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Given the emphasis on excelling at school, world news often feels marginal to our daily lives. My fellow seniors at Newark Memorial High School in northern California primarily focused on studying for AP exams, practicing for sports, and filling out college applications. I, too, was caught up with these overwhelming responsibilities. But also on my radar were reports of negative environmental trends.
Much of the news comes to me through social media. The experience of scrolling through social platforms often feels like being in a crowded marketplace: There’s no way for me to make my own voice rise above the din. And even if there were, I often feel that older generations don’t take younger people’s opinions seriously.
That’s why I was eager to grab the microphone when I heard about an opportunity to participate in a program created by KALW, my local public radio station in San Francisco.
Every summer, the station publishes a podcast called tbh, which is by, about, and for teenagers. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to conduct research for journalistic stories and provided a platform to elevate my voice.
My high school didn’t offer any journalism programs or clubs besides one yearbook class. So I was ecstatic when I received an email announcing my acceptance to KALW’s Summer Podcasting Institute.
When I was asked what topic I wanted to cover, I was initially taken aback. I knew that I had to pick a subject, but I’d always been presented with a limited menu of choices.
But after a year of stewing, I knew exactly what I wanted to discuss: Gen Z and environmentalism.
The Willow Project — a major oil-drilling project in Alaska which would release tremendous carbon pollution — had trended on TikTok earlier this year. Every day, I would see videos of my peers blatantly misrepresenting the situation, spreading panic and gaining millions of views in the process. This experience only solidified my belief in the need for hysteria-free journalism in times of crisis.
However, the voices I most want to hear from are those of other teenagers. We tend to listen more to the people we can relate to — people who have similar experiences as us. As I say in my podcast episode, Gen Zers like me have their entire lives on Earth ahead of them — lives that will certainly feel the most brutal effects of climate change and detrimental environmental policies (despite having little say in the matter).
Teen journalism also gives those of us under voting age an opportunity to participate in the political process.
That’s why I’m so drawn to creating media that my peers can rely on and relate to, so we can clearly see how big vague-sounding trends affect us directly, and how we’re all in the same boat.
We are the future. So we need to be vocal and let those in power know how we perceive the world and which issues matter to us. Many of my peers agree. According to research compiled by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, youth-created media can be transformative. While existing mainstream media turns off many future voters due to its one-dimensional coverage of young people, youth-created media better reflects their experience.
That’s why apps like TikTok are so popular, and also heavily relied on by youth for news.
That’s why I was so thrilled that I could get my voice out there and I knew my fellow tbh interns felt the same. We spent lunch breaks refining our topics, discussing our personal connections to our stories and why exactly we wanted to put them out there for the world to listen to. Here are some of the subjects we touched on: The impact of artificial intelligence on school and artists, how Bay Area high schoolers are coping with fentanyl lacing, how helpful school wellness centers can be, and why young people don’t follow through on activism by voting. All of us came up with these stories through our own or our friends’ life experiences.
I interviewed many people, especially other teens from across the Bay, on their feelings about the climate crisis. Some of my peers were unwaveringly optimistic. They felt confident their actions would make a difference. Others admitted that they were exhausted. They were frustrated and worried that their individual impact would be meaningless in the face of more powerful forces. Yet, all of them seemed to share a common sentiment: they believed in the power of collective action.
I had set out making this episode with the idea of changing listeners’ minds, but I had never anticipated that my own views would shift in the process. I’m still freaked out by the climate crisis, but the reporting experience connected me with others who provided a new outlook. The process helped me reflect, and learn how to manage my emotions, instead of having them manipulated.
One of the major lessons I learned this summer is that journalism can connect us — across generations — to more ideas, and to a renewed sense of hope.
Bio: Meher Indoliya is a recent graduate of Newark Memorial High School and an incoming freshman at University of California Santa Barbara. She plans to double major in communications and political science.
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