Archives for February 2011

Youth Ask Award Shows: Who’s Calling The Shots?

Feb. 26, 2011 Last Sunday in the New York Times, a full page paid “open letter” from 20-year music industry veteran Steve Stoute lambasted the gaming of the Grammys with full tilt incredulity for the “What was that all about?" outcome we witnessed last week, with almost 'canned' performances as the teens with me stated wryly, "You can tell who's gonna win by who's performing on … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth is Expanding: Sneak Peek and Needs Please?

Feb 22, 2011 Breaking into The Power of Play series for a sneak peek into what's occupying so much of my time...expanding Shaping Youth's web presence. No secret that I’m a media maven that's media phobic on the soundbite circuit of talk shows...Also that as a writer/producer I'm more comfy behind a cam than in front of it. So for those who lobbied hard to "go with video, … [Read more...]

Power of Play Pt3: Active Video Games In Schools?

Feb. 15, 2011 “What if…?” Those two words have ignited innovation for centuries, so what better way to harness the Power Of Play than pairing health science thought leaders and industry entrepreneurs in a room of no holds barred brainstorming to get active play moving beyond the ever-important recess? In Part Three of this Power of Play series, (Part One and  Part Two here) … [Read more...]

Youth in Egypt: Freedom, Phones- And A New World Media Order

Feb 12, 2011 I love editorial cartoons… they’re storytellers in a sound bite, with a wink and nod to profound societal changes and a snappy headline to boot. I use cartoons in media literacy deconstruction a lot, because like meaningful manga and graphic novels, they ‘cut to the chase’ with youth appeal and enable us to uncork deeper conversations in give and take style; a … [Read more...]

Black Teens, Red Pumps, & SexTech 2011

Feb. 7, 2011 We interrupt this series on the Power of Play to bring you an important public service announcement on behalf of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day today. (Yep, just think of this as Superbowl Ads for nonprofits) “Black teens (ages 13–19) represent only 15% of all teenagers in the U.S. but are 68% of new AIDS cases among teens,” reports The Red Pump Project … [Read more...]