with Verena Prescher, 17, Monica Martin, 16, Kibuchi Banfield, 16, Tarissa Whitely, 16 and Dioni Vasquez, 16, of Children's PressLine

March 22, 2004

MTV newsman Gideon Yago takes a picture of himself during a break in Iraq war coverage (courtesy of MTV).

"I remember when I was a little kid [MTV] had celebrities, like Madonna, shoot advertisements in which they would try and get people motivated to go out and vote," says Nily Rozic, 17, of Fresh Meadows, NY. "Well, in the next election, I'll be eighteen. And, I know that I will definitely be voting. I have no doubt about it. Having campaigns and political issues on the major networks gets the word out for young kids."

Rozic is one of the estimated 17 million 14- to 17-year-olds living in the United States today. Listening to her, one might guess that pop culture icons like Madonna play a large part in influencing teens to become politically engaged citizens.

But that isn't the full story.

Young Skeptics
For instance, not every teen thinks MTV is the best source for news.

New York City resident Max Rosenberg, 14, says, "MTV is less focused on reporting. If they only do a 5-minute story on the war in Iraq, you can't even begin to grasp the war in Iraq in 5 minutes because there are so many different points and so many different views. It's like somebody describing a school by one random kid. It isn't a good way of learning."

May Lee, 14, also from New York City agrees. "Often the pop culture and their opinion get mixed in with the fact," she says. "It comes to a point where no one knows what is happening when you have the serious facts over there and the jokes over here—no one knows what is true anymore."

MTV sometimes holds televised debates with national candidates running for political office. In the 1992 Presidential race, one question had to do with whether the candidates preferred boxers or briefs. And in a televised Democratic primary debate which aired on CNN in November 2003, a young woman asked whether the candidates used PC computers or Macs.

(In the latter instance, the questioner reportedly said that producers had pushed her to pose the question for entertainment value.)

"It's all made for the public viewing," says Monica Martin, 16, of New York City. "Everything they say is going to be geared towards making you feel a certain way. It can take the most serious subject and make it into something comical, you know? So you can't really take your sources from there."

Media Matters
However, some teens say MTV and other youth-oriented media meet their information needs better than traditional news outlets.

"I have a short attention span," says Kibuchi Banfield, 16, from New York City. "When I want somebody to explain something to me, I want them to do that quick. MTV does that. It gives me the information I need in a short amount of time."

Reilly Capps, 25, a reporter with the Boston Globe, recently sat down for an interview with Gideon Yago, also 25, host of a variety of MTV news shows. Capps says Yago has developed credibility with some young people: "Kids seem to like him. He puts sort of an 'average guy' vibe out. He doesn't talk down to you. He's a little bit on the geeky side and he doesn't have that 'holier than thou' attitude that so many TV personalities end up with. It's like you're listening to your smart friend over by the lockers."

Besides MTV, lots of teens also tune in to NBC's Saturday Night Live and Comedy Central's The Daily Show, hosted by comedian Jon Stewart.

"I happen to love The Daily Show," says Rozic. "I think Jon Stewart's satirical, sarcastic mockery of everything political just makes it so lighthearted."

"I also [liked] the SNL (Saturday Night Live) coverage of the 2000 election," she continues. "I thought that was really funny. I know a lot of people who, through shows like Saturday Night Live, find out about the issues and they get educated on what's going on."

Living in a Material World
While more and more individuals and institutions rooted in pop culture are getting involved in efforts to encourage youth engagement in politics, it all goes back to MTV.

Visit the Rock the Vote Web site [1].

The music television network, founded in 1981, started airing commercials for a campaign called Rock the Vote in 1990. Rock the Vote was founded by members of the recording industry in response to what they called a "wave of attacks" from the government on freedom of speech and artistic expression. The likes of Iggy Pop, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Woody Harrelson voiced their support for the campaign in a series of public service announcements titled "Censorship is UnAmerican."

In 1991, Rock the Vote threw its growing visibility behind the National Voter Registration Reform Act, making it easier to register. The bill was vetoed by President Bush senior, but was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993.

Throughout the 1990s, Rock the Vote continued to produce ads with artists like Aerosmith, Queen Latifah, Madonna, Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and others.

In 1998 the campaign began to focus more on helping young people get involved in the civic and political lives of their communities. It has sponsored voter registration drives and developed guides to political activism, distributing them in record stores, community organizations and schools. At the same time, MTV has started rolling out "Choose or Lose" informational bus tours.

But while Rock the Vote claims success in getting young people to the polls, voter participation among young people overall has decreased dramatically since the program was first instituted in 1990. (See Connect for Kids' "Uncle Sam's Kids" [2])

Wrestling and Rapping for Votes
For evidence that the trend towards using pop culture to push political participation is going mainstream, take the current partnership between World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. and the good old League of Women Voters.

WWE founded the "Smackdown Your Vote!" campaign in July 2000. It's a partnership of organizations taking a non-partisan approach to getting young people involved in the political process and registered to vote.

At a National Press Club press conference in February 2004 the WWE released a voter issue paper called the "18 to 30 VIP," which highlights issues like education, the economy and the Iraq war.

Visit the WWE "Smackdown Your Vote!" Web site. [3]

When Chris Nowinski, a WWE wrestler in his twenties, hit the stage to promote youth engagement, more than one teenage girl in the audience was overheard saying, "He's so hot."

John Cena, another WWE wrestler, pointed out that voting isn't just for "suits."

"They told me to wear a suit and tie today—this was the best I could do," said Cena, referring to his yellow sports jersey, the gold chains around his neck, and his backward baseball cap. "To be honest, I didn't vote in 2000," Cena continued. "I didn't feel like I had a voice. 2004—this is the year we make our voices heard. I'm not wearing a suit and tie, but our voices will be heard."

In addition to the League, the Harvard Institute of Politics and other voter mobilization groups are partnering with WWE on this effort.

The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network uses hip-hop music to advocate for the well-being of youth throughout the United States. Recently, it began a new initiative called "Hip-Hop Team Vote" with a goal to register 20 million new voters over the next five years.

Visit the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. [4]

According to the organization, its Houston Hip-Hop Summit in January 2004 drew an over-capacity crowd of newly registered young voters. During two weeks of grass-roots effort and Internet mobilizing in a seven-county area of southeast Texas including Houston and Harris County, over 20,000 youth were reportedly registered to vote and encouraged to vote on Election Day.

Worth It?
Organizations like the nonprofit, nonpartisan Council for Excellence in Government are spending time and resources to figure out how candidates can best reach young people. Some researchers want to know if pop culture is an effective pathway to engaging youth so they will make the effort to vote once they hit 18.

Gus Spelman, 14, from Forest Hills, NY, already believes that it is. "I think it is a good way to get people who don't necessarily vote, interested in politics," he says. "John Edwards announced his candidacy on the Daily Show and Howard Dean was on the cover of Rolling Stone. I think it is good that they are doing this because they are reaching a broader audience."

Long Island City resident Danielle Williams, 16, likes what happens when pop culture mixes with politics. "You have entertainment and you have seriousness and you have opinion and you have facts and you put them together and you have your own opinion," she says. "I don't like just facts because sometimes facts are just boring on their own. It helps you realize that the people you like to watch on TV can be serious and have a brain too."

Children's PressLine [5]is a news service by young people that adds the voices of children into the national dialogue. All New York reporting was conducted by Children's PressLine reporters.

Resource:

• Connect for Kids' Kids Question the Candidates [6] highlights some Children's PressLine journalists in action during the recent Democratic primaries
• Connect for Kids' Uncle Sam's Kids [7] explores youth political engagement

Rob Capriccioso is a former staff writer for Connect for Kids.