'Straight Talk' by youth.

Children are our most valuable resource; agreement on this assertion is virtually universal. Adults around the world create policies and manage public affairs with children in mind. But how are we doing? Ask the young people.

In Shkodra, Albania, there have been instances reported of "blood feuds" to avenge so-called "crimes against honour". Any male in the family of the accused can become a target, and consequently hundreds of boys remain locked inside their homes, missing school, friends and normal life as a kid.

To tell this story, the Young Reporters of Albania created a segment for Troc ("Straight Talk" in Albanian)--an hour-long weekly television programme produced jointly by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Albanian TV. Through interviews with affected youth, it showed the devastating consequences of this practice.

A sixth-grader, Julian Kurti, told the Young Reporters he lived each day in fear because his cousin had killed someone. Knowing he could be a target for retribution, his parents forbade him from leaving the house.

While Julian can go through the motions of being alive, life as he knew it is gone. "I miss freedom, I miss school, everything", he said.

The story went on to explore how other young people felt about blood feuds. Holding a microphone, they offered a solution: collectively, the youth said forgiveness was a better way to solve the question of revenge. "I think that to forgive the blood shows more human strength than killing another person", said seventeen-year-old Yvel, another boy from Julian's town.

As with all media, the story can only stir the question. In the end, the answer lies with the adults who set policies that determine how--and how well--children live. But Troc is the first chapter of major change in Albania. The show first aired as an experiment in February 2001. A study commissioned by UNICEF in the autumn of 2002 after 75 Troc programmes had aired indicated that the show had much more than entertainment value. Here are some findings:

* More than 2 million Albanians (58 per cent of the population) had seen Troc at least once and 1.5 million (44 per cent) watched it regularly, including 90 per cent in the 11 to 20 age group.

* More than two thirds of teenagers discussed the show's themes with friends, and half the total audience did so.

* Two thirds of viewers consider it one of the best programmes on television and feel it should be broadcast more often.

Youth voice in mainstream media has become louder and more prevalent since the advent of the Internet. More and more young people have an open forum to discuss their views, and adults are starting to see that their opinions are sound and meaningful.

In November 1999, a group of thirty young persons, media professionals and child rights experts created the Oslo Challenge. It calls for Governments, organizations, individuals, media professionals, the private sector, young people and adults to acknowledge and support the rights of children to have access to media outlets, participate in news production and use it as a tool for their advancement One of the concrete results of the Oslo Challenge is the development of the Young People's Media Network in Europe and Central Asia (YPMN). Currently, more than 300 people and organizations are beginning to work together through YPMN to share resources.

Chris Schuepp, YPMN consultant-coordinator, says the group's objective is continued empowerment of young people. "The ultimate goal is a higher degree of youth participation in the media. Young people have so much to say. It's their future that is being discussed in the media and therefore they should have a say (in the discussion)", he said. "Unfortunately, we are still far from a decent degree of youth participation. It could be better in every country with which I work. There are more advanced countries in this perspective and there are those where youth are hardly being listened to at all."

YPMN, Schuepp said, is listening. "My goal--and the UNICEF goal with YPMN--is to support the kids out there who want to speak out and be active in the media, to let them understand there is somebody who helps them, and to work with them on achieving this goal", he said.

In 2003, YPMN also took over the maintenance of the MAGIC (Media Activities and Good Ideas by, with and for Children) web site (www.unicef.org/magic), which is a global portal for those involved in youth media. One of its members is Teen People magazine, which engages 12,000 young "trendspotters" to direct the publication's editorial content and reaches 1.6 million teenagers in the United States each month.

"When we first wrote the business plan for Teen People, we had what we thought was a great collection of ideas of what we thought teenagers wanted to read about", said its publisher Paul Caine. "I took the plan to a school to test the ideas, and in one day the whole magazine concept was scrapped and reinvented by the 400 kids we interviewed. I knew how important it was to create an interactive product for teens that reflected what they wanted to know about, not what adults wanted them to read", he added. But while youth can drive content and dialogue, they lack the honed skills to create a journalistic product All they need is guidance.

Polly Renton is a series producer for TAZAMA! ("Look; Investigate" in Swahili)--a youth-produced programme based in Nairobi for and about Kenyans. The kids learn to research, film, record sound, interview, report and direct. Once their television package has been shot and logged, they deliver it to a professional editor who works with them in the normal director/editor roles.

Renton also holds annual training sessions in Kenya on all aspects of production, from hands-on camera operation to journalistic ethics. This year she worked for three weeks with 16 young people selected from 300 applicants, five of whom were chosen to work on the production of TAZAMA! They will be the directors, cameramen, etc., on the series of thirteen half-hour shows (around eighty different stories), which will take six months to produce. Renton conducts a similar weeklong, intensive journalism workshop annually in Albania for Troc.

Similarly, for Teen People and Kidsday--a youth-generated five-day-a-week section of Newsday in Long Island, New York--it is important to have adults guide the youth in every aspect of production. "It takes four to five weeks to create each one of our pages", said Patrick Mullooly, editor of Kidsday. "We first start with a brainstorming meeting and guide them to unique and interesting stories they want to write. Since a different classroom is creating each page, we have to ensure the story ideas remain fresh."

Almost all ideas in their own media outlets are generated by youth, but not all stories are totally produced by them. "We have a professional editor at Albanian TV who takes hours of footage and turns it into a packaged story", said Catharine Way, who directs the Troc project for UNICEF in Albania; likewise for Kidsday and Teen People. "Every idea in our publication is brought to us by a teen", said Teen People editor Amy Barnett. "Many features are inspired by or written by our readers, but we have a staff of editors who make sure the facts are correct and the copy flows."

Through youth media, young people's views are beginning to seep into mainstream channels of information and ultimately into prevailing thought. What does the future hold for youth media? All indicators are that with the proper guidance and funding, youth can play an integral and unprecedented role in disseminating information and effecting change in the world.

"Young people are the future readers and viewers, so they are the future customers for the media", said Schuepp. "To turn away from them can only have negative consequences. And to completely neglect their ideas and views is not only bad for the circulation, it's also bad for society in general." Added UNICEF's Way: "Youth media is so powerful, it can transform how adults see things. I think it will take over the world."

Sherry W. Sacino is President of the Youth Empowerment Alliance, Inc. ([e-mail]), a non-profit organization that is currently creating the Youth Media Network to distribute stories by youth to mainstream media worldwide.