Getting the Word Out: Media and Asset Building
Search Institute recently acquired the resources and trademarks of the National Institute on Media and the Family, an organization devoted to maximizing the benefits and minimizing the harm of media on the health and development of children and families. And, to celebrate this acquisition, the March edition of the Asset Champion is devoted to the media. In addition to a profile of the National Institute on Media and the Family, you will read about two community initiatives that have built relationships with local media outlets and used these relationships to further their asset-building efforts.
Become MediaWise: The National Institute on Media and the Family
Now, more than ever, families are in need of assistance navigating the powerful and persuasive media culture. In January, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a study stating that kids ages 8-18 are exposed to 7 hours and 38 minutes of screen time a day. Parents, teachers, and everyone who works with young people need to be involved in helping children make smart decisions about media consumption.
For this reason, it was sad news that the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), a nationally recognized authority on media and positive youth development, was forced to close its doors at the end of 2009. Fortunately, NIMF has transferred its award-winning programs to Search Institute, where they will live on and continue helping families make positive, values-based decisions about technology and media.
Building Assets and Awareness through Local Media: Boothbay Harbor, Maine
The small community of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, primarily a summer destination for tourists and part-time residents, might not be a location that immediately comes to mind when considering mass media. Yet, the Boothbay Asset Builders community initiative has done much to incorporate their local newspaper and television station in their asset-building efforts.
It all started over ten years ago when Boothbay Harbor counselors Jeanne Tonon and Linda Lupton discovered the Developmental Assets framework and became instantly taken with the idea. “This whole approach was intuitively correct for us in terms of who we are as individuals, but also as professionals, because it looks at strengths, and if you look at strengths, you’ve certainly minimized the at-risk behavior” says middle-school counselor Lupton.
Teens making headlines: The Alaska Teen Media Institute
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” This is, roughly, the philosophy of the Alaska Teen Media Institute (ATMI), a group committed to giving teens the tools and opportunities needed to tell their stories through the media. ATMI believes that youth voice is a valuable perspective that is underrepresented in the mainstream media. The group, a program of the media-based project Spirit of Youth, has spent the last six years working with Alaska’s youth to produce a monthly half-hour radio show that broadcasts on their local NPR affiliate, KNBA 90.3 FM.
ATMI started in 2003 with two teenage girls producing feature stories for the local public radio station in Anchorage, Alaska. Their mentor, and Spirit of Youth reporter, Shana Sheehy, saw the potential for a full-blown radio show. Sheehy went to visit Youth Radio in Berkeley, California to see how their program was run and if the program could be duplicated in Anchorage. Soon after this visit, with some grant money obtained through the Association of Alaska School Boards, the first official broadcast of the ATMI radio show, “In Other News,” aired.
