Media and Communications - Projects

Youthworx. Youth Media and Social Enterprise ARC

Denise Meredyth, Julian Thomas, David MacKenzie, Ellie Rennie

This five year ARC-funded collaboration with The Salvation Army and SYN-FM follows the impact on marginalised young people of Youthworx, a scheme enabling them to become trainees and producers in a youth-run community radio station. Youthworx exemplifies a new convergence between media diversity, innovation and fresh approaches to endemic social problems. Research will follow entrants to the program, over five years, as marginalised young people are challenged to become active creative producers and decision-makers. It will document the Youthworx project as a new model of social investment, offering marginalised young people the chance to extend their interest and skills as new media users and producers. Study of what young people do with the chance to be independent media producers will open new research on the link between growing diversity in independent media, young people as media users and creators and innovation, and diversity in Australian media and creative industries. This longitudinal study will have broader significance for social, educational and media research, tracking convergence between new social policy and emergent innovation and diversity in the Australian media system. 

Background information on SYN-FM (PDF file)