2 Huge Youth Media Events Rock Chicago

This past Sunday night (March 9) Young Chicago Authors (YCA)celebrated its 8th annual “Louder Than A Bomb” teen poetry slam. It was nothing short of a huge hit! Highlights included a new venue – the Vic Theater, a surprise performance by GLC (“Drive Slow”), and documentary film makers (Siskel/Jacobs Productions and Free Spirit Media) covering the entire event. (Watch for the documentary they’re producing on YCA, to be released later this year.) But the main highlight as always was teen poetry at its best – including a surprise performance by 11-12 year olds from Ravenswood Elementary.


On Tuesday, March 11 Roosevelt University hosted its annual Scholastic Press Association of Chicago high school journalism workshops and awards ceremony. This year more than 300 high school students and their journalism advisers attended workshops on a variety of topics including coverage of entertainment, interviewing skills and credibility. The workshops were great – but energy levels rose afterwards with the teen awards at the Chicago Cultural Center (pictured). Prizes went out for a variety of categories – best editorial cartoon, sports reporting, design & layout, etc.

Students Catching Political Fever

The heated political rhetoric and captivating ideas of the presidential candidates is generating a lot of buzz among students. Here are some of the impressive initiatives that involve young people reporting and blogging about the election process.
• Daily Kos: University of Washington professor David Domke is leading a group of UW students in reporting and blogging around the elections. They’ve reported in Washington state and Idaho and are now blanketing Texas. Their coverage has caught the attention of the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Huffington Post. See http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/04242/68517 for more.
• Collaborations: Two teen initiatives, What Kids Can Do (Providence, R.I) and Y-Press (Indianapolis), have teamed up on campaign coverage and plan to blog together for the next 10 months. See http://www.whatkidscando.org/youth_on_the_trail/y-press_intro.html for the first posts.
• New America Media: NAM's YO! Youth Outlook has been posting a youth media blog-a-thon for the past few weeks. It includes a call out to other youth bloggers to join in on the action. See their blog at http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=89b2ad995e5cce45a27514fdd7312838.
• The group Mikva Challenge sent a group of teenagers to New Hampshire to cover the primaries there. The reporting they did is posted here (http://mikvainnewhampshire08.blogspot.com).

Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, with Ethics and Excellence in Journalism funding, will be conducting research later this year to identify techniques and strategies news organizations can use online to deepen teen interest in serious news. MMC is looking for recommendations about web sites that should appeal to young people interested in following the ’08 election. Contact Vivian Vahlberg at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu. The upcoming research is a follow-up to MMC's "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," report, which was funded by McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Motown Blazes Way in Teen Journalism + The Environment

How do you get urban teens interested in journalism? And to make it an even taller order – in environmental journalism, math and science?

We can all learn from what they’re doing in Detroit. The lessons drawn from the 3rd annual city-wide high school journalism conference (“Steroids, Makeup and Polar Bears: Journalism and the Environment”) that took place Wed. Feb. 27 read like a How To:

* First, invite some 200 DPS students and their journalism advisors/chaperones to take a day away from school
* Host the event at the very impressive Detroit Zoo, which has a great educational facility and interactive exhibits and an amazing array of guest ‘speakers’ from amphibians of all kinds to polar bears and arctic foxes
* Ask a group of high energy experts to organize and manage the program. In this case, vision and leadership came from committed people like Jim Detjen (director of Michigan StateUniversity’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism), Cheryl Pell (director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) and Emilia Askari of the Detroit Free Press
* Shape the agenda around topics that are relevant and news worthy to teen reporters, such as - steroids use, environmental justice, the dangers of make up, global warming and teen depression
* Invite local anchors like Carolyn Clifford and meteorologist Andrew Humphrey to provide truly inspirational opening remarks
* Ask eager young reporters like Chris Lau and Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press (who aren’t that far removed from high school themselves) to moderate sessions
* Oh, and finally have the whole thing piggyback on the steady coaching and nurturing of local talent by the likes of Erin Hill of the Detroit Free Press who heads the newspaper's inspired high school journalism initiative

Then add the energy, curiosity and giddiness of more than 200 high school students and you’ve got the mix for a winner. The high points of such an event are numerous but one stood out for me. At the end of his talk meteorologist Humphrey asked how many of the seniors in the audience were registered to vote. He then opened his bag and had voter registration forms distributed to all those that weren't.

Successful youth journalism programs like this are, after all, about much more than journalism alone. They're about inspiring young minds and opening up career possibilities but also about kick-starting interest in our communities and country and civic participation in our democratic society.

But what a great place to start.