Now available: Youth Media Reporter--Chicago issue

The newest edition of the Youth Media Reporter is now available online. This issue, published in June, was made possible by a grant from the McCormick Foundation, which supported YMR to do a series of region-specific issues this year, including this recently released Chicago area-issue.

YMR's goal is to build the field by documenting, from multiple perspectives, the insights and leading lessons in engaging young people in video, film, television, radio, music, web, art and print.

This Chicago area issue features articles by local organizations, such as After School Matters, Beyondmedia, Open Youth Networks, Truestar Foundation, We the People Media, and Young Chicago Authors. Many of these groups are also members of the Chicago Youth Voices Network, which was founded in October of 2006. The group of McCormick Foundation grantees meets bi-monthly to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing youth media practitioners.

This issue’s articles touch on a variety of topics, from ways to use media to dismantle violence to the disconnect between new media and parents. Some notable takeaways:

Best practices

· Partnerships with social service organizations can support many of the complex needs of those who are homeless, are adjudicated and/ or have dropped out of school.

· Youth media organizations must present themselves to schools, describe realistic plans, and demonstrate openness to work with them to improve outcomes.

· By using the model of a joint venture, youth media organizations can work together to partner with a greater variety of organizations and create a bigger effect

· Focusing on youth media that reaches an adult audience will help communities see young people not as a threat or a drain on resources, but as active, engaged community members

Did you know?

· More than ever, adolescent females are entering gangs—some female-only, like the Chicago-based “Lady Taliban,” which has begun to communicate their membership and display weaponry on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

· Violence involving youth is largely happening off school grounds, and much is not school-related.

Tools and techniques

· The Google My Map (GMM) application allows users to add digital content (text, video, paths, shapes, photos) to a satellite-imaged map of Earth, creating a personalized and annotated mashup that can be shared online with anyone in the world.

· The “invite collaborators” button allows multiple users from across geographical regions to collaborate on a single map, effectively allowing you to harness collective intelligence through crowd-sourcing.

Youth media groups update

· Beyondmedia launched Chain of Change, a project that organizes youth to reflect on, dialogue about, and produce and share media on the subject of violence without risk of censorship, embarrassment, or recrimination. As a result of Chain of Change, conversations about violence led by young women are taking place across neighborhood and identity. When youth media projects are coupled with outreach and forums for networking, it can stimulate constructive dialogue across generational, occupational, and other differences, helping to erode mistrust and build respect, important elements in diminishing violence.

· True Star Foundation has partnered with Walgreens for the last two years in a contest asking youth to put an artistic spin on how they would combat HIV/AIDS in the urban community. True Star Magazine engages 150 student apprentices and seven adult instructors who collectively create a 44-page quarterly publication.

· Young Chicago Authors is currently working with a group of aldermen to develop a series of student-produced Public Service Announcements to promote safe spaces in some of Chicago’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods

To view full text articles or download the entire PDF of the issue, visit the Youth Media Reporter website.

--compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, citizenship program intern