15 Nov Ed Madison, 2024 Official Selection Director, Gives a Voice to Student Journalists

Climate change, school shootings, racial tensions and devastating wars. These are just some of the profound issues that those in Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) are inheriting as they enter and approach adulthood.

Director Ed Madison had the unique idea to take a group of high school journalism students and turn the camera on them to give them the perspective of not only learning how to report on the news but also having their voices heard as well. This led to the creation of the documentary The Future Is Ours, an Official Selection in the 2024 Free Speech Film Festival.

“Gen Z journalists are interpreters for their generation. Leading up to the 2024 elections, we traveled around the U.S. to hear their perspectives, hopes and concerns, since many of them were going to be eligible to vote for the first time,” he said. “The documentary features Gen Z journalists from across the country engaging in challenging conversations we all need to hear and have.”

Ed, who is currently a journalism professor at the University of Oregon, came to this project with the experience of  his own illustrious journalism career. He began his journey as a high school intern at the Washington Post-owned CBS television affiliate in Washington, D.C. during the height of Watergate. Shortly after graduating from Emerson College in Boston, he was recruited to become a founding producer at CNN, where he enjoyed a 23-year-long journalism and media career in Los Angeles. Following his journalism career, he co-founded the Journalistic Learning Initiative (JLI), a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit organization that uses journalistic strategies to empower student voice and academic success in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and College of Education.

The journey to create the documentary began when Ed was doing a mentorship project with students from two high schools in Washington, D.C., who were given press credentials to cover the 60^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.

“I got to spend time with these students and it was really special to me because half of them were from the school I attended and did my first bit of journalism,” he said. “In chatting with them, I realized that there are so many misnomers with this particular generation. We think, ‘Oh, they’re just spending their time on TikTok’ or ‘They’re not really engaged with issues’ and I found that not to be true. After talking to them for this initial project, the idea came about to discuss other topics like gun violence, reproductive rights, climate change and teen mental health. That became the basis for this project, which expanded to where I was going to go to other parts of the country and talk to other young journalists.”

He kept all of this in mind during his time in Rockford, Illinois, for the project. He described the city, which is about 90 minutes northwest of Chicago, as a “purple” area of the state, where half of the students come from a conservative background and the other half come from a progressive political perspective. He said he enjoyed working with these students and having them share their thoughts.

“It was wonderful to be with these students who are studying media and its impact and doing student newscasts and sportscasts but also realize that they don’t necessarily have opportunities to sit down and chat about the things they agree and disagree about. Political discourse in this country has gotten to name-calling and all kinds of things that don’t necessarily allow for us to have what we consider a democratic process of being civil about how we engage with one another, so we gave the students the latitude and freedom to speak about their views. It gives a nice sense of overall perspective. Whatever you believe in or think, you can find it in this documentary,” he said.

As a former journalist himself, Ed said he obviously believes in journalistic integrity so he would never approach an interview where he was trying to embarrass the subject. He said he was very mindful to stop the students while they were discussing these sensitive topics and ask if they were OK with sharing. He also made sure that every single student saw the documentary before it was released to the public to ensure that they didn’t feel misrepresented. He asked the questions in ways that would illicit authentic and honest answers and was mindful of interesting answers one student gave and would ask another student, “What do you think about this perspective?”.

The success of the documentary ended up leading to other projects with the students. “After the film was screened, it got a very positive reaction but many said it would be great to get a group of students together at one time. So I returned to Rockford and got a group of about 10 or 12 students together and looked at various issues and what kept coming up was a sense of common ground,” he said. “We turned this into the Common Ground Project that looked at how these students did a great job of engaging in these very challenging discussions and that it could be a model for other schools and other students. It was wonderful to see that sense of dialog and see them walk away with the realization that we’re going to agree and disagree on things but most people have the best intentions.”

Given that 2024 is an election year, Ed felt it was particularly timely that this film was released now and hoped it helped give a voice to the younger generation.

“I feel it was an important project to do at this time because most of these young people were eligible to vote for the first time. So not only are they student journalists and interpreters of what is going on for their generation but they also exercise their citizenry duty,” he said. “These students being just 16-18 years old and realizing that they can have an impact on an audience of people was a powerful thing. They felt a sense of responsibility but also pride that their school was acknowledged and that their peers had the opportunity to share their perspectives and perhaps that made some other young people think about their perspectives on certain things.”

Beyond the film, Ed continues to inspire young people to find and use their voices through his work with the Journalistic Learning Initiative. JLI’s mission is to empower students to discover their voice, improve academic outcomes and engage in self-directed learning through project-based storytelling. The organization was established to benefit students and teachers through thoughtful research, dynamic programming and useful tools. In addition to being able to watch The Future Is Ours on the website, there is also also a 5-Day Civic Discourse Lesson Plan and discussion preparation sheet that teachers can use with students in the classroom.