Birmingham teens report for the BBC
Teenagers
across Birmingham are trying their hand at reporting and writing
for the BBC thanks to a BBCi Birmingham website called The
Young Issue.
Open
to 12-18 year olds living in Birmingham and its immediate surrounds,
the multi-media online newspaper is run by teenagers for teenagers.
Each fortnight a different school is given editorship of the paper
and the freedom to write about a range of issues affecting them.
From global warming to teenage pregnancy, scuba diving to Harry
Potter - these are just a handful of subjects the budding journalists
have already reported on.
A popular
feature of The Young Issue is Shadow, which allows a
member of the editorial team to spend a day following someone in
their job and produce a write-up on it for the site. Companies and
people shadowed so far include Birminghams Lord Mayor, a dancer
from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Aston Villa FC and the Birmingham
Academy.
The
Young Issue is the brainchild of BBC Birminghams Jane-Louise
Green, who says: "The idea behind the paper is
to give the young people in Birmingham a place to express their
opinions about things that matter to them. Shadow in particular
gives pupils a golden opportunity to find out first hand what its
like in the world of work. Issues about or affecting teenagers are
regularly in the news, but we seldom hear what they have to say.
Heres their opportunity."
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