“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.
The process for producing the monthly program is completely driven by the youth. “The teens come in with ideas and we start there. We ask what they would like to do radio stories on this month, who they would like to interview, what kind of features they would like, and the director and I help make it happen,” says Robards. “We encourage them to think about what is important to them and what’s going on in their school and in their life and come up with story ideas based on that.”
Go to the ATMI page to ask a question or share a story
Robards then assists the teens with setting up interviews, coming up with questions, and editing the stories together to create pre-produced pieces to air on the show. The youth then choose a host, a DJ, a soundboard operator, and others to help with the program. The group then goes to the national public radio (NPR) station and broadcasts the live show that airs at 4:00 p.m., Alaska time, on the last Saturday of every month.
Since ATMI’s first show aired in 2004 with a broadcast team of five teen girls, the group has grown and consistently has anywhere from 15 to 20 members. For the most part, ATMI members are high school students, but occasionally the group will involve eighth graders with a passion for journalism. When the group is looking for new members, Robards goes to journalism and media classes at local high schools, inviting interested students to call ATMI and visit the program.
Often, when teens become involved in ATMI, they end up sticking around. As Robards explains, “it becomes kind of like a family. Students will come back and visit when they are home from college.” Last summer, three students on break from college assisted with ATMI projects. Often, local groups contract ATMI to do media work, like public service announcements or promotional videos, and the college students help with these projects.
Listen to archived ATMI broadcasts
ATMI incorporates several of the Developmental Assets into the work they do on a daily basis. “The program basically is asset building,” says Robards. “We provide a safe environment where kids can be successful. There are positive adults and the kind of learning that is going on here is worthwhile.”
Furthermore, the asset building doesn’t just end with the youth involved in ATMI. By reaching out to others through the media, the group is having an effect on the world around them as well. “The product that they are producing is something that the community gets to hear and everything that the students work on is something that is going to go somewhere and be something useful,” Robards explains. “I think it’s pretty much a perfect model for an asset building program.”
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By handing over ownership of the media to youth, ATMI gives teenagers the opportunity to share positive stories about their generation, which the traditional media often overlooks in favor of stories about crime, drug use, and dropout rates. ATMI successfully incorporates positive youth development into their radio program, creating a more positive media climate for Alaska’s youth.
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