Media, Youth, and Civic Engagement Fact Sheet

Published by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), this 4-page fact sheet pulls together the latest information on the role of media in youth civic participation in the United States. It reviews how the media is used to get out the vote, ways television and movies depict politics and government, and how the Internet is used to engage youth (age 18-25) in civic and political activities.

Some of the media projects mentioned include:

• "Rock the Vote, established by music industry leaders to connect the entertainment community and the youth culture, coordinates media campaigns and activities that empower young people with projects such as Community Street Team, Human Relations Campaign, Rap the Vote, RTV Latino, and Rock the Native Vote. Online voter information and registration forms, weekly text messaging via cell phones about election news updates, reminders to vote and information about polling locations, even advertising partnerships with clothing manufacturers, are part of its effort to get out the youth vote.
• Choose or Lose 2004, a partnership of MTV and a diverse coalition of youth organizations, including Rock the Vote, Hip-Hop Team, WWE's Smackdown Your Vote!, New Voter’s Project, Declare Yourself, and the Youth Vote Coalition, focuses on the shared goal of registering 20 million youth to vote in the presidential election. The '20 Million Loud' movement merges on-air, online and offl ine media in a number of high-profi le events that include MTV news specials, concerts, and grassroots events, as well as a Pre-Lection for 18-30 year-old registered voters to cast their ballot in a simulated, secure cyberspace election during the weeks before the election.
• Declare Yourself, a project of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, rallied young people to vote with a multimedia education and empowerment campaign that featured voter registration forms on its website. Billboards in Times Square, which also appeared as ads in magazines aimed at youth readers, sent the message 'Only you can silence yourself' using visuals of Christina Aguilera and Andre 3000 with their mouths sewn shut. PSAs [public service announcements] on Comedy Central and streaming online versions featured an and streaming online versions featured an array of celebrities who parodied makeup and pet food commercials that depicted the stars’ mouth sealed, bolted or muzzled. Televised concerts and nationwide live spoken word and music tours were also used to get out the youth vote."

Provided by the KFF's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, this is the twelfth in a series of reports and fact sheets on topics related to children, media and health that pull together the most relevant research on such issues as the digital divide, TV violence, teens online, media ratings, and children and video games.