VOICES Explore Teen Peer Pressures and Media Manipulation

In 2011-2012, VOICES worked in two groups that chose to call themselves "The Peoples VOICE" and "Ambitious VOICES."  After several months of team building, issue identification and media training, the groups chose to focus on media influence and peer pressure as their topics. "The People’s VOICE" created a short film titled Music Media Influences that displays a variety of techniques used by the media to influence its viewers. The students acted out three skits to depict how the media spins and misrepresents music celebrity culture. The skits explored the problem of showing celebrities in the midst of all their success without addressing what it took to get there, using celebrities to promote things that they themselves do not necessarily endorse or believe in, and by using celebrities to set trends. "Ambitious VOICES" created a mini docudrama Pressure focusing on sex and STD’s. To demonstrate that teens encounter both positive and negative forms of peer pressure when it comes to sexual behavior, the film follows a young couple who is not only pressured into having sex but is also pressured into getting tested and being responsible.

On May 12, 2012 over 30 students presented their final projects to friends, family and the UCCP staff. The final event was planned and facilitated by our current high school seniors as an extra leadership opportunity, and consisted of icebreakers, a poem/spoken word performance, power point presentations and the premiere of their films. The event served as a space for the students to take what they had learned throughout the year and engage others in conversations around the issues they chose that affect them most.