When Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John Kennedy, recently endorsed Barack Obama, she said one of the reasons was her three teenaged children who began “convincing” her last year. And while Caroline Kennedy’s children cannot vote, the momentum of this year’s election is infecting their age group.
In light of this political enthusiasm, Y-Press, a youth-media organization, is trying to explore the younger-than-voting-age factor. The Indianapolis-based youth journalists have created two surveys to learn what kids under 18 think about the important issues and candidates of the 2008 election.
The surveys touch on questions such as: Are this year’s presidential candidates reaching out to young? How has user-generated content affected this year’s election?
“We hope to get kids from all different parts of the country to answer the questions candidly,” Mallory St. Claire, 17, a Y-Press editor said. “Some of the results will be used to quiz politicians when Y-Press travels to the conventions later in the year.”
Y-Press is looking for kids who are willing to spend 20 minutes online, sharing their views about which issues matter to them.
The online surveys are a project of Y-Press’s 2008 coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in partnership with What Kids Can Do, a Providence, R.I.. nonprofit. WKCD was founded in 2001 in order to promote positive perceptions of youth.
“Many times youth voices are unheard. We feel that today’s youth are invaluable resources that must be tapped,” said 15-year-old Jonathan Gainer, a Y-Press editor. “Completing the surveys and being interviewed for the subsequent stories is the beginnings of being heard.”
If you are interested in helping to get young people involved, please direct them to the survey, go to www.ypress.org or www.whatkidscando.org.
Y-Press is a nonprofit youth-media organization in Indianapolis that research, reports, and writes feature stories and radio commentaries by youth ages 10-18. To learn more about Y-Press and view samples of youth journalists’ work, go to www.ypress.org, or call 317-444-2010. Contact Mallory St. Claire for further information.