 Much
of today's youth media stems from a long tradition of DIY (Do-it-Yourself).
Look at the zines of the 1980s and '90s. These self-published, cut-and-paste
tracts took young people's sense of expression to a new level. With names
like Bamboo Girl, Dishwasher Pete, and Ben is Dead,
zines were a fast way to tell your story and organize with other young people
in ways that were often decidedly feminist, pacifist, vegan, or anti-corporate.
Today, the Internet has eclipsed print versions of all but the most die-hard
zines. It's clear, though, that print zines have influenced other, newer
forms of youth-for-youth media, many of which utilize radio, video, and the
Internet and happen in conjunction with youth development programs around
the nation.
Youth Radio in Berkeley is a great example of such a project. At Youth Radio,
young people write and produce their own commentary pieces, some of which
run on local Bay Area stations and are occasionally picked up by national
NPR programming. Jean Chen, 27, the editor of Youth Radio's new website,
www.youthincontrol.org, came to youth media work after years of editing her
own underground zine in the '90s. She believes the two are integrally linked. "One
thing that's always interested me is authentic, real voice in media," she
says. "I made a zine because I couldn't find media that was aimed at
me." She adds that a year as an editor for a dot-com woke her up to
the way some corporate media use "marketing disguised as editorial content." When
she started working with youth, providing platforms from which they could
speak for themselves, "it felt real," she says.
Chen has stuck around ever since. Like many of the adults involved in producing
youth media, Chen says she takes a backseat role in shaping the stories that
appear on the site. "I ask them to be honest about what their friends
would read and what they themselves would really read," she says.
Youth Radio in Berkeley is a great example of such a project. At Youth Radio,
young people write and produce their own commentary pieces, some of which
run on local Bay Area stations and are occasionally picked up by national
NPR programming. Jean Chen, 27, the editor of Youth Radio's new website,
www.youthincontrol.org, came to youth media work after years of editing her
own underground zine in the '90s. She believes the two are integrally linked. "One
thing that's always interested me is authentic, real voice in media," she
says. "I made a zine because I couldn't find media that was aimed at
me." She adds that a year as an editor for a dot-com woke her up to
the way some corporate media use "marketing disguised as editorial content." When
she started working with youth, providing platforms from which they could
speak for themselves, "it felt real," she says.
Graphic © 2001 Olivia Edith  Chen has stuck around ever since. Like many of the adults involved
in producing youth media, Chen says she takes a backseat role in shaping
the stories that appear on the site. "I ask them to be honest
about what their friends would read and what they themselves would
really read," she says.
The majority of the media aimed at youth is designed and written by
adults and marketing experts. Everyday, it seems there's a new corporate
strategy to harness the "disposable income" spilling from
the denim pockets of "generation Y." In one example, some
interactive websites, realizing that they can't get by on advertising
alone, have started selling their member demographics to marketers--meaning,
they'll do anything to get youth to log their statistics and register
their identities.
Beyond this consumer-oriented mass media, which eats up a huge percentage
of young people's time and attention, there are some outlets designed
for the expression and critique of culture through youth eyes. There
are, in fact, numerous small (usually local), socially conscious media
sources for young people. Not all of this media is made entirely by
youth, but a large part of it does contain authentic youth voices.
Many of these projects are run by adults who have the experience to
mentor youth and can pass along valuable skills. Many, like Chen, seek
to directly counter the kinds of messages youth receive from mainstream
sources. This, they believe, is a step in a progressive direction.
But the most politically engaged, critical perspectives appearing in
today's youth media may never reach the majority of the American public.
For instance, Youth Radio is subjected to severe editing. The threat
of censorship to Youth Radio makes some people wary of the motives
behind including youth voices in the larger media. Often, more value
is placed on the age of the commentator than on the opinion he or she
may hold. But that doesn't mean that the process isn't extremely valuable
to the participants.
Terone Ward, the 21-year-old production coordinator and designer for Youth
in Control, exemplifies youth media's potential to foster talent
and provide a bridge for youth interested in pursuing careers in
the media field. Ward started as a Youth Radio participant back in
'97 and has worked his way through the program, from "peer teacher" to
paid employee. Ward, who made the transition from radio to web production
largely on his own, says his work is about helping increase access
for folks like himself, who may not traditionally have had media
training. "I grew up in East Oakland and noticed that people
there were not buying computers or accessing new technology like
they were in other places. So, I saw it as my job to introduce this
stuff to my friends and family members."
Media that involves youth is like a window that gives young people
a view of the larger scheme of the media while giving adults a view
of some of the unmediated realities of young people's lives. In one
example, in an article entitled "The Real Deal on Gangs," an
anonymous young writer for New Youth Connections (NYC)
attempts to demystify gang involvement. He asks: "Are these teens
trying to recover a missing part of their family that was lost a long
time ago? Are they creating their own family because they honestly
don't have a family?" He goes on to illustrate the contradictions
that cause many urban youth to join gangs, and at the same time, exhort
their peers not to.
It is not an extraordinary piece of writing by most adult standards.
What is most interesting about it is what the author does not try to
do. He does not seek to portray the youth he interviews as naive or
innocent, nor does he try to convince readers that they deserve to
be locked up. There are no "super-predators" or bad guys.
The author simply offers the reader samples of his peers' voices and
observations and his honest interpretation. By not making assumptions
and not portraying gang members purely as malicious and unfeeling individuals,
he provides a refreshing balance to much of the recent news coverage
around youth violence and gang warfare.
New York-based NYC is a monthly newsmagazine with a circulation
of 60 thousand. In its pages, teens and young adults write about everything
from losing family members and coming out of the closet, to their friends'
experiences with ecstasy, to the new Eryka Badu album. To a reader,
it may appear that there is very little a young writer wouldn't feel
comfortable bringing up within the magazine's pages.
But is it a magazine with a politically progressive goal? Keith Hefner,
the director of New Youth Communication (www.youthcomm.org), the organization
that publishes NYC and its sister publication, Foster Care
Youth United, would argue that it's not. Like many adults in the
youth media world, Hefner has built an organization grounded as much
in social service theory as in media making. He believes that having
an explicitly political agenda can undermine a youth development approach,
or one based around genuine youth-initiated content.
Promoting Youth Activism
With the advent of listservs, web rings, and websites, many of today's
youth have tools for becoming politically engaged. Youth-made media
is only one of those tools, but it is an important one--especially,
as a means for ending isolation. Socially conscious youth are constantly
up against mainstream media that work hard to downplay shows of resistance
and activism among youth. When 10,000 people attend a political rally,
and the evening news reports that there were only 1,000, what does
that do to youth morale? This is why media sources that actively encourage
youth to share their experiences as activists, such as WireTap Magazine
(www.wiretapmag.org), an online news source for socially conscious
youth, and the Student Alliance to Reform Corporations (www.corpreform.org/home.html),
are becoming vital to youth.
As media monopolies grow and edge out all but the most established
information sources, youth media remains the only fearless challenge
to the status quo. But with a young audience, political issues cannot
always be separated from the more personal aspects of navigating the
world. Most youth media outlets try not to take any one political stance,
but look to include a combination of perspectives--some more socially
conscious than others--to create a content that is often diverse and
engaging.
In the larger social context, there are several opinions on whether
it is better to use resources to cultivate a small number of youth
in making media that is critical, anti-racist, and inclusive of multiple
perspectives, or to simply create media that is focused on putting
counterspins on many of the messages young people are already hearing.
Indeed, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, because the most
effective youth media rely on models of social change that begin with
individuals and work outwards.
For example, the media that has sprung up around hip-hop and the culture
it generates often has the benefit of mass appeal. Jeff Chang, former
politics editor of the Black Entertainment Network's 360HipHop.com,
left his work with small radical institutions like Colorlines Magazine (www.colorlines.com),
because he wanted to reach out to the large number of youth hungry
for news that pertains to their lives. Or, as he puts it, "to
build a bridge from the world to the 'hood."
In 360HipHop.com, Chang infused what could have been your average
glossy music site with articles about activism, the drug war, and the
prison-industrial complex, filling in the spaces between rap lyrics
that were already charged with years of class and race conflict. "The
hip-hop world view is a lot more sophisticated than many adults give
it credit for," he says, pointing to the ways in which rap stars
have long included songs about their struggles with giant white-owned
record companies on the very albums that were making those companies
millions.
Chang is a strong proponent of stepping into the mainstream arena
just long enough to influence young people to start their own grassroots
movements. Although BET succumbed to a buyout by Viacom and is now
closing down 360HipHop.com, Chang believes that artists like Public
Enemy, who used Colombia Records to get their word out to huge numbers
of youth in the last 15 years, had the right idea. Chang cites the
inclusion of news sections in glossy hip-hop magazines like The
Source as a step in the right direction. But he points to less
commercial hip-hop publications like Blu, Stress, and
Davey D's Hip Hop Corner (www.daveyd.com), as the places where much
of the real dialogue is taking place.
Finding space for youth-driven media that is not directly related
to the music or entertainment industries is a different challenge. "There
are a lot of stories about young people in the news in which young
people aren't even quoted," says author Makani Themba. She believes
that this is rooted in the larger way young people are seen and perceived
in our culture.
For years, young people have been deemed "unreliable sources." This,
Themba says, has everything to do with questions about the kinds of
expertise valued by the media, and by extension, our culture. "The
most 'reliable' sources," she points out, "are often the
most removed--the people who are impartial, the academics, the students
of the issue." And this often elevates a certain sector of the
population and excludes those without privilege or centuries of power
behind them. When we create media, we look to those who have the most
information--but, she says, we must ask, what kind of information?
Youth media forces the question: Is there value in the information
youth are gathering through living their lives, however simple it may
appear?
Perhaps the belief that those who are the most directly affected have
the most to say is, in the end, a radical one. But Themba believes,
we have to make space for it as a basic matter of democracy. Consider
the way in which technologies like digital video editing and the Internet
have made changes to the currency of self-expression. Video diaries
and webpages are now a very common way for youth to speak to one another
and to take fearless, often imperfect steps toward actively responding
to the world around them. But does all this self-expression add to
the critical discourse on corporate media, or is it just about deconstructing
the lyrics to the latest rap song?
In the pages of youth newspapers like Youth Outlook (YO!) (www.pacificnews.org/yo/),
it would be a mistake not to make space for both of these types of
discussions. The editors of YO! believe that helping "build
youth voice" should be a goal in and of itself. A project of the
Pacific News Service, YO! is a newsmagazine that has been reaching
young people in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1991, and its popularity
is a good example of the way youth are attracted to story telling and
writing that they perceive is produced, directed, and driven by their
peers.
The adults involved with YO! stay as far out of the way as
possible. Co-editors Kevin Weston and Cowy Kim believe that youth with
the tools and skills to speak to one another have a lot to gain from
excluding adults from the loop. All media serves as a way to open people's
eyes, but Weston believes that it is a bad idea to shape youth media
based on the hope that adults will one day stop and take notice. "Youth
can't afford to wait for that," he says. "They have to take
it upon themselves to advocate for each other."
Twilight Greenaway is the editor of WireTap magazine (www.wiretapmag.org),
an online news source for socially conscious youth. | 
