School Budget Cuts
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In Other Words is part of the Digital Natives project, a CPB funded partnership between Youth Radio and KQED Public Media.
Ten Health Care Terms You Need to Know
By: Emily Beaver
Maybe you’ve heard President Obama talking about revamping health care or you’ve seen TV news reports about people protesting at recent town hall meetings. If you think changes to health care don’t impact you, it’s time to tune into the debate.
Many young people aren’t covered by their parents’ health plans, don’t get insurance at work, can’t afford to buy insurance or simply don’t think they’ll get sick. But if you get sick or injured when you’re uninsured, you might not get the medical care you need or you may go into debt because of medical bills.
Cutting through the health care jargon isn’t easy, so I went searching for answers. I spoke with a few experts: Claire Brindis, Director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco; Melissa Rodgers, Associate Director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic and Family Security; and William Dow, Associate Professor of health care economics at U.C. Berkeley. With their help, I compiled a list of ten health care terms everyone should know:
1. Expanding coverage
One goal of health care revision is making sure that everyone can get health insurance, including young people. About 30% of Americans ages 19-24 don’t have insurance, and one in seven teens is without insurance, says Brindis. Other goals are making sure that people who do have insurance can keep it and lowering the costs of providing health care.
2. The public option
You may have heard debate about whether a “public option” should be included in health care changes. The public option is health insurance run by the government, says Rodgers.
A public health insurance plan would be one option for people who don’t have insurance, or don’t have insurance that covers their medical needs, Rodgers says. No one would be forced to participate in the public plan.
3. Medicare/Medicaid
Medicare and Medicaid (which is called Medi-Cal in California) are public health insurance plans the government already runs. Medicare is a national program that provides health insurance for people age 65 and older, and some younger people with disabilities.
Medicaid is a health insurance program for low-income people run by individual states. Each state has different rules about how poor you must be to qualify for Medicaid, Brindis says. Undocumented adults and children do not qualify for Medicaid.
4. Individual Mandate
An individual mandate means that every American would be required to have health insurance. If this mandate was approved, young people could no longer go without health insurance because they can’t afford it or don’t think they will get sick, says Dow.
If everyone has to be insured, the government will have to help cover the cost of people who can’t afford insurance, Dow says.
Read more
Iran: So Far Away, But Also Mine
By: Arash Afghahi
Growing up, I didn’t feel a strong connection to Iran. I wasn’t born there and I’ve only visited once in my life.
As a kid, I remember tuning my dad out every time he talked about Iranian politics. And they were definitely conversations to avoid around the dinner table, because they usually ended with him dropping the f-word — fascist. My dad seemed addicted to conspiracy theories involving the government. I always figured that it couldn’t be as bad as he said it was. But now I sympathize with my dad a lot more.
When millions of people began protesting the Iranian election results, it suddenly felt very personal. My aunt and uncle from Iran were actually visiting me in New York on the day of the election. Their daughter is just two years older than me. And she volunteered for Moussavi’s campaign doing basically what young volunteers do here in the States — handing out literature and putting up posters. But that proved dangerous after the election.
She called my uncle often in the early days of mass protests and police crackdowns. These moments full of hushed tones and furrowed brows, would snap us back to the reality of the situation. After one of these conversations my uncle grimly told my aunt that someone had taken their daughter’s license plate. They told me this was a common strategy used by Iranian police against critics of the government. When people like my cousin report their missing license plate, the police arrest them.
When my aunt returned to Iran, she retrieved the license plate for my cousin without any repercussions from the police. But my family considers the incident a thinly veiled threat. They worry that my cousin could herself disappear, if she continues her vocal opposition and protesting.
Now when I see photographs from the protests, it’s like looking at pictures of my family. I try to stay in touch with my cousin as much as I can. I often find myself up until 3 AM, following Twitter and Facebook updates from her and other relatives, many whom I’ve never even met before.
But lately, my cousin’s Facebook updates and Twitter messages have become less frequent, and I’m left to wonder why.
Not knowing, is the hardest part for me. All I can do is worry about my family in a country that seems so far away, but is also mine.
Video Games for Your Health
By David Dominguez
In most people’s minds, video games and children’s health don’t mix. I can see why. I recall the days when I would play Mario Brothers or Contra on the Nintendo and watch a 2D character get in a good cardio workout on the screen while I toned my thumbs by pressing A or B. Don’t get me wrong. In their day, they were some of the newest and most fun games ever. But, the recent trend toward interactive systems like the Wii make the Nintendo seem like a slow-moving dinosaur.
Given the nature of old school video games, it’s no wonder that the entire genre often is cited as one of the major causes of childhood obesity. And apparently gamers who grow up don’t have it any better. According to an upcoming study by the CDC, among adults, playing video games leads to not only weight gain, but depression.
But, such studies often leave out the class of video games that aim to do just the opposite. When I played the Wii for the first time I could not help but start moving around, especially with boxing, a sport I practice on a regular basis. Although it’s not the same as playing a sport in real life, you definitely break a sweat, and it’s way better than sitting around.
Since video games play such a large role in youth culture, video game designers are thinking ahead of the interactive curve by creating games that keep kids moving while they’re having fun. Even consoles such as PS3 or Xbox, which usually peddle more sedentary offerings, have developed active games such as DanceDanceRevolution and Rock Band. All of these products are some of the best and most sold out video games. Apparently, youth don’t mind getting their heart rate up as long as they are getting a high score while they’re at it.
Even parents encourage their kids to play on these “active” systems and sometimes get in on the fun themselves. The Wii Fit, for example, not only provides workouts and yoga routines, but charts progress and logs winners based on the amount of exercise completed. And the research seems to back up the trend. Studies have shown that video games are great not only for keeping youth active, but for relieving adult pain. Games are also known to lower blood pressure and and encourage movement in physiotherapy sessions. Doctors agree that although they’re not the most practical method of relieving pain, video games are better at relaxing patients than bed rest alone. Who knows, video games may be the future of medicine.
However, with all the new changes being made in the video game industry, one of the concerns is that these virtual exercises will discourage people from going outside. The fear is that people won’t be able to exercise without the aid of electronics. But, with many youth struggling with social interaction, playing sports indoors on a console may be more important than going outside. The important thing is that they’re playing with friends. Ultimately it falls to the child, whether he or she wants to kick a ball on the Wii or outside with friends.
The other day, I visited my cousins while they were playing Rock Band. There wasn’t a couch potato in sight.
Previously on Youth Radio:
O’Spada : Sweden’s Self-fulfilling Prophecy
There must be something in the water. In my search for new groundbreaking soul music, I find myself looking across the sea to Sweden and find a band from Stockholm that is able to draw from the best American influences and present those influences back to us in a totally original and fresh way. I got up with the lead voice of the Swedish band O’Spada, Julia Spada, who e-mailed in these responses to my five questions…
My favorite album of 2007 and 2008 was Little Dragon’s debut album. They’re from Gothenburg, Sweden. And now my new favorite band and lead singer is also from Stockholm. What is it about life in Sweden that brings about such good innovative music?
Thank you, I’m very flattered! Hmmm, that’s a very hard question, considering the fact that I hardly listen to any Swedish music myself (although I agree with you that Little Dragon made one of the best albums of 2007!). Maybe it started as coincidence, and know it’s part of the Swedish self image that we are "great exporters of pop music"? It’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I guess the biggest reason is the access to music, playing gives you skills and listening gives you inspiration. Musical education for children is comparatively cheap here. And Sweden is a wealthy nation where most people have access to recordings. Many Swedes could afford to buy music even before internet made it available, and now we have very fast internet connections…
All vocalist have their favorite voices that they modeled their vocal technique after. Who are some of your influences on the vocal side?
To name a few: Curtis Mayfield, Prince, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Sly Stone, Jorge Ben, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder.
How about the same question for song writing style? See above (most of them are great song writers).
Add Jill Scott, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Herbie Hancock, Burt Bacharach, Pharrell Williams, I could go on forever… Lyrically, I really admire people who can play with words. For example, I’m not a big Eminem fan, but I am very impressed with the way he fits the words and syllables together.
Describe your songwriting process, either with 35bag or as O’spada?
Sometimes, it starts with an idea for a subject I think could make good lyrics. But much more often, the melody comes first. I used to write my songs sitting by the piano (although I really can’t play it), vocally improvising a melody over the chords I beat the poor instrument with. Nowadays, I often write together with other people. Someone else comes up with the beat, and I write the melody and the lyrics for it. I love that way of writing, it’s very inspiring to have someone else’s point of view as a starting point, and it challenges me to write new types of songs. Since melody and lyrics are the things I do best, whereas chords isn’t really a huge talent of mine, I’m happy to leave that part to someone who is, in my opinion, more skilled at it. That’s the way I usually work with for example 35bag, and more and more with O’Spada too. We’ve always arranged the music together, the whole band contributing to the sound. But now they’re often present during the writing process too. We started out only playing my songs, but today, many of our songs are based on beats someone else in the band came up with.
When is the album coming out and what can music lovers expect sonically and lyrically?
The album will be released in February, but we’ll tease the listeners with some tracks before that. Music lovers can expect some angry, violent songs, some sugary boogie, some epic, heartbroken pieces, some crying guitar solos, lots of thick synthesizers, and some egocentric bragging.
Listen to O’Spada performing 5 new songs live on The Monocle Summer Series.
http://www.myspace.com/juliaspada (The Voice)
http://www.myspace.com/35bag (The Instruments)
http://www.myspace.com/ospada (The Band)
Health Care That’s on the House
In 2007, the US Census Bureau released a study reporting that 45.7 million Americans were without health insurance. Those living without health insurance often can’t afford basic checkups, let alone serious treatment.
On August 10-18, 2009, the Inglewood Forum (where Magic Johnson and the Lakers used to play) hosted a Remote Area Medical no-cost health care event. On each day 1,500 residents were allowed free access to medical, dental, and vision treatment, again making the Forum the place where the “magic happens.”
23-year-old Jamar Neighbors of Los Angeles has no health insurance. He took advantage of the opportunity to get medical treatment on the house.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: When Silence Leads to Abuse
I met Joseph Christopher Rocha standing outside San Francisco City Hall minutes after Proposition 8 was upheld. He stood with an American flag and a poised gaze, and I knew right away that this was someone I needed to interview.
Rocha spoke eloquently and passionately about his feelings on the ruling, only briefly mentioning his status as a gay veteran. We kept in touch, and when he mentioned via email that he was discharged because he came out as gay after years of abuse in his own unit, I realized that this story was much bigger than one interview outside City Hall could contain.
Parental discretion is advised.
Can Health Care Be Sexy?
Can health care be sexy?
I’m spending my morning perusing KQED’s recent coverage for stories to be retold by Youth Radio.
I choose some of the stories because I think they will benefit from coverage in a new platform. An interview about the Exploratorium’s new partnership with the Okeanos Explorer–let’s get some pictures; a story about Governor Schwarzenegger calling for more digital textbooks–how about talking to some students who will live the impact of the legislative changes. . . those stories are natural choices for a retelling.
But then there are stories like the budget crisis, health care reform, and California’s water politics. Important? You bet. Sexy? Not at all. How do you make such stories appealing not only in content but in delivery? And should we? Are we making the mistake that newspapers are often accused of making–are we dictating the news to our audience, instead of listening to our audience? And who are we to assume that a young audience is only interested in sexy news?
This is the challenge of the Digital Natives project, the questions we are living in our partnership.
Youth Radio is currently taking on health care. Will it be sexy? I don’t know. But I can tell you it’s not going to be somebody rapping “Single Payer Playah.”
In Other Words is Here!
Hello there. I’m proud to announce the launch of the In Other Words blog on kqed.org.
Actually this is a re-launch of sorts. In Other Words has been living at Youth Radio for a while now. KQED has decided they want a piece of the action.
The In Other Words blog is part of the Digital Natives project, a partnership between Youth Radio and KQED. The premise of the project is simple: two news organizations coming together to create content across a variety of platforms, informed by a youth perspective. The spirit of the project is exciting: experimentation, collaboration, innovation. The results will be, well, you have to come back to find out (or visit In Other Words at Youth Radio).
In Other Words will not only host the content that is produced, but give you a peek behind the collaboration curtain. We’ll also share resources and reflect on the role media and partnerships play in our lives. And of course, you’re part of the dialogue as well. So please, leave us your comments, your questions, your ideas. In Other Words, join the conversation.
Sincerely,
Amanda Stupi
Digital Natives Coordinating Senior Editor
Young Freelance Journalists Take Big Risks
By Youth Radio
When Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean prison camp we asked Josh Wolf- who holds the record in the U.S. for the longest stay in prison for a reporter protecting his source material- about why reporters take risks.
In the wake of the release of Ling and Lee, and the capture of journalist Shane Bauer by Iran, KQED-FM in San Francisco had writer and editor Andrew Lam on as a guest to talk about the subject. In that conversation Mr. Lam- who works for New American Media- talked about how young freelance journalists are putting themselves into dangerous situations without the same training and resources that reporters who work for the big news organizations have.
We followed up with Mr. Lam today on that topic, and on how the rise of citizen journalism is affecting the quality of information in the media today.
Why do young journalists take risks?
I think young journalists taking risks the same way that young people want adventures. The romantic notion of an intrepid reporter is still a very seductive notion even in an age of video games and internet. They want adventure. They are moved by injustices they perceive. They want to make a difference. I took a lot of risks myself when I started. Being of Vietnamese descent I nevertheless went to Cambodia in the early 90s and interviewed ex-Khmer Rouge fighters. I felt compelled to go after seeing the movie The Killing Fields. I learned a lot. But I nearly got shot one time in Batambang – a barrel of gun on forehead – and that taught me about taking risks. Personally, I don't think any story is worth dying for, but I didn't learn that from being at home. I learned that from being out there.
In your recent KQED interview you mentioned that freelancers and bureau reporters face the same challenges with totally different levels of resources. How much more prepared/equipped are bureau reporters compared to freelancers, and what will it mean for journalism as the foreign bureaus of the major news agencies are cut back?
A friend of mine working for AP was trained for what to do when taken hostage, what to do when under ambush, physical training with the military and so on, before she was sent to Iraq. And she was embedded. In other cases, those from a major news organizations come to a dangerous situation well prepared – with armored vehicle, interpreters and armed guards. They are given a certain level of protection. But we are in an era of receding foreign bureaus and major news organizations are under siege – there's no guarantee that newspapers will recover even when the economy does. What it means is that there'll be fewer protection for journalists out there. Have you seen CNN the last year or so? The i-reporters are taking over in a sense when a big story breaks. "Are you there?" CNN would ask. "send us your story?" Citizen can be reporters. Citizens are ENCOURAGED to be reporters. And many are stoked by it. They become active agents rather than receiver of news.
But they are not protected when they are overseas. They don't get the armored vehicles. They don't get the armed guards. They are far more vulnerable than the bureau chief of AP or Newsweek in Baghdad. If you get shot you don't have the resource to fly out by emergency airlift to a hospital in Germany for an emergency operation. You don't have major institutions standing behind you. You are not insured. You don't have all the right equipment like bullet proof jackets and helmets and so on.
The upside is that, as a young writer with ideals, you can do the story you want and ignore the story you don't want to do, because you're not under contract but selling your story piecemeal. You don't have to go through the traditional route like in the old day of internship and then years of a boring beat like city hall reporting before you get a juicy assignment. You can land in a city in chaos – and be the only reporter on the scene. It fits some temperament but it comes with an enormous amount of risks.
I think major news organizations will rely on these young, independent roamers more and more in the future as the foreign bureaus become a thing of the past. It's a way to supplement the wire stories – AP, AFP, UPI, etc – which are skeletal at best at a time when our engagement overseas are increasing with no end in sight. But the question remains: how much responsibility do news organizations have toward these young writers out there? Do they tell them: Think twice before you go. Take precaution before you go. Don't take unnecessary risks if you don't have to. Or do they say, go ahead, we'll pay for that story if you do go?
Personally, I think news organizations should ask themselves regarding what policies they have toward these stringers rather than just spurring them on for the sake of having more content. But that's my personal opinion.
As the major news agencies disintegrate we’re seeing the rise of citizen journalists. Do you think this is going to be a net gain or loss for the depth and breadth of reporting locally and abroad?
I already addressed the citizen journalist issue above. I think there's a lot to be gained when practically everyone is equipped – by having a cell phone you can record, take picture, send stories – to do basic reporting. The future is one where the reporter on the scene is inevitably someone who happens to be there when something happens. The victims can also be reporter. Think of the terrorism event in Bombay last November. Most of the stories that came out were from people in the Taj hotel texting while hiding from terrorists.
There was an amazing footage I saw in CNN when this student was running out of a building in Sichuan before it collapsed when the earthquake hit. He had his cellphone recording everything. When he got out the building collapsed. It got a few million hits in the first few days. But he's not going to be able to make sense of that story. He's not going to be an accountable reporter who gives the larger picture. That comes with experience, professionalism, and it comes later, when reporters show up with interviews of officials, and scientists, and many victims themselves. But the nature of journalism is changing and changing fast.
But accountability is still important. In India, when the radio station interviewed one politician who happily declared that "my friends are fine. They texted me. They are hiding in the ballroom upstairs on the Taj." No one seems to think twice about this: That the terrorists also have cell phones, have access to internet, radio, and tv. Who's accountable for this sort of thing?
And in Greece, last December, the twitterers who sent out message regarding the shooting of a youth suggested that he was killed in cold blood – shot point blank. The city erupted in flame. I was there. Everyone relied on those initial reports as fact. No one seemed to care what the policeman said: that he shot up and the bullet ricocheted. The coroner's report showed a few days later that the bullet was dented, meaning that it hit something hard, which goes in line with what the cop said. By then, of course, it was too late. Thousands of shops were looted and hundreds burned.
I think accountability, and verifying the facts are still the realm of serious journalism. I think content is one thing but providing Context still belongs to the realm of the professional, mature newsroom. Context belongs to the ombudsman, the writer who can provide context and big picture.
And you won't get that from anyone with just a cell phone and quick thumb.
Also, Andrew Lam's Letter From Athens: Greek Tragedies & the News Media in the Age of Twitter is a MUST-READ for those interested in the future of journalism.
Junking the Clunk
By King Anyi Howell
Now that the Senate has approved an extra $2 billion for the Cash For Clunkers program, it seems like a good time to add my voice of dissent to the fray.
I live in LA where driving is a necessity, and I not only can't afford to buy a new car (even with an extra $5,000 in my pocket as credit), but I am also in the school of thought that certain clunkers under the age of 25 are classics. Cars like the 1985 Ford Mustang, 1986 Mercury Cougar, and 1986 Cadillac Fleetwood are eligible for trade-ins, but if I owned any of these vehicles, you'd have to pry my cold dead fingers off their steering wheels.
As we've heard from a variety of experts, from environmentalists to economists, there’s a serious downside to destroying all of these auto parts. Jeffrey Miron, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, said on KQED's Forum program, “That’s an absolute resource cost. That’s a loss to all society that those resources are just being destroyed.” Since the most clunked-out gas-guzzling cars are over 25, their exclusion from the program means this effort ends up being more about boosting auto sales and less about saving the ecosystem.
The good news for those of us who can't afford to just get a brand new car, even with $3k-$4k knocked off the price, is that wrecking yards have 180 days from the day they receive these "clunkers" to demolish them. Yards, like Aadlen Bros., in Sun Valley, take advantage of this time window by allowing customers "pick and pull" all non-engine & drive-shaft parts. If you drive a Cadillac, like me, this is especially good information, because while a new part might cost and arm and a leg, used parts pulled from another car usually cost around a pinky nail.
It's nearly impossible to find incentives for consumers who want to be more fuel efficient. Unless you were $3,500-$4,500 short of purchasing your new dream car, participating in the program doesn't make much sense and could possibly drive you into debt. So I say, don't sell your 8-cylinder soul to the devil! Keep your Clunker!
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