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Wide Angle Youth Media

Definition

Wide Angle Youth Media is a non-profit organization in Baltimore, Maryland. Wide Angle Youth Media is designed to involve youth through media education, engaging them within their communities and supplying an outlet in creating and expressing personal stories.

History of Wide Angle Youth Media

Wide Angle Youth Media was founded by Gin Farrara in 2001, with the support of the Open Society Institute’s Community Fellows Program [1] and the Johns Hopkins Neighborhood Fund. [2] The program propelled organizational development, enabling it to run full-time, serving more youth and community groups. Over the next few years, the organization primarily focused on youth; involving media and media technologies to aid in telling their own stories, and administering opportunities for youth development. The youth media created is then shared throughout the larger community.

The organization consists of middle and high school students, with in-school and after-school programs and workshops. The students learn with cutting edge media – from graphics to photography and video editing with the latest software. The programs can improve skills and prepare youth for the workforce and/or secondary education. The students within the program also write, direct, and star in their own films with topics that discuss Baltimore, Bullying, Education, Environment, Health, Violence/Safety, Human Rights and Youth Identity .

“We want young people to use media as a gateway to telling stories, to being engaged citizens to being able and ready to go into the workforce”

- Susan Malone, Wide Angle

“It helped me also improve my social skills, meet people, develop relationships and network.”

- Ricardo Amparo, Wide Angle student

“What I learn here is just a start if I go to college. I can enhance my skills and then from there I should be able to make it.”

- Tyson Sanford-Griffin, Wide Angle Student

Since 2000, Wide Angle Youth Media has worked with over 3,600 Baltimore City youth and has produced more than 160 films about their lives and communities.

Programs

Design Team

The Design team is an after-school program comprised of 12 high school aged youth, giving them the opportunity to gain advanced graphic design and media training while developing their public speaking, leadership, and marketing skills. Students produce media campaigns that help inhibit constructive and palpable change for Baltimore.

Mentoring Video Project

The Mentoring Video Project is an extensive media production program for Baltimore City youth ages 14-20. Students participate in learning production, writing, and analytical skills. The program is for students to create videos of the lives of young people in Baltimore. The videos are screened locally, and shown nationally and internationally through public access television, film festivals and on the web.

Travelling Photography Exhibit

The Travelling Photography Exhibit (previously the Youth Media Festival), a program that gives youth the opportunity to have their work displayed at a range of venues in Baltimore City. The program provides free or low-cost photography workshops to schools and organizations to generate these works.

Baltimore Speaks Out!

A program created for middle-school aged youth (aged 10-15). It is an introductory video making and youth development program, produced in partnership with Enoch Pratt Free Library since 2003. The workshops are conducted each academic year, providing students with media literacy, teambuilding, public speaking, community service, and digital media skills. These workshops are performed in neighborhood library branches and schools.

Summer Programs

Summer workshops and programs offered to Baltimore students throughout the summer months. Including photography, special video, and robotics workshops.

Special Projects

Partnering with community groups, schools, agencies, and other non-profit organizations, this program teaches young people how to use media to educate their community, vocalize their concerns to broad audiences, and increase the impact of their voices.

Wide Angle Youth Media and the Freddie Gray Controversy

The Death of Freddie Gray was a highly controversial case that involved a 25-year-old African American man who was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department for possessing what the police alleged to be an illegal switchblade. While in police custody, Gray fell into a coma in the police van while being transported and died eight days later as a result to injuries to his spinal cord. Gray’s death resulted in an ongoing series of protests and civil unrest. Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby announced to file criminal charges against the six police officers that were involved in the ruled homicide.

In midst of what they called a present day Civil Rights, Marilyn Mosby states,

“This is a moment, this is your moment. Let’s ensure that we have peaceful and productive rallies, develop structural and systemic changes for generations to come. You’re at the forefront of this cause, and as young people our time is now.”

The protests and riots in Baltimore provided content for organizations such as Wide Angle Youth Media. Interviews and photos provided by Wide Angle Youth Media from many Baltimore youth including students from institutions within the Baltimore area, such as Towson University and Morgan State University. These interviews, photos and stories were supplied to media outlets such as Youth Radio and other local and international media sites.

Wide Angle Youth Media and the Media

Youth Radio online is a media source that frequently collaborated with Wide Angle Youth Media. Producers from the organization completed interviews and took photographs of many Baltimore youth at student-lead protests over the death of Freddie Gray.

“I think that the way mainstream media has been portraying the young people in the past two days is a disgrace. There’s a lot of information that is missing from the stories that are being reported. I wish people would talk to people on the ground more instead of just watching mainstream media.”.

- Michaela Brown, 22, Morgan State University

Baltimore Uprising is another media source that has provided its readers with a Wide Angle Youth collection of interviews conducted with Baltimore City youth during the protests, as well as providing the public a platform in which they can share their stories and experiences in relation to the protests. The site is comprised of M4A audio interviews, student-written short essays, and photographs.

External Links

[3] Open Society Foundations