We bring together news media and the young for the benefit of both through recognition, action and resources in ways that reinforce the role of rigorous journalism in a democracy. Founded in 2018, we are a fully volunteer global organization with nonprofit status in France and the United States.
>>> What we've been doing lately <<<
Supporting
THE CELEBRATIONS
OF MEDIA LITERACY
& Journalism
Our World Teenage Reporting Alliance and Children's News Europe members (and our friends) have been contributing to these celebrations and explorations.
For use even beyond the events, they have produced smart, fun explanations of how [real] news works and experimented with new ways to co-create solutions reporting, sometimes with a very young community. All are activities you can try. DETAILS & UPDATES
Also, In the name of their readers, Children's News Europe editors asked UNESCO's Adeline Hulin about the role children can play in media and information literacy. And it's a lot.
HERE'S WHAT SHE SAID.
WORKING JOINTLY TO Get THIS Core LESSON INTO MEDIA LITERACY CLASS...
Students should learn early about the necessary role of journalists in a democracy, preferably as part of their basic media literacy training. That's not happening in most places.
More than 40 expert organizations and scholars feel the same and are trying to make that happen in Europe.
And, thanks to the approval of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, there's progress in sight.
Illustration: Freepix
... AND OFFERING SOME WAYS TO GET STARTED NOW
One way to begin to explore with youth the role of journalism in a democracy is to look at when it's blocked. Global Youth & News Media Prize educator laureate Janis Schachter explains in just over two minutes how to help students discover some of the journalists who risk all to get at truth that the powerful would rather the rest of us didn't know.
We've also created some basic activities and gathered examples of how others teach that lesson as part of our collection of resources for understanding threats to journalists.
PRESS FREEDOM CONVERSATIONS
CAN START WITH this CARTOON
Promoting the notion that journalists should be able to do their work in peace is a tough task. The message can be too self-righteous. It can speak only to the converted. Cartoonist Pat Bagley has managed to create an image that avoids both pitfalls. You can start an exploration with his cartoon, his answers to our five questions and some activity ideas.
>>> COMING SOON <<<
THE NEXT AWARD > TEACHING WHY JOURNALISM
THE MEDIA LITERACY AWARD • Filling key gaps in the LESSONS
For the third time, we will salute those who excel at the task of making sure the young learn what we and our partners consider Media Literacy Lesson #1 > How and why journalism is a good thing to have around and and that some people face vicious harassment, jail or even death just to do that job.
DETAILS
For the first time for this award, we invite partner organizations who share this belief to join in the publicity, judging and use of what we all learn.
HOW TO BECOME A PARTNER
>>> ABOUT US <<<
Global Youth & News Media is a fully volunteer international organization based in France as an association with nonprofit status also in the United States through our partner Myriad USA.
Our raison d'être is threefold.
We believe in the young.
We believe in journalism.
We believe good ideas are to be had most anywhere that can be adapted to use somewhere more easily than you might think.
>>> OUR 4 ACTION AREAS <<<
1. THE PRIZE
The Global Youth & News Media Prize honors organizations and individuals for outstanding and transferable innovation as they strengthen engagement between news media and young people while reinforcing the role of journalism in society.
Our two core awards honor journalism innovation with a different theme for each edition and those who excel at teaching the that journalism is a good thing to have around and can mean vicious harassment, jail or even death for those who practice it.
MORE ABOUT THE AWARDS
THE INAUGURAL AWARD
The Guardian US and the Eagle Eye student newsmagazine of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, USA) were the first Global Youth & News Media Prize laureates, receiving an honorary award for their joint live coverage in March 2018 of the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington D.C. to promote gun control.
The citation read: “The Guardian and the student journalism staff of The Eagle Eye at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School worked jointly to keep young voices front and center in the live coverage of the March for Our Lives demonstration for The Guardian US by the student journalists of The Eagle Eye. This initiative provides a stunning example of a student takeover of a trusted news source that offers solid lessons for other newsrooms to dare to do something similar.”
The honorary award marked the launch of the global prize and was presented 14 November 2018 at NewsXchange, the European Broadcasting Union's premier conference that attracts top news executives from all over the world. It was held in Edinburgh and hosted by BBC News and BBC Scotland.
DETAILS HERE
THE LATEST LAUREATES > OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
A SPECIAL Global honor
for an endangered
U.S. youth journalism program
The Global Youth & News Media Prize board has bestowed its second ever special award, this time to the Student Reporting Labs (SRL) project of the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for outstanding achievement in journalism.
The prize honors both SRL's history and its determination to continue despite defunding by U.S. legislators.
UPCOMING: A wide-ranging interview with founder Leah Clapman. Listen to a sample HERE.
THE LATEST LAUREATES > JOURNALISM
Our international jury for the Global Youth & News Media Prize for Journalism has finished its deliberations. Read HERE about the 19 winning cases from16 countries of local news media collaboration in which the young help to strengthen the journalism for local communities. THE DETAILS
Our media partner News Decoder has coverage, and many thanks to all our prize partners who are doing the on-the-ground work to keep journalism alive.
2. THE GROUPS
We convene like-minded practitioners who otherwise rarely get a chance to compare notes and collaborate, notably our World Teenage Reporting Alliance and Children's News Europe groups.
We also are taking the lead (for now) on Media Literacy Lesson Number 1 > We need Journalists, a joint effort in Europe (for now) to encourage all media literacy frameworks to include lessons on the core value of journalism to a democracy and the high personal cost some people have paid to do that job.
SHOW ME THE GROUPS
3. THE PROJECTS
We support amplify journalism by and for the young through leading joint global, regional and local projects we think are worth the effort, especially those that offer the potential to create an international model.
These have included
√ joint art-creation avocacy actions for the planet and in support of Ukrainians.
√ a pilot edition of a strategy to introduce children to reporting in a safe space where, also, parents get to meet local journalists.
√ showcasing stories by youth journalists to set the record straight about the important role of the young in the early days of the COVID pandemic.
√ a pilot project in which teenage student journalists explain to younger students what they do and how journalistic skills helps one's media literacy.
SHOW ME PROJECTS
OUR FIRST PROJECT CLOSE TO HOME...
.... served our base region, French Basque Country, where we gave children the chance to experience being reporters as they found the news among participants at the city of Bayonne's Forum des Associations in early September 2025. Our partner, le Club de Presse du Pays Basque, helped coach the "Journalists for a Day" and also did a session (for grown-ups, too) answering questions about what local journalists do. The French news outlets for children Mon Quotidien, Le Monde des Ados and Albert donated samples for a reward packet children got upon completing the task. Thanks to our Special Adviser Marc-Antoine Guet and Press Club member Willy Roux, some participating organizations got a personalized clinic on how to communicate like a journalist with their members and the public.
4. THE RESOURCES
To reinforce teaching about what UNESCO terms Media and Information Literacy we are curating and constantly updating sets of background, briefings and lesson plans for explaining why journalism is a good thing for a society to have and what threats the people who do that job too often face.
Our most thorough collection offers ways to get started in exploring the threats to journalists.
>>> SUPPORTERS <<<
OUR FOUNDING SUPPORTERS
News-Decoder, the initiative of the French-based non-profit Nouvelles Decouvertes that provides secondary and university students with a news service and the opportunity for borderless, face-to-face discussions about important matters of the day.
The Google News Initiative, which works with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age.
The European Journalism Centre, an international non-profit headquartered in The Netherlands that connects journalists with new ideas, skills and people
OUR OTHER Partners & SUPPORTERS
Council of Europe North-South Centre promotes an active global citizenship among governments, parliaments, local & regional authorities and civil society by raising awareness of global interdependence through intercultural dialogue and global education.
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Erasmus + is the European Union's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.
World News Day (28 September) focuses on a global campaign to display support for journalists and their audiences, who use facts and understanding to help make the world a better place.
Global Media and Information Literacy Week and World Press Freedom Day represent two UNESCO initiatives that align particularly well with our objectives, and we are delighted to actively support them with both publicity and participation. We have also done actions in support of several commemorative days designated by the United Nations: International Day for Tolerance, Human Rights Month, the International Day of Education and the International Day of Peace
Starting in 2025, we have invited international, regional and national organizations sharing an interest in the topics of our awards to join us in judging them and benefitting from the learnings involved. This approach started with the 2025 journalism award for youth - local news collaborations.
Here is more about our partnership approach.
Previously, Schurz Communications, WAN-IFRA Press Freedom and IAPA/SIP (Interamerican Press Association/Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa) joined us in 2021 to launch an inaugural Press Freedom Teacher Award, a part of the News/Media Literacy category of the Global Youth & News Media Prize. The first awards were given in memory of Scott C. Schurz (1936-2021) , a global leader in promoting press freedom activism and actions for youth among publishers. Since then, we have expanded award as a media literacy award and to recognize such work by news media organizations.
PRESS FREEDOM
We are proud members of these networks:
Global Forum for Media Development, based in Brussels, creates, promotes, and delivers policies and programmes to sustain journalism as a public good.
UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, based in France, unites MIL practitioners worldwide to encourage international collaboration.
The Learning Planet Institute, based in France, promotes an "educational revolution" to surmount the challenges of our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.
HundrED, based in Finland, identifies, amplifies and helps implement in new places educational innovations that have impact and the potential to grow.
Anna Lindh Foundation, based in Egypt, brings together the very diverse civil society organizations involved in the promotion of intercultural dialogue across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Myriad USA, based in New York, gives Americans extra reasons to support non-USA nonprofit organizations that are committed to assisting people all over the the world.
In addition, we greatly apreciate an array of generous people who prefer to remain anonymous and who have helped us both financially and morally when we have needed it most. You know who you are.
Image by CLICKR FREE VECTOR IMAGES by from PIXABAY
Finally, we encourage you to join us in support ing Ukraine's Voices of Children Foundation , which does art therapy and much more, and Media City Bergen's Anne Jacobsen Memorial Award, named after this longtime advocate of news media youth actions.
