VOICE OF THE YOUTH NETWORK:
Empowering the Youth from Cyberspace to the Airwaves!

A convergence of technological extremes - that is one way to describe the efforts of a group of young individuals dedicated in reaching out and recharging what potentially is the most powerful force of the country, the Filipino Youth. Voice of the Youth (VOTY) Network, in its mission of empowering the youth, has gone back to its roots to conquer both cyberspace and the airwaves in the name of youth service.

Soaring Online!

While so many young people has been spending significant amount of time, money and energy in the Internet with online games and cyber-autographs, VOTY for several years has been reaching out to thousands to provide useful information and opportunities that young people should become aware of. The fact that the Internet provides an infinite wealth of these opportunities had long been motivated 25 year-old, Pocholo Gonzales, founder of the internationally recognized and award winning organization. Through VOTY these milestones are shared to the Filipino youth.
He believes that the youth should realize that the right use of technology could provide them opportunities that would make them literally go to places and become involved in once in a lifetime activities. Take it from someone who, despite coming from humble beginnings, has gone to more than twenty countries around the world because of international youth events that are widely circulated in the Internet. Take note, these travels are for free.
All of these youth affairs in and out of the country are made available online through the continuously evolving VOTY website, www.voty.org and the e-groups that have been reaching thousands of email accounts around the world. More to that, the website also provides services offered by VOTY and its partner international and local organizations. It is also a venue where young people could voice – out their concerns to the society and VOTY addresses these concerns by providing real actions.
Even if there is 11.8 million Internet users in the country at present and the figure is expected to double in the coming years, still millions of young people in the country have not been introduced to computers. However, cellular phones have undeniably penetrated almost everyone from all walks of life, especially now that access is getting as cheap as it gets. Internet services even provide technically free SMS and MMS services. Not to be left out, VOTY once again infuses youth empowerment to mobile technology. This is through the VOTY Power Groups. Simply by typing ENTER VOTY and sending to 2213 makes one already a cyber-member, receiving updates on youth events. It’s another innovation indeed from a technologically driven group of young idealists.

Soaring On - Air!

Innovator, pioneer and responsible risk taker, VOTY returns to an industry that younger generation somehow turned away from all these years. It’s the AM Radio - the broadcast medium that started it all yet still prevails as the most affordable and accessible… not to mention still being at the frontline of journalism. At the face of the triumph of highly commercialized FM and “MTV generation”, who would’ve thought that a group of ordinary students and yuppies just bursting with bright ideas regularly flock inside a small radio booth in Quezon City? For one hour every Saturday noon, young people make a pro-active noise on the airwaves in a radio program dubbed as “Lakas – Kabataan, Tinig Kabataan: RECHARGED” or LKTKR aired over DZME 1530kHz. LKTKR in fact is the on – air version of the VOTY website.
Taking the challenge of reintroducing AM Radio to young people, what could be more effective than putting them on the spotlight, or in this case a microphone that could be heard nationwide? Though not as perky or thrilling than being a celebrity wannabe on TV or a DJ on FM, it’s an equal delight to witness how passionate young people could get when they want to be taken seriously.
As media focus more in trivial if not in bad news, young people that truly makes sense in society has been receiving less exposure than what they truly deserve. It would take a long process of psychological and cultural transformation to divert young people’s attention away from apathy and turn towards nation building. However, as long as VOTY successfully scouts for these individuals and youth organizations to recognize and maximize what’s innate, there’s really a silver lining ahead.
Denouncing absurd and nonsense debates, topics on VOICE OUT segment revolves around youth empowerment and advocacy, while special guests for BILIB KAMI SA’YO are inspiring youth leaders and achievers, even celebrities that truly goes beyond making cute faces. JOIN KAYO DITO is just overflowing with worthwhile youth events and RIBYU SA RADYO puts the sense in entertainment and trends. But the major difference with LKTKR is that it has more actions than talk, making you realize that good things really do happen in the country and it’s all because of the YOUTH.
Imagine all of these high-tech efforts out of pure volunteerism. Now, youth service has never been “cooler”.
VOTY remains a firm believer that the YOUTH is the HOPE of the country not only for the FUTURE but the PRESENT as well. Service, action, volunteerism, and advocacy mobilized by technology and media… this is the Voice of the Youth Network - inspiring, informing, involving and empowering! The commitment goes on and the possibilities are as infinite as both the airwaves and cyberspace combined.

MAKING YOUR VOICE HEARD

Making Your Voice Heard -
A Media Toolkit for Youth

SHOWREEL

Snapshot
View images of the project's work

Website
Check out the Media Toolkit for Youth

Organization

The Media Awareness Network (MNet)

Contact details

Cathy Wing
Media and Internet Education Specialist
Media Awareness Network
1500 Merivale Road, Third Floor
Ottawa, ON, K2E 6Z5 Canada
Tel: +1 613 224 7721
Fax: +1 613 224 1958
Email: info@media-awareness.ca
Website: www.media-awareness.ca

Project partners

National Youth-In-Care Network
YouCAN!
Youth Action Network

Location

Canada. The consultation and workshop sessions for this project were done with urban-based national organizations and at conferences drawing participants from both urban and rural areas.

Background

The mainstream media often portray youth in a negative light. Positive portrayals of youth, especially minority youth, are often unfairly ignored in favour of angry, violent or sexual images. This can undermine a young person's sense of self-esteem, and erode cultural values. This happens despite recent statistics showing that youth crime is actually on the decline and that volunteerism rates among youth have doubled in Canada over the past decade.

The following are quotations from young people participating in MNet's 'Speak Out' online discussion group for youth. "Teenagers are rarely portrayed fairly by the media, especially minority teenagers."

"I think that people our age are portrayed by the media as violent, lazy and uneducated. I myself have held down two jobs, am going to high school full-time and take high school classes on the Internet. I would like to see, for once, something put forward to the public to let them know we are not lazy people."

"I'm saying that I feel that I'm being let down by the media. They have no grasp of reality, and even worse, they're not even trying to improve. Maybe I'll just stop reading magazines and watching TV."

"Why does the media flock to [cover] negative things before good things? They will so very quickly put a 'teenage murderer' in the front-page news before they would put a 'teenage scholar'. It seems to me that society has a two-faced view of us as young people. They claim we are the future, but still they portray us as out-of-control maniacs with no sense of direction."

Aims and objectives

Firstly, to acquaint young people with the news media - what makes the news, what drives the news, and why stereotyping is used so often by print and especially TV journalists. Then to help youth get involved in using media to further their aims as active citizens who have the right to fair and accurate media portrayals, and a public voice on issues affecting youth.

To provide youth with their own resource with which to raise awareness of, and address, negative stereotyping, so that youth and youth-serving organizations can begin to access the media themselves, build relationships with those in the media and, hopefully, improve news coverage of youth by encouraging reporters to report on the positive as well as the negative.

Participants

Media Toolkit for Youth was developed, tested, distributed and promoted in collaboration with several national youth-based organizations. Our partners for the Toolkit were:

National Youth-in-Care Network
YouCAN!
Youth Action Network

Target audience

• Teenagers and young adults aged 13-20.

• Media educators and community workers working with youth.

Wider beneficiaries

Young people, youth-based organizations, youth-serving organizations, educators, community workers, crime prevention and law-enforcement professionals.

Involvement of children

Our partners, National Youth-In-Care Network, YouCAN!, and Youth Action Network were involved in the development of the Toolkit content. They helped MNet to develop workshops based on the Toolkit which were presented to young people at their national conferences. A shorter version of the Toolkit (a mini-toolkit) was included in resources produced for these conferences and in a community resource guide for youth in care developed by National Youth-In-Care Network.

Summary of project

• Consultations with youth-based organizations to develop the Toolkit content.

• Development of the web-based Toolkit.

• Workshop sessions for Toolkit at youth conferences.

What are the end products?

The Toolkit is an online resource in two parts: Understanding the Media and Accessing the Media.

Understanding the Media is an educational component designed to:

• define and identify stereotyping in the media;

• educate youth about the problems resulting from negative stereotyping;

• provide young people with an understanding of the news media and the business of news.

This section of the Toolkit:

• looks at the problem of stereotyping and negative portrayals of youth in the media, particularly in news;

• answers the question 'What is news?', emphasizing that news is business, not a public service;

• examines the techniques of newsgathering;

• looks at the journalists' constraints, such as time (deadlines), simplicity (length or duration of story) and bias, and how these constraints can lead to inaccuracies, stereotyping, oversimplification and exploitation.

Accessing the Media examines ways in which youth and youth-serving organizations can work to improve local news coverage of youth. This section covers the following topics:

• knowing the media outlets in your own backyard, knowing the right reporters to contact;

• building relationships with media people;

• maintaining your media presence;

• knowing your rights;

• communications planning: how to plan for an event or an announcement of an activity that you want the media to notice;

• handling a media interview.

Accessing Community Media

• Getting involved with community TV stations and radio stations.

• Writing for local community papers.

• Getting involved with online community media, like Young Peoples' Press.

• Daily newspapers with sections written for and by youth.

Using the Internet as a communications tool

• How to build and promote an effective website.

• Communicating your message on the Internet, using newsgroups, listserves, email.

The Media Toolkit for Youth is available in French from Autumn 2002.

Partners

See Project partners above.

Funders

Health Canada
Justice Canada (Crime Prevention Partnership Programme).

Cost

The cost, including consultations, preparation of materials and outreach and conferencing activities was approximately US $30,000.

Strengths of project

This is a unique project which encourages a positive, proactive approach to media education. Once young people have actively dealt with the news media themselves, they will better understand the news media they consume daily. We have received international praise from educators who tell us there is nothing else like the Toolkit available elsewhere - online or off.

Challenges

The most difficult challenge is finding additional funding to expand the scope of the Toolkit (such as adding video and audio streaming) and to promote the resource.

Evaluation

We have monitored through online statistics, measuring the number of times the Toolkit is visited, as well as our online Feedback and Guest Book entries. We are also currently reviewing options, contingent on funding, to present an online survey, which will give us an immediate evaluation tool for online users.

Lessons learned

Consultations with young people greatly enrich the development of any materials intended for young people.

Sustainability

We hope that by providing this education tool online, many young people will have the experience of being proactive vis à vis the media.

Anecdote

The Toolkit was promoted on the Media-L listserve (the premier listserve for media educators in the United States of America) by Elizabeth Thoman, Executive Director of the Center for Media Literacy. She wrote: "What a fabulous website!! And what a great service not only for kids but their teachers and parents, too. Even though you focus on Canadian media/contacts, there's a wealth of info for everyone around the world. I'm definitely adding this site to our CML Links page. And thanks to all of you there for developing such a terrific resource."

VOICE OF THE YOUTH NETWORK BLOGGER

International Children’s Book Day



SINCE 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birth anniversary, April 2, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire love of reading and to call attention to children’s books. Leading the celebration is the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

Founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1953, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.

It is composed of more than 60 National Sections all over the world, with one operating in the Philippines. As a non-governmental organization with an official status in UNESCO and UNICEF, the IBBY has a policy-making role as an advocate of children’s books. It is committed to the principles of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the United Nations in 1990. One of its main proclamations is the right of the child to a general education and to direct access to information. Due to IBBY’s insistence, the resolution includes an appeal to all nations to promote the production and distribution of children’s books.

As an annual undertaking, the International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) celebration allows a national section of the IBBY to take on the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. The host National Section decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster. This year, the host national section is India with the theme "Books Are My Magic Eyes.’’

ICBD celebrations across the world involve the holding of special events that may include encounters with authors and illustrators, writing competitions, and announcements of book awards. In the Philippines, the National Section is expected to implement a host of events, from book launchings to exhibits, manifesting that the industry for the production and distribution of children’s books remains robust in our own land.