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.
Teens Talk About Their Health
Last night’s Health Dialogues focused on teen health. The on-air pieces included a round table discussion with students from Burton High School in San Francisco, a look at an anti-bullying program in Lake County, and a visit to a group in Fresno that focuses on healthy decision making. Personally, I’m thrilled to see a show about teenagers that actually included teens themselves. And you can be part of the conversation too. Visit the Health Dialogues site, listen to what other teens had to say, and then tell us what you have to say. Come on. You know you want a chance to vent.
Waiting for the Thick Envelope: Part Two
The California Report continued their look at the current admissions squeeze at the University of California. Today’s story features a senior at Miramonte High School in Orinda, who had this to say about applying to colleges: “I don’t know what else they want me to be. I’m trying my best.”
The series will also air as part of Health Dialogue’s Coming of Age: Teen Health episode, which airs tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. The Health Dialogues website will feature an online discussion about the stress of college admissions– so tune in, logon, and tell us what’s hard about waiting.
Waiting for the Thick Envelope
The California Report aired the first in its two-part series looking at high school seniors waiting to hear whether or not they were accepted into the University of California system. The system received a record number of applications this year despite a tuition increase of about 30% and cutting the number of spots available in the incoming class. Officials say cutting those spots will make maintaining diversity at UC even harder.
From Youth Radio: Couple Offers Marriage Advice via Twitter
There are lots of Valentine’s Day related stories out there. There’s Salon’s What to Click, an exhaustive list of all things Valentine’s on the web, Leah Garchick’s annual column featuring overhead comments about love and a piece by the New York Times on the dangerous health problems caused by the Ecuadorean rose industry.
But it was a Youth Radio piece that alerted me to news that a couple that has been married for 85 years will be offering relationship advice via Twitter on Valentine’s Day. Read the full piece at Youth Radio.org and submit your questions to @longestmarried.
Are You Willing To Pay for News?
Yesterday, NPR’s Talk of the Nation examined the future of news. Guests included Ken Doctor, author of Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape The News You Get and David Cohn, director and founder of Spot.us.
Trying to predict the future of news is certainly not new, but Doctor did bring up some interesting facts–like his assertion that since 2007 one million stories went uncovered because of a decline in the number of working journalists.
Doctor talked about newspapers’ struggle during this “hybrid period,” where news lives partly in the print world and partly in the digital world. He quickly pointed out that the future is purely digital and mentioned several new models and partnerships that are proving successful. One such model is California Watch, an investigative news organization that occasionally shares content with KQED. Their blog post about a partnership between community colleges and Kaplan is a must read for any advocate of affordable higher education.
Listen to the full discussion at npr.org.
Teens and the Internet
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released their latest findings today. The report compares internet, social media and mobile phone use for three groups: teens ages 12-17, young adults ages 18-29, and adults 30 and over.
Here are the highlights:
Teens seem to be replacing blogging (only 14 percent of online teens maintain a blog) with updating their status on social networking sites. 73 percent of teens use social networking sites, an increase from 55 percent in 2004. And what about MySpace– does anyone still use it? Well, sort of. 66 percent of young adults surveyed had a MySpace profile, while only 36 percent of adults over 30 did. Unfortunately, the survey didn’t specify how many online teens have MySpace profiles. One thing is clear though–teens don’t tweet. Only 8% of online teens had a Twitter account.
Click here to read the full report online at Pew Internet.org.
The Art of Sign Spinning
By David Cruz
Sign spinning, the job of holding a sign two feet by six on a street corner for hours at a time, has developed into a display of dance and wit. A display that, luckily for advertisers, is hard to ignore. There’s even a national competition where spinners are judged on technique, style and execution. The California Report caught up with a local advertising company at a spin-off to decide which of its sign spinners would move on to the national event.
Watch a video of the competition and listen to the audio report below:
In Case You Missed It: The State of the Union
Last week, President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address. The original speech lasted more than an hour. Lucky for you, we put the highlights in a handy dandy two-minute video.
If that got your political juices flowing and you want to know more about the speech, here are some resources worth checking out:
The New York Times.com put together an interactive timeline of the address
Factcheck.org offers non-partisan analysis
KQED’s Forum talked to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) about the speech
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