Gen Z in the Room - Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future

Oct 15, 2026

Gen Z in the Room examines how young people use media in everyday life and how they understand public media, with an emphasis on making public media by and with youth for the future. Supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and informed by stakeholder convenings, it highlights participatory, interactive media, the gap between content overload and underserved youth needs, and ways stations can align youth work with station priorities. The publication also develops recommendations for an evolving public media system, including study methods in an appendix.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time1 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

FOREWORD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

Aligning youth work with station priorities

Media literacy anchors youth education programs

CHAPTER 2

Youth perspectives and stories

Relationships enable responsive facilitation

CHAPTER 3

Voice and choice

Youth value relevance and authenticity

CHAPTER 4

Funding, broadcast value, and digital transformation

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN EVOLVING PUBLIC MEDIA SYSTEM

APPENDIX: STUDY DESIGN + METHODS

Gen Z in the Room Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future Mary Madden Winter 2023 Elizabeth Rood The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop About the AuthorS Mary Madden Mary Madden is a veteran researcher, writer, and nationally recognized expert on privacy and technology, trends in social media use, and the impact of digital media on teens and parents. She is an affiliate at the Data & Society Research Institute in New York City, where she most recently directed an initiative to explore the effects of data-centric systems on Americans’ health and well-being and led several studies examining the intersection of privacy and digital inequality. Prior to her role at Data & Society, Madden was a senior researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet, Science & Technology team in Washington, DC and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Elizabeth Rood, EdD Elizabeth Rood is an education adviser, researcher, and writer with expertise in youth development, learning, and participatory program design. She is the founder and principal of Learning Designs Consulting, which provides advisory services in educational media and experiential learning. Rood has a background in formal urban education, gained as a teacher, principal, and leadership coach in San Francisco public schools. She was previously vice president of education at the Bay Area Discovery Museum and as director of the Center for Childhood Creativity, the research arm of the museum, and served as president of the Bay Area Chapter of the Children’s Media Association, a professional organization connecting people in a wide range of kids’ media and technology industries. AcknowledgmentS We would like to thank the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for its generous support of this work. Weare grateful to the leaders and alumni of public media youth projects who pioneered this work and participated in interviews with us, sharing their experiences and expertise. Insights and recommendations were also greatly influenced by the work and contributions of the Next Gen Public Media peer learning community and accelerator cohort. In addition, the authors are deeply grateful for the collaboration and invaluable input of our thought partners at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center: Colin Angevine, Michael Preston, and Rafi Santo. Thankyou to Catherine Jhee and her design team: Jeff Jarvis (design), Sabrina Detlef (copy editing), and Baiba Baiba (illustrations). This project would not have been possible without the investment and thoughtful guidance of our partners at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Katherine Anderson, Sarah Bean, Michael Fragale, Matthew Knapp, and Debra Sanchez. SuggeSted citAtion Madden, M., & E. Rood (2023) . Gen Z in the room: Making public media by and with youth for the future. Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. GenZ in the room is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. A full-text PDF of this publication is available as a free [download from www.joanganzcooneycenter.org](download from www.joanganzcooneycenter.org). / CONTENTS / 4 — 5 — 7 — 9 — 9 10 11 13 14 15 17 — 17 18 21 21 22 FOREWORD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 Aligning youth work with station priorities strengthens both projects and stations Prioritizing goals helps to direct project design Youth perspectives prompt valuable intergenerational conversation “Media literacy” anchors many youth education programs Involving young people in station work brings insight needed for institutional change Youth projects can diversify the professional pipeline CHAPTER 2 Stations can start by highlighting youth perspectives and stories Nothing about youth, without youth Looking to models and resources from across the system. Relationships enable responsive facilitation of youth work Co-producing content

FAQs

What problem does the publication focus on for Gen Z and public media?

It addresses how young people receive heavy streams of content yet remain underserved by the media they consume, and it seeks a meaningful alternative through youth-informed public media.

How does the book connect youth involvement to station change?

It outlines how aligning youth work with station priorities strengthens both projects and stations, and how youth perspectives can drive intergenerational conversation and support institutional change.

What recommendations are included in the publication?

It provides recommendations for an evolving public media system, covering youth-centric approaches, co-production considerations, and pathways that support goals such as digital transformation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sophia Brooks