Nuala

By Natalia Smirnov and Nuala Cabral
 * || =UCCP Youth Media: An analysis of challenges and opportunities=

Rationale:
Materman, Goodman, Hobbs and Buckingham have raised key concerns reflecting common debates within the field of youth media production. Some scholars and media educators criticize the over-emphasis on self-expression, technical skills or form in youth media programs, rather than a focus on content or the critical thinking skills around the construction of media. While many scholars agree that media literacy should involve production, these scholars are skeptical of youth media programs that ignore media analysis. Goodman (2003) emphasizes the importance of incorporating media analysis in youth media production programs, arguing that students who are aware and critical of the construction of media will make better work. This sounds logical? So why doesn't this happen? Understanding the challenges and limitations of youth media programs may help explain what youth media program's prioritize and assess.

Big Research Question
What are the biggest challenges and limitations confronting the youth media programs at UCCP? How might these challenges reinforce the debates around youth media production?

**Focus Questions to Explore**
The UCCP youth tackle two media projects: the Public Service Announcement and the Community Documentary Project. We want to explore the challenges of these projects. Specifically, we will explore: What are the challenges students/staff face when completing youth media projects? According to youth and staff, what would make these experiences more meaningful? How is student learning assessed in the youth media projects? How is the media they create assessed? What are the priorities of this youth media program? (i.e. critical thinking, technical skills, self-expression, form, content, etc) In what ways does UCCP reflect a critical media literacy program? (How is critical thinking, reflection and dialogue fostered?) To what extent is critical pedagogy employed as an approach to teaching and learning? ( Is liberation or raised consciousness a goal? How is it realized?)

*Some issues to think about here are the extent to which form, content, self-expression, critical thinking and technical skills are emphasized or supported.

**Research Design/Methods**
We will conduct qualitative research through observation, focus groups (of youth) and interviews with staff members.

**Approach to Analyzing the Data**
We plan to record the data (with a flip camera). After viewing the focus groups and interviews, we will identify common themes, problematize them and connect them to the wider context of youth media. // Texts that will inform our analysis: // // Steve Goodman’s book will be helpful for the assessment piece and documentary assignment. We also will explore youth media curriculum (particularly those that involve the production of documentaries and PSAs) and current discourse around assessment. // Identifying the key challenges and priorities will allow us to draw connections between theory and praxis. This new knowledge will allow us to better understand the theories, identifying their strengths and potential limitations for describing what is happening in the field, on the ground, when it comes to youth media production. Also, we hope this research will inform UCCP programming and development. How can UCCP meet these challenges? What resources are necessary? Will meeting these challenges force UCCP to make other trade-offs? UCCP is made up of a couple of youth groups and each make their own media, separately: VOICES is our after school program that meets tuesdays and thursdays for a year. The recruitment is broad and enrollment is pretty open, so it ends up having a real mix of kids and spotty attendance. They go through community awareness activities, choose an issue and develop and create a project. In the past, kids have chosen to create magazines or websites which has been awesome, they've done surveys and workshops, but mostly they produce videos. Sometimes they are just narrative videos. This is the program I think would be strongest if we just focused on community documentaries, because then the outcomes and support for it could be less haphazard. POWER is an internship program for high school juniors and seniors. We have partnerships with school internship coordinators/counselors, recruit and interview students through the school, not everyone gets accepted, they are usually pretty driven. They meet for 20 weeks, one day a week for 4 hours. They have anti-oppression training, meet people from non-profits/public sector to get exposed to different careers, and do scavenger of city hall. They also choose and issue but they have to create a PSA about it and create a workshop and then facilitate it for a community group. There's a pretty solid curriculum for most of it, though LC have some freedom in altering specific activities. ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
 * What New Knowledge is Expected to Result? Why this New Knowledge is Important? **
 * What New Questions are Likely to Emerge? **
 * Background Information **