There’s a problem with local media across the country: it doesn’t exist. That’s an exaggeration, but it’s true that local newsrooms have slowly been shrinking and going out of business. While there are many—often overlapping or interlinked—reasons for this trend, the more important question in this case is what the response to it has been among local news advocates. One solution that has been presented is to incorporate members of the local community into the process of producing news. The Arlington Amp—a podcast and media training program for teenagers, originally created as a part of Arlington Independent Media’s Youth Journalism Initiative—took inspiration from this Roadmap for Local News and this lecture by Jennifer Brandel that lay out how this unconventional media production process can work.
If you are looking for a more personal understanding of the Arlington Amp, we already made a whole Manifesto outlining the Amp’s philosophy, goals, and strategy. The ultimate mission of the students currently running the Arlington Amp is to strengthen community media in the County (and the region) by simultaneously giving teenagers a platform to strengthen their media skills while creating a respected source for deep, thoughtful storytelling in Arlington. We are currently trying many things to grow the program and reach our long-term goals, including creating a new series called Amp Presents, where we aim to showcase work from local teenagers that wasn’t directly produced through the Arlington Amp. We hope that by creating a platform for students to submit their work that doesn’t necessarily conform to the Arlington Amp’s editorial style, we can start to build a youth journalism community that goes beyond what we currently do.
This collaboration with the ACC Chronicle is another strategy to hopefully grow the reach of the Arlington Amp and give more students the opportunity to take advantage of the Amp’s resources. Our students have seen a lot of success, having been on panels about the value of local news, produced media for PBS, won film festivals, and been featured on WAMU, Greater Greater Washington, ARLnow, Voice of America, and more.
Hopefully, you can now see the value in the Arlington Amp’s mission. However, we cannot achieve our vision alone. The challenges we face in growing and sustaining this program require the support of passionate individuals, community members, and organizations that recognize the importance of local storytelling and youth engagement.
We currently need help with:
- Equipment for recording and editing multimedia/broadcast journalism
- Experienced mentors to come to our meetings, giving feedback/guidance to students and strengthening the program long-term
- A definitive host organization who can help support and bridge the gap between generations of student leaders
If you may be interested in either joining as a student, publishing your work via the Amp Presents series, or have ideas on how to help with the aforementioned points, please contact us at: [email protected]
