Summer 2010 Update: As Cohort 3 enters their third and final year, there is a lot of exciting stuff happening. The issue, Media’s Influence on Teens’ Self-Perceptions, is full of opportunities and challenges.
When the topic was chosen, the students researched available data on how media messages affect body image (eating disorders), health (obesity), violence, sexual behaviors and materialism. To explain the way that media operates in society, they fashioned a concept called the Media Industrial Complex that divides the media into three parts: vendors, broadcasters, and marketers. What the students realized is that the media views teens as a high revenue niche market that it seeks to colonize by presenting its products and messages as hip, caring and cool. But the real agenda is to separate young people from their money.

To portray their view of this topic, Cohort 3 has named their project Unmask: Mind Over Media. The message is that the best way to counteract the pernicious effects of media saturation is to think critically to see through the mask.



In 2009 the students created an ambitious strategic plan made up of 3 pieces. The first is to reach out to Tulsa-area youth by creating an interactive, engaging presentation and share it with 5000 local teens. In addition, they have created a website, www.projectunmask.com, to provide valuable information on this topic along with a Facebook fan page. Second, they established a Public Relations committee to get the word out through the media itself. Finally, they decided to create a documentary to catalog their journey and share their message with wider audiences.

Cohort 3 has experienced the ups and downs that come with any meaningful work. One of the highlights was their debut at University of Oklahoma—Tulsa’s annual Seed Sower Series. OU partnered with Cohort 3 to present a three-lecture series to the public on the topic of media’s impact on teens. The series kicked off with media expert Erin Walsh. The second presentation featured a prominent pediatrician, Dr. Robert Block, who has focused on the issue of media and children for decades. The culminating lecture was the students of Cohort 3 themselves, who presented a captivating lecture on their view of the topic.

Along the way, the students have grappled with the challenges of staying focused on being teen philanthropists while managing hectic school and activity schedules—not an easy task. But, with a year left in their program, Cohort 3 is committed to moving Unmask steadily forward.