As youth media practitioners, we know about the satisfaction that comes from learning (and teaching) production. From interviewing and writing to asking questions and creating stories, we’re well versed in the real world skills that youth gain from making media. But what happens after that media gets produced? How are teachers preparing students to share their work? How are youth involved in the afterlife of their productions?
These questions were prompted by a panel presentation I was asked to give at the Digital Media & Learning conference on the high concept notions of learning, distribution and empowerment.
In my own work as the director of Generation PRX – the youth radio division of Public Radio Exchange – I help dozens of youth radio groups share their stories with public radio stations around the country. I know the groups are making compelling and wonderful stories, but I wondered what groups were doing to make sure those stories become part of a public digital dialogue. I set out to explore what happens to youth media after it’s made. I wanted to know what distribution actually looks like, where it’s going, and what this tells us about how to adapt our teaching practices (and expectations).
A Brief Soapbox Moment on Why this Matters Now…
Part of what makes youth media powerful is the creation of space for youth to represent themselves, in stark contrast to corporate media, or the news media. Especially as all of our public information is aggregated online, this is a moment when intentionality around distribution matters more. As practitioners, it’s incumbent upon us to understand that lessons about representation don’t end in postproduction; if youth don’t represent their own work, it will be represented for them (often by adults) or not at all. Luckily, youth producers are excellent guides: They can teach us a lot about how to foster online dialogue about what representation means now.
The means and the processes of distribution matter, not least of which because they operate as an important form of motivation and promotion. As any youth media teacher will tell you, without the anticipation of a receptive audience, youth producers feel far less urgency around deadlines, commitment to quality or impact. At the same time, in a participatory age, online validation that comes with the spread of audio production can have more significance than traditional broadcast, even if its reach is less.
Context: Generation PRX and PRX
Generation PRX is a network of nearly 60 youth radio groups from around the country. Some of these groups are based at large and small stations, others in high schools, afterschool programs, and community centers. A quick look at our network map will show you the range: a high school environmental group based at MIT, incarcerated youth projects in Maine and San Francisco, a large high school with its own small station in Carmel, Indiana, and long standing groups you may have heard nationally, like Youth Radio or WNYC’s Radio Rookies.
As a youth media organization the Generation PRX mission is unique: We support, connect and distribute youth radio groups. But you’ll notice that “produce” is not part of our focus. While I’m a teacher by trade – and still teach radio to incarcerated youth near my home in Maine – GPRX focuses entirely on advocating for young people and their stories. We occupy the realms of both public media and youth media.
GPRX is housed within Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which is a kind of one-stop meeting place for producers, stations, listeners, and alternate broadcast channels. Here I’ll pause for PRX’s actual tagline:
PRX harnesses technology to enable a diverse range of talented creators and engaged institutions to bring compelling and significant stories to millions of people.
The site features a catalogue of over 37,000 works – you can search, listen, license, playlist and comment on the pieces – and a network of hundreds of public radio stations, as well as podcasts (like YouthCast), and Public Radio REMIX, our XM Channel. Beyond broadcast, PRX is spearheading public radio’s expansion to mobile by creating apps like the Public Radio Player, This American Life, and WBUR.
Against this backdrop, youth radio groups have a significant playground for finding audience. Once their work is uploaded to PRX (1,400+ youth stories to date), it exists in the catalogue alongside all other pieces.
The fact that youth radio producers have PRX as a stepping stone also provides an important space to test out making work public. Henry Jenkins nicely sums this in a recent Youth Media Reporter Interview:
Beginning media makers need spaces where they can make bad art, get feedback from an accepting yet critically engaged community, and get better. They need to see bad art so that they don't feel so bad about their own fledgling efforts. …Educators talk about meaningful peripheral participation—that is, the need for times and spaces where newbies can lurk and observe, can take their first steps, and gradually become integrated into the production community.
Through PRX, youth radio groups have a sustainable, web-based hub to share and distribute media, and an infrastructure that supports visibility, curation, reviews and licensing. Moreover, they can experiment with “meaningful peripheral participation” and a pathway for integrating into a professional community.
The Research: Tracking Distribution
Back to the question of distribution. To get at how youth radio groups can share their stories to a wider audience, I had to find out how sharing works now: Who are young producers making their stories for? How do they share those stories post production? And who is listening?
To find out, I interviewed youth producers and teachers, I sent around an online poll for youth producers, and I emailed questions to youth radio teachers. Here are some of the most interesting findings:
- Youth are making stories with a youth audience in mind.
- Youth producers often don’t follow their stories after they air.
- If other youth hear youth-produced stories, they’re most likely to hear them on the radio.
Interviews with youth radio group leaders and youth producers helped round out the picture. In particular, nearly every youth radio leader expressed a desire to have distribution more integrated into teaching radio overall. Many were looking for new ways to get youth listening to each others’ work and found creative ways – like listening parties, or using previous student work in teaching – to do so.
At least one youth producer commented that while youth do get trained in making stories, they need the next layer: knowing how to distribute their work and pitch their stories to shows and programs that have established audiences.
Another producer who began in youth radio and now runs her own multimedia site spoke to how central distribution is to new media. You’re not just distributing content, she explained, “you’re distributing yourself.” Her radio work contributes to an entire online persona, which she carefully curates. Distribution isn’t the end product; it’s the whole process.
The Takeaways
Again and again, interviews showed the importance of making work public, and not only for classic distribution. While licensing via PRX serves a crucial function, the public profile of a piece can have a real impact on group momentum. As one example: At WHJE in Carmel, Indiana, the class votes at the end of each 9-week term to elect which few pieces – out of 40 – will represent the group on PRX. Comments can also be highly motivating for youth producers. As one wrote, “Whenever I received comments on PRX, I took the time to personally email the commenter/reviewer with a message of thanks. That way, they may be more inclined to show the piece around.”
So, what can youth media teachers – and producers in general – conclude from all this?
- Think beyond production, integrating distribution – and the notion of a public – into teaching from the start.
- Think multiple channels. Public radio stations license via PRX, but so do a long list of outside purchasers (including YouthCast and REMIX Radio). Promote your media via all available channels, including websites, blogs, and social networks. Consider film festivals and film blogs.
- Engage youth as leaders and advocates for their work: Where can it be repurposed? Who is the audience and how will they hear it?
- Develop the concept of a public profile. Participatory culture means you are anything-associated-with-you-in-a-Google search. Sharing your radio work means showing off your skills (PRX has great Google rankings).
- Repost, repost, repost. Ask students to use their own networks to share work on Facebook, Twitter, the school website etc. Cultivate an online presence for archiving.
For Future Discussion
As youth media teachers, we’re often thinking about issues around power and representation. Happily, distribution offers still more opportunities to explore these dynamics with students, along with questions of ownership, authenticity and… Facebook:
- Audience: If youth do imagine an audience, it’s most often an audience of other youth (see above). But stories carried on traditional public radio outlets reach a predominantly white, middle-class audience. How can broadcast (digital or terrestrial) be a two-way conversation with the racially/socio-economically diverse population of youth producers? Alternately, how can youth hear/see other youths’ work? While some groups have creative solutions (listening parties, contests, replaying the work in class), most felt this is a crucial direction to develop.
- "Authenticity” (a highly contested term, to be sure): As practitioners, we frequently aim to give students an authentic turn at production, but we rarely teach the tools for giving those productions to a public, or advocating for the pieces in a public setting.
- Distributing Myself vs. Distributing My Work: In a digital landscape where content can be searched, repurposed and integrated into new conversations, distribution takes on a whole new kind of representation. In this way, sharing your work publicly is part of building a public dossier. Being associated – for all the world to see – with your stories means those stories (and everything else you have posted…) inform your public persona.
As youth media teachers, we need to stand back and take the long view of empowerment. Our role extends beyond post-production to helping youth advocate for their work and find an audience. New tools for sharing work are available all the time. PRX, for example, is creating new shows and channels – REMIX, State of the RE:Union, Snap Judgment, a multitude of apps – to appeal to a wider audience, but the most significant innovation for youth radio groups may be a widget that’s embeddable in Facebook and an embeddable audio player.
Participatory culture turns the whole notion of one-way distribution on its head. When media is shared, it’s repurposed, remixed, commented on, embedded – it takes on an afterlife. This is a moment that youth media groups – experts at democracy and engagement – are perfectly suited to seize.
Jones Franzel is the Director of Generation PRX, a division of Public Radio Exchange committed to supporting, connecting and distributing youth radio. Learn more and find GPRX on Facebook.
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