The Professional Journal of the Youth Media Field ~ . Connecting People > Creating Change Acknowledgements We would like to thank both Anna Lefer and Erlin Ebreck at Open Society Institute for selecting the Academy for Educational Development as the new home for Youth Media Reporter providing funds for us to make this first printed volume available at no cost to educators, academics and leading media professionals. Additionally, the first YMR Peer Review Board was instrumental in this publication, particularly writing and acting as readers for the “special features” articles. Thanks to Sam Chaltain, Tim Dorsey, Renee Hobbs, Anna Kelly, Ibrahim Abdul Matin, Meghan McDermott, Katina Paron, Anindita Dutta Roy, and Irene Tostado. Thanks to additional special features contributors Dare Dukes, Steven Goodman, Christine Mendoza, Dan O’Reilly-Rowe, Sumitra Rajkumar, Erin Reilly, Rebecca Renard, Alice Robison, Elisabeth Soep, and Kathleen Tyner. Many thanks to the individuals who supported the editorial process of this journal Jessica Bynoe, Elayne Archer and Ali McCart. Special thanks to Stephen Hindman, the designer, who has given YMR a new look and innovative feel. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to all of the contributors and readers of YMR throughout the year. We hope you continue reading this publication and we look forward to the ideas and information you will offer for future articles. ©2008 Academy for Educational Development 100 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor, New York NY 10011 Youth Media Reporter 2007 Issue 1 • January 43. The Field is Bigger than We Think 1. MySpace & YouTube: Corporate-Owned Spaces Ingrid Hu Dahl for Youth Activism? Ingrid Hu Dahl 46. We are Your Audiences and Your Future: Youth Speak in Africa 2. Cultivating a Field Ingrid Hu Dahl Steven Goodman Issue 5 • May 4. Rules of Attraction: Getting Teens to Your Website 49. Engaging Youth with a New Medium: The Rebecca Staed Potentials of Virtual Worlds Rafi Santo 6. Teaming Up Kendra Hurley 51. Non-Profit Does Not Mean Non-Revenue Sara Melillo Issue 2 • February 8. Bridging the Gap: The University in the Youth 55. Youth, Professionals, and the Blog-o-sphere Media Field Patti Binder Ingrid Hu Dahl 57. The Mind of BLOC 14. Reaching Out from the University Walls: The Ingrid Hu Dahl Power of Community Partnership Kathy O’Bryne Special Features Articles 62. The First Amendment and Youth Media: How Free 17. Teamwork, Leadership, and New(s) Coverage Should Young People Be? Katina Paron Sam Chaltain 21. The Youth Media Nonprofit as Classroom 68. What We Talk About: Kendra Hurley Youth Media as a Community of Reflection Tim Dorsey Issue 3 • March 24. Being a Media Mediator: Preliminary Notes on 75. EVC Goes to Soweto: Youth Video as a Tool for Practice Building Participatory Democracy in South Africa Allison Butler Steve Goodman, Rebecca Renard, & Christine Mendoza 27. Eradicating Stereotypes: Initiatives for Culturally Aware Leaders 83. Interview: Anna Lefer Beth Paul 86. Youth Media and Social Change: One Perspective 32. Girls Write Now: A Showcase of Intergenerational from the Field Learning Meghan McDermott, Dare Dukes, Michele Thomas Sumitra Rajkumar, & Dan O’Reilly-Rowe 35. Finding Youth Voice in Print Media: The Power of 96. Extending Media Literacy: How Young People Remix Zines in a Digital Age and Transform Media to Serve Their Own Interests Eleanor Whitney Erin Reilly & Alice Robison Issue 4 • April 102. Jumping for Joy, Wracking our Brains, Searching our 38. An Alliance for Young Women Who Rock Souls: Youth Media and its Digital Contradictions Ingrid Hu Dahl Elisabeth Soep 40. Youth Are the News Katina Paron 110. Youth Media at the Threshold: A Research-Based Issue 9 • October Field-Building Agenda 158. Amigos de las Américas: Incorporating Media with Kathleen Tyner Service Tara White Issue 6 • June 120. Real Girls Media 161. Explorers of Exchange: Girls Traverse the Digital Ingrid Hu Dahl Divide Lyn Pentecost, Ph.D. 122. Beyond Luck: Youth Media Careers for Alumni Ingrid Hu Dahl 164. Out of the Screening Room and into the Streets Irene Villaseñor 125 The Reel Spotlight: What Oprah Missed in Praising Teen Filmmaker 167. Turning the Lens toward Community Ingrid Hu Dahl Samuel Bathrick 127. Incorporating Youth in Fundraising Issue 10 • November Zoë Hayes 172. Media Savvy Arab Girls Respond to the Mainstream Issue7 • July/August Grace Smith 130. The National Media Education Conference Helps Strengthen the Field 174. Using Media, Fair Use and Copyright Renee Hobbs and Michael Robb Grieco Katie Donnelly 132. Building Digital Distribution for Public Access 177. Listening Across Borders: Creating Virtual Spaces Youth Channel for Youth Global Exchange Andrew Lynn Mindy Faber 136. Creating Conversation: Baltimore Youth Explore 181. Music=Youth Media Audience in the City Ingrid Hu Dahl Grace Smith 139. An Ally for Youth When it Counts Pete Corson Issue 8 • September 144. More Than Ethnicity: Teaching Diverse Youth Radio in Latina/o Communities Irene Tostado 148. Generation PRX: Creating a Youth Radio Network Johanna Franzel 152. My Trajectory through Youth Radio Partick Johnson 155. Radio Stands Out Ingrid Hu Dahl Letter from the Editor It is a pleasure to release the first annual print journal of Youth Media Reporter (YMR), theonly professional journal that serves practitioners, educators and academics in the youth media field. This journal contains all the web-released articles from 2007 and an additional “special features” section—only available in print—that showcases complex and new challenges, tensions, and trends in the field. As the editor of YMR, re-reading each of these pieces in the print journal made me re-live the process of working with over 40 practitioners in 2007 to develop high quality articles for YMR. Some pieces started with meeting and talking to practitioners from visits to organizations in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR, Austin, TX or Chicago, IL in an attempt to learn about the field. Others derived from phone conversations or via email. Still others developed through conversations at conferences— sometimes not even about media—with practitioners who had opinions or work related to the field yet to be articulated or emphasized. Each article’s process helped YMR develop its own best practices while reflecting a community of passionate learners. As each article, question, and conversation took shape, so too did my own growth and connection to this field. I am honored to be a part of this community and am eager to continue highlighting this powerful, dynamic work in 2008. The youth media field has long asked for a resource where educators/practitioners can share best practices and methodologies; review new research and documents; and have an opportunity to dialogue/respond with colleagues. Many educators, including pioneers in the field—Diane Coryat and Steven Goodman in their 2004 OSI white paper—have requested a thriving space to access the stories and experiences of fellow practitioners and educators. As young people learn to share, create, develop, and gain access to technology/media, so too must the field share, create, and develop best pedagogical approaches across the diverse and ever growing youth media community. YMR answers the call of the field—to have a professional space to learn of each other’s work while inviting new audiences to join the dialogue. Much in this way, the journal acts as the field’s dynamic archive— documenting periods of growth and expansion from the viewpoints of usual and unusual suspects. In the special features section you will see Anna Lefer, former program officer of Open Society Institute and champion of the youth media field, explain, “Being reflective and honing in on best practices that fit into the broader democracy is essential for educators in youth media to take leaps to use, build, and test new relationships and partnerships.” It is our hope that YMR meets this need; urging and supporting those in the youth media field to share tools, opinions, and innovations with far reaching and diverse partners. YMR digs deep and broad, expanding the audience and community of partners to the field’s scope of work and direction—including academics and a wider public. In professor Kathleen Tyner’s special features article, she explains “the emergence of scholarly, field-specific, peer-reviewed journals, such asYouth Media Reporter, and heightened interest in the topic by established youth development and education journals provides incentive and dissemination outlets for academic publication on the subject and opens the dialogue about youth media to a wider public.” However, YMR is not simply an outlet for new audiences to learn about and be involved with the youth media field. The journal itself is “owned” by its writers and readers, who represent a spectrum of individuals in the youth media and neighboring fields with varying approaches to this work. YMR staff and peer review board members work with each contributor, tailoring articles through a supportive editorial review process to produce high quality pieces that can be shared amongst educators and new audiences.. YMR’s writers work hard to identify and share their thoughts on best practices and tensions in the field—creating a community of reflective, engaged learners. This journal is disseminated not only to the many youth media organizations that define this field, but also to hundreds of academic departments across the United States. We envision that the journal will spark new career pipelines for college students interested in this work. Youth media should not be a career left to happenstance of opportunity with few formal supports and resources, but rather a viable choice identified at the university. Young people need to be educated and supported not just as media makers/creators but also as young adults who will be the next generation of youth media educators, supporters, and practitioners. In an effort to support the field, we are disseminating the first annual print journal at no cost.