Youth media organization looking for teens with guns at home

[thompal]

After reading some of the responses, I realized I should have given some more context about our radio series.

Y-Press first became interested in teen gun use about a year ago, when one of our members lost her cousin when he was shot by another young man on the near Northside of Indy. Originally, we planned to do a four-part radio series on teens and guns, with 3 days on different aspects of illegal use, one day devoted to legal and recreational uses. Eventually we realized that legal gun use merited it's own separate series to run on a different week on WFYI.

One story will be about teens who hunt, the second about teens involved in gun safety training (Project Appleseed). We already have those interviewees. For the third, we are looking for a kid who can access guns for self defense.

In short, while Y Press' interest in this topic stemmed from the negative use of a gun, we are attempting to give equal weight to both sides.

Lastly I'd just like to add that although the main outlets for our work are the Indy Star for print and WFYI for radio, we are an independent non-profit devoted exclusively to kids 10-18. You can check out our past stories at www.ypress.org

Classic, your kid sounds like he or she would be a good interviewee. If you change your mind, please contact me at ypress@earthlink.net or (317) 444-2010.

Happy New Year,
Andrea

Thanks for the explanation, and paired with Yellowhousejake's post, I am willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.

However, I think you may be in for a difficult time, for the simple reason that many, MANY members here have drilled into their kids' heads to "NEVER talk about mommy's or daddy's firearms with other people."

There's the added idea that it is possible for some rabid anti-gunner to take any evidence that a particular parent stores their firearms in a manner that makes them readily available to minors and cause endless legal problems for that parent. For those reasons, I would urge you to use any interviews you get in a manner that the interviewee is shielded and anonymous.

 

[Constructionist]

Thanks for the explanation, and paired with Yellowhousejake's post, I am willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.

However, I think you may be in for a difficult time, for the simple reason that many, MANY members here have drilled into their kids' heads to "NEVER talk about mommy's or daddy's firearms with other people."

There's the added idea that it is possible for some rabid anti-gunner to take any evidence that a particular parent stores their firearms in a manner that makes them readily available to minors and cause endless legal problems for that parent. For those reasons, I would urge you to use any interviews you get in a manner that the interviewee is shielded and anonymous.

I second these sentiments, Andrea. Your objective and unbiased work would undoubtedly be twisted and exploited. Anonymity will be your only avenue to a successful story.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Thanks for the explanation, and paired with Yellowhousejake's post, I am willing to extend the benefit of the doubt.

However, I think you may be in for a difficult time, for the simple reason that many, MANY members here have drilled into their kids' heads to "NEVER talk about mommy's or daddy's firearms with other people."

There's the added idea that it is possible for some rabid anti-gunner to take any evidence that a particular parent stores their firearms in a manner that makes them readily available to minors and cause endless legal problems for that parent. For those reasons, I would urge you to use any interviews you get in a manner that the interviewee is shielded and anonymous.

YUP. And the concern that the "final cut" will be edited somewhere else by someone else to meet the criteria and approval of the "network"....

 

[printcraft]

 

[Mosinowner]

 

[Y Press]

anonymity

I second these sentiments, Andrea. Your objective and unbiased work would undoubtedly be twisted and exploited. Anonymity will be your only avenue to a successful story.

We can and do grant anonymity to kids in situations like this one. The kid would have to give us his or her full name and contact info, but they can elect to use just their first name or a false name for the story. Also, any interviews with people who are under 18 require a consent form to be signed by a parent or guardian.

Thanks,
Andrea

 

[2500ekW]

Andrea, can you provide links to any articles published by you that would illustrate unbiased views towards other socially controversial issues?

 

[printcraft]

Andrea, can you provide links to any articles published by you that would illustrate unbiased views towards other socially controversial issues?

Good point.

What say you?

 

[Que]

Hi,
Thank you for your suggestion. I actually did attend an Appleseed shoot with three of our teens with the purpose of learning about gun safety training. That will be the subject of one of the pieces in our three-part series about legal use of guns by teens. As for your other concerns, please see my overall response to the postings in the thread.
Happy New Year,
Andrea

Andrea, I remember you from the Appleseed. Thank you for covering our shoot and it was comforting to hear your students answer our questions about their story. I hope you find someone to assist with this endeavor; however, I don't have any children who have access to my guns.

 

[Que]

I was the Shoot Boss at the Appleseed the YPress kids attended as reporters. All three of them were polite, courteous, followed all safety rules I laid on them, and asked open and unbiased questions of the youth instructor they interviewed and myself. I completed a phone interview prior to that day, and one as a followup. I never felt that the kids, or their adult escort Andrea, were in any way disingenuous towards our instructor, myself, or the Appleseed Program.

Painting all press with the same broad brush makes it very difficult to argue against them doing the same to those in the shooting sports.

I look forward to the report.

Yellowhousejake

Great point!

 

[Y Press]

Andrea, can you provide links to any articles published by you that would illustrate unbiased views towards other socially controversial issues?

I understand the request, but I find that "unbiased" and "socially controversial" turn out to be subjective terms. Instead of me posting to a particular article or radio piece, I invite you to visit our website at www.ypress.org and look around. There is a search bar at the top, so you can search for any particular issue.

Thanks to this forum, I actually have been able to find kids to interview, so I don't think we'll need any more at this time. I will post a link to the final piece, which should be broadcast and online within a month's time, probably sooner. Thanks for reading.

Andrea

 

[Rookie]

I've got kids in that age bracket (9-17) and they have access to guns (if you consider the loaded guns in the family room and bedrooms without any type of locks access). What do you want to know?

 

[printcraft]

Report

Opinion Piece

These are two entirely different things that are being blended to the determent of society.

Most of what is supposed to pass for reporting these days are actually opinion pieces.
We know which way the wind blows.
Honest unbiased reporting is respected.
No matter how they fall, positive or negative to a persons point of view,
the facts should be presented and not skewed to fit a story template that has been prewritten to favor one side or the other.

We really don't want the media to do the thinking for us, no matter what your professors would have you believe.

 

[Y Press]

I said that I would post the series here when it airs. This series on teens and legal gun use is still in the works, but our series on illegal gun use is being broadcast this week on WFYI (90.1 FM) in Central Indiana. The stories are airing at 4:30 PM Monday through Thursday.
You can also find the pieces here, where they are archived.
I'll post again when the series on legal gun use is airing.
-Andrea

 

[rockhopper46038]

Andrea, I sincerely hope the series on legal gun ownership sees the light of day; I was listening to NPR and heard the programming note that "a Y Press three part series on gun violence will air starting Monday" and have to admit my first thought was "Yep, no mention of safe instruction for kids, no mention of Appleseed, yep, gun owners are being rolled again by the media". So I'm glad to hear that your series is still being developed. Mind you, I'm still expecting to see a post sometime from you that your project has been shelved, postponed indefinitely, killed by the producers because "we just did a gun story", etc. And if that happens, it'll just be another anecdotal but directionally correct testament in how the media skews stories about firearms.

 

[Y Press]

Y-Press Teens and Legal Guns series airing next week

Ok, as promised I am posting here to let you know that our series on teens and guns in Indiana, long in the making, is airing next week. It's a series of four stories, airing Monday through Thursday.

You can listen at 90.1 FM in Central Indaina.
They will each air twice during the day, once during Morning Edition and again during All Things Considered. Morning Edition is 5am-10am, and All Things is 4pm-6pm. Unfortunately I don't have specific times, if I do, I'll post to our Y-Press' Facebook and Twitter accounts. I believe the stories will be posted at the end of each day at wfyi.org/ypress. Next Thursday night I'll also post them at ypress.org.

Thanks again to Dave Goodrich at Project Appleseed .

Best,
Andrea Muraskin
Y-Press Radio Coach

 

[melensdad]

Ok, as promised I am posting here to let you know that our series on teens and guns in Indiana, long in the making, is airing next week. It's a series of four stories, airing Monday through Thursday.

You can listen at 90.1 FM in Central Indaina.
They will each air twice during the day, once during Morning Edition and again during All Things Considered. Morning Edition is 5am-10am, and All Things is 4pm-6pm. Unfortunately I don't have specific times, if I do, I'll post to our Y-Press' Facebook and Twitter accounts. I believe the stories will be posted at the end of each day at wfyi.org/ypress. Next Thursday night I'll also post them at ypress.org.

Thanks again to Dave Goodrich at Project Appleseed .

Best,
Andrea Muraskin
Y-Press Radio Coach

Andrea, is there anyway we can hear it (podcast or similar) if we are not located in Central Indiana?

Or will it only be posted in written form?

 

[AJMD429]

This is encouraging - from my experience in Cincinnati in the 1970's, where one of the big three television stations "accidentally erased the interview tape" (but of course didn't feel the need to re-do the interview as I offered), one of them "lost the interview tape" (also declining re-interview), and the third aired the tape, but muted the audio when I spoke, and said "A local NRA member "[I wasn't an NRA member at the time]" appeared today before city council to object to an ordinance which would prevent children, drug addicts, or violent felons from purchasing handguns," I was left with a deep distrust of the 'news media'. What they evidently didn't want to tell the viewers was that I had presented irrefutable evidence (they cropped out the poster I was holding) that the Ohio State Law and federal law already made all those things illegal, so the law was unnecessary, PLUS the city law being proposed actually would have only affected one gun store, which did not sell to anyone but law enforcement, AND actually would have prohibited both long gun and hand gun sales, AND not to just the above classes, but anyone with any nonviolent misdemeanors on their record, including potentially unpaid parking tickets, etc..


That was followed by the incident where NBC fabricated 'explosions' on GM trucks and got in trouble, yet fabricated 'exploding melons' to make it appear that 'assault weapons' were too powerful for ordinary citizens to own, but didn't get in any trouble at all for that one.

Then in Indianapolis in the 1980's, when 65 people signed up to oppose a symbolic-but-useless 'assault weapon' ban, (that likewise banned even single-shot .22's), and included police, nurses, kindergarten teachers, doctors, and all sorts of 'non-gun-nut' types, and only one gun spoke for the law, the news media very noisily packed up their equipment and went outside, found four skinhead dudes with swastikas on their foreheads, and asked them their opinion on the law (of course they said they needed guns to kill dark-skinned people and Jews), and THAT was the only clip that got on the news.

So - even though I agree we shouldn't stereotype "journalists", if we expect them not to stereotype "gun owners", but it sure is annoying...!

 

[pudly]

So - even though I agree we shouldn't stereotype "journalists", if we expect them not to stereotype "gun owners", but it sure is annoying...!

That's what every serious gun owner who gave an interview and was burned has said including your example. Trust is earned and should not be expected as one's due. Thus the fully justified mistrust as shown in this thread.

 

[JetGirl]

That's what every serious gun owner who gave an interview and was burned has said including your example. Trust is earned and should not be expected as one's due. Thus the fully justified mistrust as shown in this thread.

Exactly. A London "journalist" named Andreina Cordani took the interviewed words of several out of a group of "women who carry" (mine, included from an email questionnaire she sent me) and twisted them up in unrecognizable fashion to post in a glossy magazine called UK Marie Claire. It was initially stated that the article would be unbiased and shed a positive light on gun owning American women and put bad info/misstated facts/stereotypes to rest by disputing misinformation that antis like to play like a broken record.

However...what really happened is that it leaned pretty "anti" throughout and sounded like Americans (women who carry, in particular) are paranoid rather than safety conscious and responsible. So I guess I'm sort of glad I wasn't mentioned by name like a few others.

One of the first things she wrote in regards to being here in the states and seeing "open carry" in a coffee shop was "And many of the women here are homely looking mothers with pushchairs or toddlers in tow."

None of the women depicted in photographs she used would be considered "fit". So "stereotypically" speaking American women with guns are fat homely moms with nothing better to do than push babies in strollers and hang out at Starbucks.

She also played the Melanie Hain card and did so without mentioning that her husband was a cop, even after pointedly being informed of the specifics of that case. She set it up to read "she got murdered by a gun in the house only because SHE owned one".

Also, it was deplorable that there was no fact-checking done on a Brady Campaign quote...in fact, it was picked up and bolded in red in the center of the article:

‘Any criminal can
go to a gun show
and buy a gun.
Now he can wear
it in Starbucks’ ​

Yeah, sure...that's exactly how it is.

Anyhow...that's why I mistrust "journalism" on a very personal level.
Good luck with it, though...