Information for Youth Journalists

The beauty of the Youth Citizen Journalist Network is that it is inclusive.

Young people from middle school through high school are invited ... encouraged ... to participate as reporters and writers of factual articles and opinions ranging in length from one sentence to complete essays and articles.

Bill Moyers, a television commentator and former White House Press Secretary, said it best: "The quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined."

The youth citizen-journalist will write about the issues confronting our nation as well as broader topics such as democracy and the importance of voting.

As the 2010 General Election approaches, youth journalists will write about candidates for public office, specifically the Senatorial and Congressional candidates who will be on their states' ballots for the National Student/Parent Mock Election.

Their work, to be published by YCJN, will serve to energize the nation's youth and urge them to participate in the National Student/Parent Mock Election.

Today's Technology

The use of today's technology ... the cell phone and the computer ... are the primary ways young journalists will communicate with YCJN.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace are just four of the free social-network services that serve as vehicles for transmitting articles, opinions, photos, and videos to YCJN.

These are the media today's youth use every day. They have already become important tools professional journalists use to send text, photos and video to their newspapers and broadcast stations.

What to Write

Anything from one sentence to an essay, from a quote you have heard to a complete report on an interview is fair game with YCJN.

You can write a summary sentence of what you have written on your personal blog or website and then link your blog to that summary on, for example, Twitter or MySpace.

If you, as a citizen-journalist, have an idea for an article related to democracy, social issues or the importance of voting, you can use Facebook, Twitter or another service to gather quotes and facts.

You can then "publish" each fact, each quote or an entire article on YCJN.

How YCJN Will Publish Your Work

Information sent to YCJN will be "published" first within each state's collection. The states listed on this page are those chosen for the pilot project in 2009 and 2010.

The project will be expanded to include all states as YCJN gears up for the National Student/Parent Mock Election in October 2012.

Our editors will read every "tweet," every video, every opinion. As common threads or themes are identified, they will be merged into articles for the national news presentation.

Editors and professional mentors will help youth citizen-journalists to develop, expand and fine-tune their contributions before they are published.

Where to Send What You Write

The Youth Citizen Journalism Network uses the same ID, regardless of whether you use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or YouTube.

Our IDs are: youthcjnetwork and YCJN .

You can go into any of the social networks, conduct a search using "youthcjnetwork" or "YCJN" and send us what you have written.

YCJN editors will continuously scan the various "youthcjnetwork" and "YCJN" folders to retrieve what the nation's youth citizen-journalists have sent us.