- Veteran Journalist Judy Woodruff Travels the Country in an RV, Interviewing People Aged 16-25 - A unique generation is coming of age in America. They've been called many things: millennials, boomerang kids, generation Y ... Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff is calling them "Generation Next." They are the 42 million young people aged 16-25 who were born after the Cold War, were weaned on technology, came of age rocked by 9/11 and now face a future marked by complex global challenges. What viewers hear and see in GENERATION NEXT: SPEAK UP. BE HEARD, a documentary that explores the attitudes, concerns and beliefs of this next generation, might surprise them. The program, hosted by Woodruff, airs Friday, January 12, 2007, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS. To get to know her subjects, Woodruff traveled across the country in an RV, interviewing young people - at colleges, in urban, suburban and rural settings, at workplaces and at home. "Our main objective is to find out what young people think, to create a profile of the next generation, and to provide current decision-makers with better information about them," said Woodruff. "We want to help everyone understand the views of young people. And just as important, we want young people to know their opinions will be heard by decision-makers in business, politics, education and the media." Generation Next is a multi-media, multi-platform project to inform and engage young and old alike via traditional media such as television - with GENERATION NEXT - radio and newspapers and via the project's robust new media components: discussion forums, blogs by the team, original video recorded by young Americans at the interactive Web kiosk and an online reporter's notebook of Judy Woodruff's thoughts. A representative survey will complete the project's profile of "Generation Next." The Pew Research Center is conducting a survey of 16-25 year olds and will announce the results in the fall. The questions posed by the researchers will be complemented by Judy Woodruff's conversations with the young people she meets on her journey and via an interactive Web kiosk on board the Generation Next RV. Viewers will see and hear evidence of the Pew survey results via candid answers from real people: young adults who share insights into their lives by answering hard but important questions about their parents, their friends, their politics and their aspirations. In addition to GENERATION NEXT, the project's findings are being presented on air in a series of reports on THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER and in a series of collaborative reports with national media partners - Yahoo!, USA Today and NPR, which is producing a series of interviews and radio reports profiling members of "Generation Next." USA Today is printing a series of reports on this generation in both their print and online media; and Yahoo! is hosting "Talk to Power" - a unique feature that allows members of Generation Next to address their questions directly to America's political leaders, who respond via web cast. Sen. Richard Lugar has answered questions about how best to deal with a nuclear North Korea; Sen. Edward Kennedy answered questions about the Iraq war, healthcare and partisan politics; and Sen. John McCain answered questions about immigration, gay rights and the economy. Generation Next has a unique contribution to make to American public life. "The history that's going to be written about my generation is going to be about how we've responded to unbelievable challenges," observed 25 year-old writer Anya Kamenetz. "The issues that face our country: energy dependency, the budget situation, the retirement of the boomers ... it's going to be people my age who have to find the solutions. And I believe we will." Underwriters: Pew Charitable Trust, Carnegie Corporation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
|
