20 Years of Youth-made Media

Looking for strong examples of youth media and journalism projects? Check out two decades-worth of work carried out by Mindy Faber, founding director of OpenYouth Networks. OYN is a program based at Columbia College Chicago. Faber has been working with urban youth since the 90’s and hopes the 65+ videos currently posted on her Vimeo channel can be used as samples and inspirations for teachers and youth.

The videos are a diverse documentation of life, from youth in urban environments to Faber’s own family and friends—all spoken in their own words. The collection features interviews, youth-produced narratives and stories of social change covering a wide spectrum of issues that affect the lives of middle and high school students.

Faber hopes the footage will be of interest to anyone involved with the future of youth media and journalism. Some of her projects can be found here:

Part 3 of Resolutions: A Digital Dialogue: This video was made by Evanston Township High School students and interweaves footage shot from when the students shadowed each other at one another’s schools, as well as clips from a 3-hour discussion that took place in the TV studio at ETHS.

 Mi Nobre: by Astrid Maldonado, a 17 year Latina student who participated in a Global Youth Video Machete workshop. The video was presented at the National Endowment for the Humanities annual conference as a example of multicultural and digital learning in 2003.

Race Is, Race Ain't, Class is, Class Ain't: This mockumentary was made by youth in collaboration with video artist, Mindy Faber in 1999. Miranda July wrote an essay about it that was published in Felix in the early 2000s.

For more of Mindy's videos visit:

OpenYouth Media
Fractured Fairytales: Movies made by middle school students
An archival site featuring videos interviews with urban youth
Narrative works by high school youth

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Missed the Why News Matters Webinar? Watch the Replay!

Last Friday, the Journalism Program hosted a webinar about the Why News Matters initiative and answered questions from applicants and interested parties.

A few of you asked about where to find additional research about news literacy. We've compiled a list of current research projects and programs, and will be adding more to the list in the upcoming weeks.

Check out the replay of the webinar below:

We will be hosting one more informational sessions this month about Why News Matters, where you can learn more about news literacy from experts and have a chance to ask the Journalism Program staff any questions you may have. The event is in-person meetings, which will take place at the McCormick Foundation's offices on March 27 at 3 p.m. CT. We still have a few spots remaining, so please register ASAP.

We look forward to continuing the brainstorming and conversations with you.

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Imagine Your Day Without News

The McCormick Foundation Journalism Program partnered with a team of producers to create a video infographic that explains our definition of news literacy and our philosophy behind the Why News Matters initiative.

We encourage you to share this video and use it as a tool to help energize your colleagues, students, friends, family and others, to help make Chicago a city where hundreds of thousands of people – of all ages and backgrounds – are engaged in a variety of activities that enable them to access quality news, separate it from the noise and spin, and connect with the information they need to become more active in their communities. Suggested hashtags: #newsliteracy #journalism #whynewsmatters 


Learn more about the Why News Matters initiative: 

• Request for Ideas
• FAQs 
• Resources
• Informational Sessions

Video Credits

Produced by Carrie Porter

Animation by Micah C. Gardner

Music by Josh Moshier

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