Turning Up the Volume on Student Voice & Choice: Social Justice & MediaProduction

The media is the message & the signal is coming in loud and clear. Our teens are responding. They are the voice of a new generation. Theirs is a world where critical thinking and 21st century citizenship are valued.

Our social justice and media production club met to plan our next project. To gear-up for production, we studied "game film" as pro athletes would. 

National Treasure: 

@youthradio

#TheFix

Local Icons:

@pghyouthexpress
youthexpress.org
https://soundcloud.com/youthexpress

#CatchTheFuture

Saturday Light Brigade
@slbradio

A Pittsburgh staple, broadcasting for as long as I can remember... Still as relevant and important as ever!

A brainstorming session followed the debut of Youth Radio's program on "White Privilege". Our students had passionate viewpoints to share with one another. Our goal is to work our way up to the production quality of an organization like Youth Radio.

In the near future, we are taking a tour of the Pittsburgh Children 's Museum and laying down tracks in the Youth Express recording studio. This is a big deal for our students--many of whom are amateur musicians, rappers, and spoken word performers. To get an opportunity like this is a tremendous boost of confidence and motivation to keep at it.

Mason edits a shared Google doc while Destiny updates her spoken word performance on her cellphone.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to media production. But, when I look around my classroom, I have a huge incentive to put extra time into discovering emerging forms of media and learning how to get the most from existing platforms, like Soundcloud and YouTube.