Youth Media Revolution to Sweep the Pacific!

Soon, the Pacific will be abuzz with a variety of youth tailored media programmes, lighting up new opportunities for young people to connect with each other, share ideas and learn about important life issues in a fun manner like never before.

On the 8^th of February 2008, 20 committed youth volunteers from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Tonga will engage in a five week online training course in new forms of media including blogging, podcasting and social networking sites. The volunteers will also learn about how to create effective digital content to display and share through their new social media platforms.

Following the completion of their training, the 20 volunteers, 10 from PNG and 10 from Tonga, will move to create fresh youth focused media programmes through all these mediums, leading to a youth media revolution in the Pacific. Ebonie Fifita, volunteer and participant from Tonga said, "The interactive, youth focused and fresh media programmes created will be accessible to thousands of young people across the countries, and will be broadcast and maintained by the volunteers in a sustainable manner". These programmes will include new youth-focused radio shows and a youth television show in Tonga.

Although young people comprise a majority of the population in countries like PNG and Tonga, they have often been marginalised and devoid of opportunities for their voices to be heard. Furthermore, there have been very few if none, youth focused media programmes for young people to share their thoughts, and learn about vital issues ranging from preventable diseases to values such as education and culture. This deprives them of a valuable opportunity to learn and develop and also of an avenue to share their thoughts for a better society.

The programme was initiated and organized by Pacifikayouth.org (formerly Youth for a Sustainable Future Pacifika) who have been empowering Pacific youth for four years through initiatives such as the Pacific Youth MDG Summit in 2005, the Pacific Youth MDG Toolkit in 2006 and advisory roles to key development organisations on youth policy.

MediaSnackers, who are coordinating the training with partners from the UK, Germany and Italy will focus on empowering the participants to think about sharing their local stories to a global audience. MediaSnackers founder said. "It's an honour to be involved in such a unique project. Nothing like this has ever been done before and we're looking forward to seeing, reading, watching and hearing the content which is going to be produced."

The programme is facilitated through the innovative online learning portal developed by Youth Action for Change who have won several global awards for their pioneering work.

The programme is being piloted in PNG and Tonga initially with plans to expand into other Pacific countries later in the year.

Related Websites:

• Media Snackers: Pacific Youth
• Pacifika Youth
• Youth Action for Change