Next Gen Public Media
Strategy Design Sprint
As part of a new initiative to envision a future of public media inclusive of teens and tweens, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will convene stakeholders in the public media sector to help set new ‘north stars’ and think together about how to engage this audience.
By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences is a partnership between the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to envision a future of public media that can engage and empower tweens and teens so they can participate actively and thrive in today’s complex world. With a R&D focus, the project supports two parallel activities: (1) conduct and translate research on media practices by, with, and for youth, supported by educators, families, out-of-school time providers, and public media organizations, and (2) build the capacity of public media organizations both in their local communities and as members of a national learning network focused on supporting youth creativity, communication, civic participation, learning, and play. The project will serve as a foundation from which public media can help build healthy communities in the digital age and continuously adapt to the changing technology landscape.
Our goal is to work with the community of public media stakeholders to establish a knowledge base, vision, and network engagement strategy that can guide the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the stations it funds in its future efforts to reach the tween and teen audience through public media.
As part of the initiative, we are inviting public media organizations to participate in a strategy design process to begin to shape the future of this work, which will only be successful through substantive and ongoing input from stations and other stakeholders. All aspects of the process will be participatory, with participants sharing what they believe the impacts of this larger initiative should be and how the field might collectively achieve them.
Convening Goals
- Surface reflections on current public media work related to teens and tweens.
- Share and receive feedback on themes emerging from emerging research within the initiative.
- Solicit perspectives on the vision and impact that public media might have through work focused on teens and tweens.
- Share and receive feedback on an emerging impact framework to guide considerations for teen and tween-focused public media efforts.
- Generate possible strategies for collective learning, experimentation, and improvement that resource public media organizations to further initiatives focuses on teens and tweens.
To accommodate convening during the pandemic, the strategy co-design will be broken up across multiple sessions in July 2020. All portions of the event will take place over Zoom, and we ask participants to attend all sessions.
Event Dates and Times:
Tuesday July 7 12-2pm ET
Session 1 – Teens & Tweens: Where We Are, Where We Need to Go
Thursday July 9 12-2pm ET
Session 2 – Grounding in Emerging Research on Teens & Tweens
Thursday July 23rd, 12-2pm ET
Session 3 – Developing a Vision for Engaging Next Gen Public Media Audiences
Tuesday July 28th, 12-2pm ET
Session 4 – Developing a Strategy for Experimentation and Networked Learning
Thursday July 30th, 12-2pm ET
Session 5 – What Do You Need to Be Successful? Assessing Station Needs for Teen/Tween Work