Two Model Youth Media Projects: Teaching Literacy, Critical Thinking and Community Involvement
A Forum — July 18, 1997
EVC and YC participants work roughly five hours per week during the school semester. Some youth work during the day, with the programs serving as a school-approved internship, but for the majority it is an extracurricular activity, undertaken without connections to their school or curriculum. The programs place no restrictions on the subjects young people can focus on in the magazines and videos, simply requiring them to defend the inclusion of any essay or topic.
According to Executive Director Steve Goodman, EVC follows an apprenticeship model to educate young people through an effective "hands-on, minds-on" method of learning. Young people are interested from the outset because they are determining the content of their own work. They maintain interest as they collaborate with their peers to create videos, and are motivated by an end product -- the video -- an element often missing in a school setting.
For EVC Student Raymond Ballinger, it is the "intangibles" of the program that have made the difference. Upon entering EVC, Ballinger was placed in a ten-person group charged with creating a documentary. After discussing a range of issues and personal experiences, the group decided to focus its work on the role and impact of guns on young people. While EVC taught Ballinger technical and computer skills, including how to operate a camera and editing machine, the most important experience was being part of a team. "Knowing that nine other people were depending on me taught me a lot about being on time and dedication."
Ballinger has also visited area schools to show his team's video and discuss the underlying issues with peers and adults. This process has taught him and his peers that there are ways to combat, rather than contribute to, the problems of society. It has "made me a stronger person just by knowing what's out on the streets, and given me a sense of power and control to direct the discussion and be heard the way we want to be heard."
Publisher Keith Hefner also stressed the youth development component of YC's work. According to Hefner, while there is a constant tension between the youth development "process" and the production of the "product," YC is committed to ensuring the needs of the young people are paramount to the needs of the magazines. YC, similar to EVC, allows young people a chance to be heard, which is a first for many of the young people in the program. To illustrate, Hefner walked Forum participants through an example of how an article moves from an idea into a finished product, a process which takes approximately three months of progressive detail and analysis of a topic of interest in a teen's life.
The focus is on helping young people create many drafts of one story, rather than a few drafts of many stories. This emphasizes youth engagement in the development of the "product," and allows a student to deeply examine and reflect on an issue. YC Editors (there are two full-time editors on staff) present a young person with a small series of questions to help them"reveal themselves." Once an issue is identified from these responses, students focus on preparing a first draft, which usually ends up being no longer than three or four paragraphs. Working closely with each student, the editors then teach participants how to add detail and narration to a story, culminating in the published product.
YC Alumni Shweta Parmar also focused on the youth development aspect of YC. "People think of New York City as wide and broad, but there is a lot of isolation. YC introduced me to many different areas and backgrounds as I visited different people and neighborhoods to research articles." Writing for YC also allowed Parmar to expand her horizons and focus her interests on immigrant life and issues, with the editors guiding her through this complex process.
EVC's videos and YC's publications serve as a voice of the young people of New York City on issues of concern to them, such as youth violence, education, the foster care system and their place in the community. YC publications are distributed, free of charge, to public high schools in the city, and each EVC video is viewed by approximately 100,000 young people across the U.S. through their classrooms or school libraries. Both programs are also working closely with junior high school and high school teachers to encourage them to replicate these processes and products in their schools and classrooms.
According to Goodman and Hefner, young people benefit by gaining "hard skills," such as writing and communication ability; "soft skills," such as general workplace habits and responsibilities; and adult-youth connections through the mentoring relationships that develop with full-time YC staff and editors. Through this process, youth learn more about themselves than they ever thought possible.