Inspired by the success of our first virtual event, YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia and WireTap are proud to announce the second monthly Youth Media Blog-a-Thon to kick off on Wednesday March 19th.

We are calling all young bloggers (between the ages of 14-26) – along with any bloggers dedicated to writing about youth issues and youth media – to blog on March. 19th about: Violence and its effects on youth and our communities.

Here are some ideas to address in your blog posts:
• What do you think causes violence in your community?
• Tell personal stories of how violence has affected your life or your community.
• Is there a positive organization, individual, or a group of volunteers, who are succeeding at curbing the violence in your community? What do they do that works?
• Recent polls have shown that the number one issue for young people – especially in California – is violence, but the Presidential candidates rarely address this. Why?
• How do you and people in your community deal with issues of international violence, like the War in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Taking into consideration that it is International Women’s Month, write about the connections between gender and violence.
• Is there anything that can be done to curb the school shooting incidents that have been happening for the past 10 years?
• Do you think that media – movies, video games and music – influence young people’s behavior when it comes to violence?

If you are interested in being a part of the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon, please email Neelanjana Banerjee at nbanerjee (at) newamericamedia (dot) org.

About: This is the second of a series of monthly Youth Media Blog-a-Thons that aims to virtually connect the youth media community by asking them to respond to one topic and to engage with each other. We hope that these monthly events will foster more dialogue between youth media leading to connectivity as media makers and as activists.

Our first Youth Media Blog-a-Thon, held from February 20th to February 23rd, was a huge success! Over 15 bloggers discussed the upcoming presidential elections, the youth vote, who they were voting for and why, the idiosyncrasies of the super delegate system and whether making voting mandatory would help fix the system.

Check out most of the posts starting here

Check out a wrap-up of the first blog-a-thon here.

Bloggers who participated in First Youth Media Blog-a-Thon:
YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia (http://www.youthoutlook.org)
WireTap Mag (http://www.wiretapmag.org)
Grits and Eggs (http://jaysplayground.blogspot.com/)
Ill-literacy (http://www.ill-literacy.com/blog/
The Cheddar Box (http://thecheddarbox.wordpress.com/)
Vanessa Van Petten (http://vanessavanpetten.com/)
Oh Dang! (http://www.ohdangmag.com/)
Boston Public Radio (http://www.bprlive.org)
Youth Radio (http://youthradioflows.wordpress.com/)
Respect RX (http://www.respectrx.com)
Girls for Change (http://www.girlsforachange.org)
Edin08 (http://www.edin08.org)

Sponsoring Organizations:
For over 15 years, YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia has been a leader in youth-produced content in the Bay Area. Through our active website (http://www.youthoutlook.org), YO!TV – a weekly 30-minute television show on local KBCW, and our weekly YO!Radio segments aired on KALW 91.7 Information Radio and 106.1 KMEL, YO! gives young people a voice on the issues they most care about. YO! content is also regularly syndicated in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oakland Tribune and more. The YO! blog has been active for over a year.

WireTap is a national news and culture magazine by and for socially conscious youth. Our online community promotes social justice, inspires action and gives young people a voice in the media. Wiretap provides free, daily content to over 60,000 monthly visitors and 14,000 weekly newsletter subscribers. Our award-winning journalism and youth commentary is syndicated every week on the Nation.com, AlterNet.org and Chicago Sun Times, college papers, and hundreds of our stories get linked to in widely read blogs and websites from Mother Jones blog to Fear of a Brown Blogger to social networking site MyBloc.net.