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Case Studies in Youth Media Distribution

by Jen Gilomen, Lead Developer of Strategic Initiatives
Published January 31, 2009

These case studies were created by the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) for Youth Digital Filmmakers, a project of California Council for the Humanities (CCH) with support from ZeroDivide.  (Learn more about Youth Digital Filmmakers and our Distribution Toolkit.) They are intended to serve as a distribution reference for youth media practitioners, producers, program managers, and distributors.  It is the project partners' hope that sharing the results of our efforts will aid youth media distributors in their planning process, and in estimating the effort involved in distributing their youth pieces, ultimately increasing their audience sizes and potential impact.

Background

BAVC has extensive experience serving youth through our Next Generation Programs, and has made a concerted effort as an organization to distribute the work of our youth producers. BAVC youth-produced music is distributed through our youth record label BUMP Records, with partnerships for online distribution through various well-known music distributors. Nearly every BAVC program includes at least one public performance or community screening event in which the media producers connect directly to audience members. BAVC youth-produced films have screened in several well-attended film festivals, academic conferences, community events, traveling festivals, and museums.  Additionally, some of our most popular youth pieces have been viewed online tens of thousands of times.  But getting work "out there" -- or better yet, seen by its intended audience and with intended results/impact -- is something that takes time and effort.  Below is some findings that are the results of our experience and these case studies.

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Unique aspects of youth media distribution

Compared to "general" media distribution, the distribution of youth media can be characterized as:

  1. Educational/social as opposed to commercial in intent
  2. Resources for distribution (financial, staff time) are typically more limited
  3. Venues for distribution are highly specialized/targeted (audience, geography, community), requiring a hands-on effort to identify, approach, and follow up with each potential venue/avenue
  4. Exhibition can be an equally important learning experience for producer as for audience member, favoring face-to-face presentations, public speaking and leadership opportunities for young producers, online communication and social networking, audience interaction, dialogue
Format of the case studies

Each case study shows a sample of the media (an excerpt or an entire piece), basic data about the project and its producing entity, and details distribution efforts and results.  Distribution efforts were managed centrally by a BAVC Distribution assistant, who worked part-time (15 to 20 hours/week) for three months (a typical duration for an internship) to distribute the entire YDF collection on a double-disk set, as well as six organizations' projects to specific targets. In using these case studies to estimate your own work, assume that similar efforts -- creating DVDs, conducting research, mailing submissions and screeners, following up, documenting the results -- could take approximately 20 - 30 hours total per project; efficiency increases when you are distributing more than one project at a time.

Related articles

Examining the audience impact of distributing youth media:
http://www.issuelab.org/research/youth_medias_impact_on_audience_and_channels_of_distribution

Related toolkit:
https://media.iearn.org/gallery2/d/58657-2/YMDiBrief.pdf

Articles from youth media reporter; case study on specific youth media organization:
http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2008/06/meaningful_distribution_involv.html

Related case study article:
http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2007/07/creating_conversation_baltimor.html

Examining what works and what doesn't in distribution:
http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2006/07/getting_discovered.html

Article about building a national distribution network for youth and finding new distribution outlets:
http://www.mediarights.org/news/articles/the_right_to_be_seen_and_heard.php