Code for What?Computer Science for Storytelling and Social Justice
While many of their counterparts were steered toward acquiring digital skills to support the growing tech industry, YR Media youth content creators explored career pathways and the possibility of using code as a justice-driven medium for storytelling.
Their work became the foundation for Code for What? Computer Science for Storytelling and Social Justice by YR Media senior scholar-in-residence and special projects producer, Elisabeth Soep, Ph.D., and Cliff Lee, Ph.D., former YR Media scholar-in-residence, professor and director of Educators for Liberation, Justice, and Joy Teacher Education program, Mills College at Northeastern University.
Over the course of 10 years, a team of 14-to-24-year-old designers, writers and coders embedded in the YR Media newsroom worked with mentors to reimagine the use of digital media.
Led by Soep and former YR Media staffer and program participant content creator Asha Richardson, their work was based on a view of coding as an expressive medium for meaning-making, truth-telling, public accountability, and community engagement
Their insights led to the creation of interactive projects that explored gendered and racialized dress code policies in schools; designed tools for LBGTQ+ youth experiencing discrimination; investigated facial recognition software and what can be done about it; and developed a mobile app to promote mental health through self-awareness and outreach for support, and more, for distribution to audiences that could reach into the millions.
“The book challenges the ‘code for all’ movement by arguing that diversifying tech is not enough. In order to bring about change, we’ve got to collaborate with young people who’ve been systemically ill-served by the system as it is,” said Soep. “We’ve got to deeply examine the tools we use, what we create with them, how audiences participate, and the impacts of our processes and products.”
YR Media continues its legacy of guiding young content creators to develop tech skills for social justice through paid career track employment that positions them to solve real world problems through various experiential learning opportunities in journalism, design and music production.
The organization currently works with 300+ youth contributors from underrepresented communities all across the country covering important issues including voter suppression, #BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ+-focused legislation, anti-AAPI sentiment and violence, as well as film/TV, culture, and the arts.
