On October 26, 2021, the Cooney Center hosted Learning at Home While Under-Connected and the Role of Public Media, a discussion about learning at home and digital inequality, and how public media stations can help within their local communities. 

Vikki Katz (Rutgers University) presented key research findings from Learning at Home While Under-Connected: Lower-Income Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which follows up on 2016’s Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning in Lower-Income Families to uncover the perspectives of lower-income parents with children ages 3 to 13. Published by New America, the report delves into the experiences that these families had while many children were learning at home during a time when many school buildings were closed.

1. There has been a dramatic increase in home broadband access, so there are fewer un-connected families than in 2015—but millions remain under-connected for a number of reasons including cost of internet plans or too many people needing to share devices.
2. Educational media (including PBS content) has helped to keep kids learning and growing during the pandemic, especially among the lowest income families— 41% of children in household with incomes below the federal poverty line often watched educational videos online
3. Families learned to engage technology as digital learning teams, with parents and children helping each other learn how to use tech together.

Lisa Guernsey (New America) then shared highlights from discussion groups that were held with lower-income families in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Santa Clara County. These families reported that they relied on local organizations and teachers for support, not just for remote learning but for materials that helped with mental health and wellbeing. These conversations provided rich context to the survey data covered in the report.  Families often cited the value of resources that were created to help community leaders engage with parents and collect data about local needs, and how educational media was really helping children to cope with some of the challenges of the pandemic, such as the need to wear a mask.

Debra Sanchez (Corporation for Public Broadcasting), emphasized the importance of thinking about the different kinds of communities that public media stations serve with their educational media content. In the early days of the pandemic, CPB conducted a survey with public radio and television stations across the US, and found that more than half had developed a new partnership with a local or state education agency. Public media stations leaned into all of their resources to support families, from broadcasting educational content during the school day and even hiring more internal staff.

Georgeann Herbert (Detroit Public Television) then discussed the launch of the Michigan Learning Channel in January 2021 as a collaborative effort between the six public television stations in Michigan and educators with content like Read Write Roar, Math Mights, and Extra Credit, a program geared towards 4th-6th graders. The Michigan Learning Channel is reaching beyond its early roots in K-3 education to launch a professional learning series to support literacy with teachers, and will produce material around coding and digital skills this winter.

Similarly, Jamie Annunzio Myers (PBS SoCal) shared how quickly PBS Learning Media came about as a collaboration with LA USD and the 14 public media stations in California. They began a deeper collaboration with the California Department of Education to create more intentional partnerships to respond to the needs of local communities. As they listened to community needs, they began to put more resources towards supporting Latino families across Southern California with bilingual resources, and engaging them in co-designing content around math.

Public media stations have historically been committed to providing rich educational media resources to viewers, but as the media landscape continues to evolve and audience needs change, it is heartening to see the investments that they are making today to forge deeper relationships within their local communities in order to leverage their resources to benefit children and families.

The full event can be viewed below:

 

The presentation for the event can be downloaded here.

Resources shared during the event include:

• The Learning at Home While Under-connected Project
• Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning for Lower-Income Families
• Are the families in your community under-connected? Toolkit
• Media Literacy Week
• Michigan Learning Channel
• At-Home Learning
• PBS SoCal’s Family Math
• CoSN’s Digital Equity Toolkit
• Big Heart World
• Sesame Street: Caring for Each Other

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. 

We believe that now is the time to re-establish how public media meets the needs of young people. We believe that we can do this — together.

Today the Cooney Center is announcing an ambitious new phase of By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences, an effort to support 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.

Building on research

In 2020, the Cooney Center launched the first phase of Next Gen Public Media with a focus on understanding how today’s tweens and teens engage with media. Over the course of a year and a half, Cooney Center researchers conducted a broad analysis of the media landscape and conducted a series of in-depth focus groups with diverse youth across the country in order to better understand the ways youth discover and use media in their daily lives. The findings of this study are the focus of The Missing Middle: Reimagining a Future for Tweens, Teens, and Public Media.

As we launch this new phase of Next Gen Public Media, we are poised to build on this research and collaborate with public media professionals across the country to advance our common goals. Together we will troubleshoot challenges, celebrate successes, and develop new ways to reach, and involve, tween and teen audiences. 

In the shared work ahead, we will pursue the following Next Gen Public Media priorities:

• “Seat at the Table” – Engaging Youth as Co-Creators of Public Media
• “Platforming Youth” – Uplifting Youth Voice Through Public Media
• “Media Fluency” – Supporting Youth to Navigate a Fragmented Media Landscape
• “Reinventing the PSA” – Creating Youth Media that Addresses Developmental Needs and Desires
• “Embracing the Digital” – Engaging with Present-day Youth Media Platforms and Practices
• “Centering Inequities” – Centering Inequities in Youth Media Work

If these priorities are important to you, we hope you’ll join us.

How to get involved

Reaching tween and teen audiences is complex. In this new phase of work, we’re committed to supporting the public media field by conducting more research, hosting opportunities to collaborate with peers, and launching a new Accelerator program to spur innovation. To get involved, you can:

• Get updates. Sign up to receive updates about our research, pioneers in the field, and upcoming events and opportunities.
• Read the research. Check out the reports that ground our vision for Next Gen Public Media and learn about where our research is headed.
• Join the community. Attend webinars and online meet-ups with peers who lead this work around the country.
• Apply to the Accelerator. Learn about the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator and apply to our RFP.

Introducing the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator

A central component of this new phase is the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator, a grant program that will provide funding to at least 10 public media stations to prototype and pilot local projects focused on tween- and teen-focused initiatives. Accepted proposals will receive $15,000 and join a six-month Accelerator program from February to August 2022.

To support the development of robust proposals from diverse applicants, we will be hosting a set of optional events this month to share more information, brainstorm ideas, and align emerging proposals with Next Gen Public Media priorities. Learn more and register for these support opportunities, or jump straight to the request for proposals.

Embracing the moment, together

Our work at the Cooney Center has always focused on how a changing media landscape for young people can be embraced—in all its challenges and possibilities—by thoughtful groups of professionals, scholars, and leaders. As we continue to explore these questions in new ways, and reconnect to Sesame Street’s roots in public media, we hope you’ll join us in the work that lies ahead.