Over the last couple of days, I have been proud to participate in the Youth Media Summit, sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and coordinated by AED, specifically the Youth Media Reporter, at Lake Forest, IL. The goal of this Summit was to gather together youth media organization leaders, funders, and researchers to share their experiences, insights, and knowledge about youth media in an attempt at field-building.
Our convening began with a reception hosted by YouMedia, a part of the Chicago Public Library that is a space created for teens to interact with and use both print and digital media tools in an interactive and supportive learning environment. Funded by MacArthur Foundation and the Pearson Foundation, this space was created from the work of Drew Davidson and Jesse Schell from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
Then, the work began as we met in small groups to discuss a range of key field building issues. This is probably no surprise, but I chose and was placed in the Research & Evaluation group, a group that was comprised of leading researchers and scholars in the field (Kathleen Tyner from University of Texas-Austin and JoEllen Fisherkeller from NYU) and prominent leaders of youth media organizations with longstanding, high quality work with youth (Sue Hayman from Wide Angle Youth Media, Steve Goodman from EVC, and Lynn Sygiel from Y-Press). What an amazing group of people with whom to work with toward determining the type of research and evaluation would be needed as a field of youth media! I learned so much from spending time with these great thinkers, thinkers who also have extensive practical experience researching and working with youth.
It really was amazing to be a room full of such passionate and knowledgable people. Plus, I got a chance to reconnect with some past connections (hey, Rebecca!), while forming new connections. It gives me hope for youth media and a renewed purpose as I continue on with my dissertation work.
Also, and surprisingly, I had a great conversation with a young youth media artist who wants to be a photo journalist. Although we only spoke for a short time, I was able to share a little bit of the resources I know with her, some of which I found out about from people there, e.g., One in 8 Million (thanks, Lynn), which will be next week’s blog post b/c it is remarkable, and some I had found out about along the way, e.g., vi.sualize.us and Flypmedia. What I realized, though, is just how much I miss teaching. Really, spend 5 minutes with a passionate youth, and you’ll see what I mean! And, that’s exactly what this Summit was all about fundamentally. Truly worthwhile.
This video called Haunted Playground was created a by a young girl named Maniechan Xiong. And, it is truly scary. Don’t watch it late at night, all alone, with the lights out. But, even more than Maniechan’s keen understanding of the horror genre, her video brings up intriguing issues about what is seen as possible for youth to produce and what they ought to produce. So often with media, there is this fear that children are overwhelmed by media’s influences, e.g., Barbies make girls anorexic, seeing smoking in movies makes kids smoke, etc. And, even with video production, the idea still pervades that if youth are to use something as powerful as video, then they must use if “for good,” e.g., for anti-gang PSA’s, light-hearted stories about their schools, etc. But, this is not the philosophy of In Progress, a youth-based arts organization that focuses on teaching youth to create a range of media. This video is just one of many examples of youth-produced work (more examples can be found here). What intrigues me about this video, however, is how it breaks the boundaries of what is expected from young girls when they create their pieces. This is not a fluff piece about hair and toys (Actually, I have seen very few youth-produced videos that are fluff pieces. To see a range of youth videos, check out Listen Up!). It is a piece that plays with the generic conventions in order to tell a deeper story, to put the viewer in a different place. It reminds me of Pippa Stein’s Multimodal Pedagogies which discusses how young South African girls write and draw stories using local traditional genres to tell stories in their own lives without having to face adult restrictions about what is seen as acceptable for the girls to tell. This video is another powerful example of how, if given the chance, young girls can and will tell stories that are meaningful for them.
I’ve been thinking a lot these days about what it means to have “voice,” to express “voice,” and to give “voice.” I find this especially complicated when I think about youth produced work made by youth of color or poverty. What does voice mean in the digital age? What does it mean with people who have been denied voice, especially given that youth are often doubly denied by marginalization and by age? What does it mean to give “voice”? And, then, through Kris Sorensen from In Progress posting a powerful video on Facebook, I am once again struck by how strong voices can be. This video from Red Hand Media is a striking way of showing how people can find their own voices and express them in ways that empower others. Using a poem from Ryan Red Corn, this video is a layering of genres, voices, images, languages, and identities. From the very beginning, it asserts a stereotype of “bad indians” (by its title and title sequence) then resists it by stating that the people in it are “bad indians,” a resistance that continues throughout the video. It resists filmic expectations as well by beginning with what is essentially an outtake of the filming of the video. But to say that it is simply resistance is to take away its power. This video captures the images and voices of many as they try to assert a common identity. It’s an odd juxtaposition. The words they say are Ryan Red Corn’s, and he himself is present in the film. The way that the video is edited is his vision as well. Take, for instance, the quick cuts as the people speaking are shown and taken way, the words repeated then abandoned for the next. But, that being said, the people also represent themselves. They are saying these words. They are expressing these ideas. They are the faces on the screen. They are the “bad Indians,” as much as the speaker in Red Corn’s poem, even when Red Corn is made visible and audible on the screen. He is one of many. These are the words of many. And of each.
In this compelling video, Renny Gleeson discusses how with the rise in mobile technologies, there is a concomitant rise in the expectation that people will be available at all times — a “culture of availability.” I wonder what this means for youth, in particular. What do youth do in class, for instance, when they are expected to be available to their friends, while at the same time, “available” for learning. There is a tension in expectations. His second point is even more fascinating when he discusses our need for shared narratives and how mobile technologies can run counter to the sharing of our lives face-to-face. He summarizes this nicely when he states, “Our reality now is less interesting than the story we are going to tell about it later.” Now, I love a good story, and I often share them with people after the fact, but what does it mean when stories are only compelling if told, if mediated, if transmitted, rather than lived and shared with those who are part of the stories? Moreover, there is a fundamental shift in not only how we tell the stories but also to whom we tell them. What happens, for instance, when rather than calling up your best friend to tell her the latest outrageous event in your life, you post it as a Facebook status line for your 200+ FB friends? Is this story really shared? And, even if it is shared, in a way at least, is it a different story?
Watching the President’s Address tonight gave me hope that we might have reforms in education, but as I kept listening I wavered between feeling hopeful and wondering if what he was saying would, in fact, be any different that the struggles that we have now. It is one thing to say that “dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American” and that education begins at home. But, this fails to recognize the deep-seated, systemic barriers that many youth face in our educational system. In many ways, it is not simply a matter of choice for these youth and for their parents. Similarly, as laudable as it is to encourage everyone to commit to at least one year of higher education and to say that all children will have opportunities to learn, I’m afraid that what Obama actually advocates, such as charter schools and increased accountability, will, in actuality, be little different from the No Child Left Behind policies that have had adverse effects on the ability of youth to learn (for an intriguing and frustrating look at how the current policy goal is “rebranding” NCLB rather than fixing it, see Rename Law? No Wisecrack is Left Behind, and for an insightful study of how NCLB is increasing the drop-out rate, see Valenzuela’s Leaving Children Behind.) I still have faith in Obama and his policies, but even so, I think that it is important to make sure that we really are serving America’s youth, all of them, in the ways that he is promising.
Not only does this article, with its stellar accompanying video (watch it!), show how youth media is global in scope, it also shows how much youth need ways to express themselves. I think that sometimes we take this as a given. “Young people need to express themselves. Duh.” But, often we do not think seriously enough about how to provide them ways to do so. But, then again, youth always find some way to do it. Check out this article to see how young people in China and America are finding ways to express themselves using an intertextual blend of American hip-hop and Chinese culture. (and, thanks Sarah Chu for posting this on FB for all of us to enjoy!)
It’s not so much that President Obama orders a hamburger as his first meal on Air Force One that is so endearing, it’s how he orders it. It’s clear that he doesn’t know how this all works, but he treats everyone on board with respect and dignity. It is this same graciousness that will define his presidency. And, that gives me hope. Okay, it’s a little bit about what he ordered. C’mon, he orders a salad AND fries! He’s so extraordinary and yet so everyday. I think that he’s an excellent role model “for kids these days” in how to interact with people in way that is respectful without losing any of his own strength. And, it’s these little moments that will show them how to be this way even more than the grander moments of the Inauguration.
