth video works. This event will give youth media creators an opportunity to have their work seen and a chance to network with other members of the New York media community.
As this year’s conference theme is HOPE TO ACTION, we are screening new media projects that address issues of activism, social justice, culture and community empowerment. Following the screening, youth producers engage in a Q&A and panel discussion of their works.
Please join us to support and encourage young people to continue following their dreams.
For more information on the NYCGMC, please go to www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org.
Please email info @ nycgrassrootsmedia.com with any questions.

It’s the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), a document that celebrates all the important rights young people have. Make a video showing what child rights mean to you, whether in the world at large, your country, your community or you personally. Videos must be one minute in length and will be judged by professionals and youth from around the world. Winning videos will be featured in the CRC 20th Anniversary campaign and the 2010 ICDB. Read more about the CRC and the contest at http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_4439.html.
Deadline is 1 August 2009.

Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), a global youth media initiative, and the nonproft What Kids Kids Can Do, Inc. are delighted to announce our first-ever international photo competition.
When written in Chinese or Japanese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters–one represents crisis or danger, and the other represents hope or opportunity. We have taken this as inspiration for our groundbreaking competition. “Crisis and Hope” offers an exciting opportunity for youth around the world to express themselves through photographs–and make their voices heard–on both what is challenging and what gives hope in today’s difficult world.
Winning photographs will be showcased online, in a traveling exhibit, and in a book.
The contest is open to all young people–anywhere in the world–between the ages of 12 and 19.
The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2009. Winners–as many as 30–will be announced by August 31, 2009.
For more information, please visit http://www.wkcd.org/AYV_Photo_Competition/Home_.html.

Save the Date: June 19 – 20, 2009
Young people are on the frontlines of many of the world’s human rights crises, but it’s all too rare that we get to hear their perspectives. The second edition of Youth Producing Change shares 10 powerful stories from young filmmakers across the globe as they turn a camera on their own lives and share their visions of change.
Screenings will be held at Film Society of Lincoln Center Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street, Upper Level (Between Broadway and Amsterdam).
For more information about the festival, please visit http://www.hrw.org/iff.
For group tickets & questions please email Cynthia Carrion – carrioc@hrw.org.

What does it take to get really good at something? Are people experts because they are born with talent–or do they get to be expert by practice?
The question goes to the heart of achievement in every field, in school and in careers. Last spring, with support from the McCormick Tribune Foundation, WKCD asked three classes of Chicago public high school students to explore the answers through interviews and photographs.
The students looked for ordinary adults who had special mastery in a field, and asked them questions about how they gained their skills. And because many students also have expert skills, they talked to us about that. What inspired them to put in the time and effort to acquire them? Could they see any connections between their out-of-school interests and their academic skills?
We have created a CD from the project that includes:
–the narratives and photographs that resulted from students’ interviews with adults
–an audio-slideshow of students reflecting on practice
–curriculum overview of WKCD’s process in developing this project.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COMPLIMENTARY COPY, please email us at info@whatkidscando.org. Please include your mailing address and a word about yourself.
With good wishes,
Barbara Cervone, President

Join our team! Develop your expertise in media literacy education through the Americorps CTC Vista Volunteer Programand work with a team at the Media Education Lab during the 2009-2010 year. You will develop, implement and assess lesson plans and activities that strengthen “active reasoning” skills of children in response to media and technology, building upon and extending the impact of our faculty development program and summer media literacy camp. The entire program is developed with an intensive research component, where lessons and activities will be carefully tested through a process of formative and summative evaluation.
http://mediaeducationlab.com/news/be-vista-volunteer-media-education-lab

Every year, hundreds of NYC students pick up cameras and tell their stories. Our City, My Story is Tribeca Film Institute’s annual celebration of the incredible vision, excellence and diversity of New York City youth-made media. Students from all five boroughs continually create powerful films–each exploring a unique perspective or take on the city they live in. By presenting the year’s most exciting youth-made media, this special curated program gives a voice to the best of NYC youth work during the Tribeca Film Festival. Large audiences are welcome.
http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/youth/our_city/