New media for youth empowerment

MTDS is supporting the Association Tanmia.ma in its current strategy to empower Moroccan youth to become multimedia content producers in the Web 2.0 era. The next generation Web, popularized by sites such Flickr ou YouTube, is quickly transforming the Internet user from a passive consumer to an active contributor in a global network. The appeal of this new form of social networking is strongest among the “younger generation” and offers opportunities to channel disaffected youth into positive forms of community participation.

In the context of the USAID/ALEF project, MTDS recently developed a guide “Podcasting A-Z” for the Association Tanmia. The online version of the guide is available at podcast.tanmia.ma. It features detailed instructions for creating multimedia media content for the web including tips on how to develop a story and capture a message using audio and video techniques. The guide will be used to train middle school students to produce audio and video projects and post them to the web in the context of school journalism projects.

The Association Tanmia will implement a similar project with UNICEF/UNFPA in their “Youth and Development” programs using the same MTDS produced guide.

In another Association Tanmia project currently pending approval by the European Union, MTDS will provide project management and technical support for mobilizing and training youth associations to produce audio and video content on democracy and governance themes.