Youth Channel All-City

Short Synopsis

A visionary initiative to develop a new youth media network that provides New York City youth and beyond the opportunity to media education, production, and distribution. YC All-City seeks to reach close to 2 million families through thought provoking, educational and entertaining television that will target the population of 12-25 years old

Description/Treatment

YC All-City will focus on education, civic affairs and culture as it seeks to build an innovative community-based media hub that will highlight local voices while making global connections. The New York City public access centers will team up to bring young people from all 5 boroughs access to high quality digital-learning, media-literacy and media-making opportunities through a physical, digital and cultural ‘space’ and ‘network’. YC All-City identifies the following 6 areas as critical to the development of the citywide network:

1 – Addressing the Digital Divide: NYC is the media capital of the world, but NYC youth have few opportunities to produce and distribute media. Lack of access to media technology is a significant barrier that prevents young people from reaching their full educational and career potential. There are roughly 2 million youth under the age of 18 living in the five boroughs of NYC. This is roughly a quarter of the population of the city. The digital divide has left youth living in disenfranchised communities with inadequate access to digital resources for self-expression, personal development and community connections. YC All-City specifically seeks the involvement of the city’s growing population of disenfranchised youth including, but not limited to, youth of color, young people who struggle in traditional education programs, immigrant youth, LGTBQ youth, and young people from low-income families.

2 – Youth Viewership: YC All-City will operate as the only citywide distribution outlet for youth media bringing high quality, challenging, and educational media to close to 2 million homes, citywide. It will build a youth audience through the cable TV channel, web video ‘streaming’ and video on demand.

3 – Peer-to-Peer Media Education Environment: YC All-City is taking the traditional public access model in a new direction. YC All-City takes a community-oriented approach to media production that looks to collaborative production practices, peer-to-peer education models, and other informal mentoring approaches for young people to not only make media but also to cultivate a sense of belonging within a larger youth community and youth culture.

4 – Multiplatform Strategy: YC All-City will operate as a network of youth media satellites across the city in which young people will access training in media education, production, and distribution with Internet, mobile, and broadcast technologies. The YC All-City website will support blogging, pod-casting, video conferencing, downloadable curricula and other features.

5 – New Economy Skills: YC All-City will address digital divide issues by providing young people with opportunities to develop the social, cultural, and technical skills necessary for full involvement in the contemporary media landscape. YC All-City will help push forward the public access television movement that was conceived in the late 1960s and early 1970s to “get local voiced heard” into the 21st century of social networks, mash up cultures, and web 2.0, where collaborative media efforts are shaping the arts and media worlds.