By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences
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Keywords: Public Media, Youth Leadership, Network Strategy and Design, Network Measurement, Colelctive Action, Digital learning, Informal Learning, Community-based organizations, Collaborative Knowledge Building
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Public media is at a critical junction. Rapidly evolving technology ecosystems mean that new platforms, modes of engagement, and forms of content are driving every part of the media sector to innovate. At the same time, tweens and teens who are growing up in this new world are approaching media differently — they aren’t just consuming media, they’re engaging with it creatively, interactively, and socially too. In the current environment, tweens and teens rarely have trustworthy, high-quality options available to them, and yet there is a disconnect between Gen Z and public media.
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The Next Gen Public Media initiative, led by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, supports public media stations around the country as they work to engage tweens and teens. In partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the project aims to help stations to support the creation of meaningful content by, with, and for young people, and to help public media meet the unique educational, community, and civic needs of today’s youth.
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My role within the project focuses on the design, implementation, and measurement of a innovation and learning network among public media actors across the United States.
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Collaborators:
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Michael Preston, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
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Colin Angevine, Joan Ganz Cooney Center/Telos Learning
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Monica Bulger, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
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Mary Madden, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
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Partners:
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Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
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Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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Funder:
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Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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Publications:
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Bulger, M., Madden, M., Sobel, K., & Davison, P. (2021). The Missing Middle: Reimagining a Future for Tweens, Teens, and Public Media. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, New York, NY.
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Davison, P., Bulger, M., & Madden, M. (2020). Navigating Youth Media Landscapes: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Media. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, New York, NY.