Grassroots Media

Media has become an extension of an individual’s life, as predicted by McLuhan. Youth today have shown an innate desire to express and share the events that are happening around them much more then ever before. In doing so they create a common awareness in their neighborhood thus taking on a crucial leadership role of setting/proposing a shared agenda for a community. Sometimes they play this role without being conscious of it.

CYC’s Creative Media & Policy Group equips youth at the grassroots with media tools and resources to enhance the positive social impact in community. We work with organisations and individuals interested in using media for setting common agendas in the community.

Creating a Niche for Youth Voices in Mainstream

At the same time these voices find echoes in other situations and communities. Thus putting them out in the larger mainstream world has great value as well. Unfortunately in the increasing babble and the labyrinthine corridors of the mega media institutions, may not be heard effectively.

CMPG, therefore, helps young grassroots media activists walk the bridge across to larger and relevant audiences. We also understand that mainstream media practitioners need sensitization and exposure to issues & aspirations of youth beyond taking at them as passive consumes of media products.

Using diverse media as a key strategy and a tool, CYC is working to engage with select stakeholders such as mainstream media, civil society organizations, youth and the larger civil society, building visibility and appreciation of the youth issues. Further we actively work with young people, especially from marginalised communities to build their capacity to function effectively in a media environment using tools such as Community Video. We believe that media has the potential to empower young people to express themselves and effect changes around them.

We feel that this two-pronged strategy in the long run, would take the youth issue to the mainstream, build support for it, set the ground for the creation of a strong voice, and lead towards crystallizing a unified approach and a conducive environment for youth participation and citizenship in India.

Our Creative Media & Policy initiatives are bracketed in two broad categories:

• Catalyst Corner ... Where CYC is focusing on exchanges and partnerships with different stakeholders with the intent of creating shared values networks to enhance outreach and dialogue spaces pertaining to youth development and citizenship. With the network partners, CYC is strengthening the focus and outreach on youth issues across different sectors and stakeholder groups.

  Catalyst Corner initiatives include Commutiny Media Network, Commutiny Mainstream Media Fellowship and Learning Oppertunities for young people.

• Alchemist Adda ... Where CYC is using knowledge it is developing through its work with youth, research and documentation efforts to generate creative resources, new knowledge and products that bridge the information void, build appreciation of youth issues, highlight its different facets and celebrate youth participation. Alchemist Adda initiatives include our Social Media intervention, conducting research on Youth Issues and the proposed Youth Resource Center.