Sum up for Homeless and Runaway Youth Service Providers

This post is for everyone who made it to my workshop on Media Strategies at the 22nd annual Empire State Coalition conference for homeless and runaway youth service providers the other week. I had a great time giving the workshop and appreciate your interest and input. This is a rundown of some of the topics, tools, and links we went over. Please don’t hesitate to ask me more questions.

Here’s the PDF of the presentation: ESC Media Strategies Presentation

Media Literacy

Paulo Freire’s Empowerment Spiral is a powerful education framework that has gained popularity among teachers of Media Literacy. A good rundown on Freire is available at the Informal Education Encyclopedia. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with some of his works, including Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

The Center for Media Literacy has three well researched guides on theory, practice, and implementation available in PDF format. Most material is broken down by grade level, K-12.

For a more academic overview of the current media landscape, Neil Postman is is good writer to turn to. His work falls under the rubric of Media Ecology.

Wendy Ewald pioneered an effective Literacy Through Photography system that has gained popularity world wide over the past two decades. It’s easy to hand young people cameras and have a little fun. The more difficult thing is to effectively teach them something in the process and open doors to growth and communication. Ewald’s book I Wanna Take Me A Picture talks about how she developed the process of write-photograph-write and different activities she has used within this structure.

Ethics, Safety and Visual Representation

We talked about Donna DeCesare’s project photographing youth in Central America effected by gang violence. She used a collaborative method to produce unique images that reflected the children’s stories while still protecting their identities. You can find the audio from a panel discussion with DeCesare and the head photography editor at UNICEF and photographs on the Open Society Institute’s website.

Media Production

We focused on web 2.0 technologies as a cheap, accessible, and effective format for you and your organizations to network and get the message out. With the recent example of the Jena 6 case, the power of grassroots, web-based media can not be underestimated. The Overbrook Foundation put out a report on how these tools are being underutilized by human rights organization. So let’s get on top of this…

Web 2.0 refers to the recent shift in the internet toward social media. The consumers of information are now the makers of information. The first step to using these messy but powerful systems is getting organized and find content relevant to your purposes. Bookmarking sites like Delicious and RSS readers like Bloglines are good tools with which to familiarize yourself. If you can handle email, these tools will be easy to master. The trick is making them a part of your routine. Once you get the idea, you might want to set up your own blog on WordPress, or any number of other free services.

Our conversation on social media quickly lead to a questions about clients’ use of site like MySpace. Organizations servicing homeless and runaway youth have widely divergent positions on allowing clients to access these sites and using them as forums for communication. I hope that these conversations can result in positive shifts in how your organizations see youth engagement with social networking sites. Danah Boyd has written on youth and social networking. Her articles might be a good jumping off point. Please post comments on resources you use in making policy decision in your organization, as I am researching this topic currently.

Media Relations

Most of my information on traditional media realtions was drawn from A Media Relations Handbook for Non-Governmental Organizations by Sara Silverman, The Independent Journalism Foundation, available in PDF form here.

Other Resources

The Communication Initiative
Global repository for reports and papers on communication in social justice and human rights. Excellent site! Sign up for emails on topics of interest to you.

Coyote Communications
Resources on Media relations and production for mission based organizations.

Spin Project
Tools for creating media around build a fair, just and equitable society. Check out their tutorials.

Youth Media Reporter
Coverage of youth media and issues facing them.

Cyber Bullying 411
Site for youth with resources on preventing and dealing with online harassment.

Video for Change by Witness
Basic guide to practical production and use of video for advocacy and activism by the international NGO Witness.

Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
Reflections on the history of visual media and the ethical dilemmas it presents

Design Basics Index by Jim Krause
Basic, fun graphic design principles