Innovative Practices of Youth Participation in Media

Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this 76-page report offers a range of examples from Ghana, Haiti, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Zambia that highlight various approaches and activities created by youth using the media for social and personal development on their own terms and in their own ways.

The research reported in this document is premised on the observation that, while scholarship in the field of journalism and mass communication has examined youth involvement in the media from a variety of perspectives, there has been an absence of research focusing on strategies for engaging youth not as passive consumers but as media makers. Youth, here, are understood as "protagonists who are capable of making decisions, exercising choices, and more important, as individuals who are active agents in promoting democratic processes and civic engagement." The idea is that, by providing young people with opportunities to learn through their experience of visual images and words - and to critically reflect on the media discourse vis-à-vis their everyday lives - they can play an important role in supporting principles and goals that have been articulated at local, regional, national, and international levels, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The author of this report, Dr. Sanjay Asthana, notes that a major influence informing contemporary discussions in critical media literacy is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which are playing a significant role in enhancing youth participation and involvement in media. UNESCO's ongoing work points to the relevance of ICTs to youth development; as he explains, "the role of ICTs and the notion of 'media mixes' have been crucial in elaborating youth participation and involvement in the media that enable learning and education through fun and pleasure."

Motivated by these observations, Dr. Asthana undertook a detailed study of 12 examples of youth participation in the media and the process of learning that this entails. These initiatives represent an assortment of media - newspaper and magazine, radio, television and video, the internet, and personal digital assistants - and a range of activities - from learning technical, production, writing, and reporting skills to developing and deconstructing media content. In short, they illustrate a range of ways to foster the "imaginative engagement of children and young people - conversations that ask us to co-participate." To understand the shape of these programmes, Dr. Asthana undertook textual analysis of documents and policy materials; open-ended focused interviews with the youth and young participants from the initiatives; interviews with the project managers; interviews with staff members from these youth media initiatives; and reviews of several youth programme materials. He wanted to explore what youth participation means in different contexts, what roles ICTs can play in youth participation in the media, and exactly how media participation empowers youth - in diverse socio-cultural settings.

The result of his research - this book - is organised in terms of specific media and presented in the form of a series of sketches and vignettes drawn from the 12 initiatives. One insight to emerge from these studies is that youth involvement "is not a singular act: rather an active and collective process of learning. Within these social settings, young people create and develop their own perspectives and knowledge. Participation provided young people a context and community to explore imaginations and ideas. This process of learning, situating educational activity in the lived experience of young people, is dialogical and open-ended. The various media become more than facilitators and instruments; they enable and mediate learning and literacy. They become 'social networks' of learning."

This book is intended as a research and reference guide for community-based media centres, media education practitioners, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policy-makers, planners, media professionals, social activists, researchers, and others. UNESCO's vision is that the examples detailed here can be adapted and/or replicated by various initiatives as they embark on building youth media programmes around the world (contact information for each project is provided in the concluding portion of the document).