Ready or Not Youth Forum

CFC invited 11 youth organisations to send two dynamic youth leaders (preferably male and female) to take part in a one-day youth forum to be held in a nature reserve on the outskirts of Lagos.  The aim of the youth forum was three fold.  Firstly, the forum provided an opportunity for interacting with the radio drama’s target audience to find out lifestyle information (what they like to do, how they like to spend their time, what media they enjoy, how and when they consume the media etc.) and their perceptions of development issues.  Secondly, the forum provided the playwrights a chance to mix and mingle with their audience, and through this interaction to find creative inspiration and gather story ideas. And thirdly, the creative team decided to use the forum to identify a number of youth who would continue the research phase by becoming CFC’s “youth reporters”.

The project research team prepared a number of projective exercises, and a detailed questionnaire for group discussions as the focus of the day’s retreat.  A consultant researcher and psychologist from Western Michigan University, Dr. Marty Wong, along with two independent Nigerian media researchers, assisted the creative team.

The youth forum was held in October, 1999 and was an exciting event.  Participants came from very different walks of life, including two presenters of a weekly youth magazine program on one of the most popular television stations,  as well as two handicapped youth who live on the streets.

The hike in to the reserve and climbing a 60-meter high tree to reach a tree-house in the forest canopy heightened the youths enjoyment of the outing and gave the occasion a sense of adventure.  Both the focus group discussions and projective exercises helped to bring out a wealth of information on the perceptions and lifestyles of the respondents.  Lastly, the forum also heightened participants’ interest in the project and commitment to assisting in future project activities. 

Youth Reporters:  During the youth forum, the brightest, most expressive and confident participants were chosen to become CFC youth reporters.  These ten youth reporters received training in formative research techniques and were asked to return to their normal environments and interview fellow colleagues and friends.  Youth interviewing fellow youth was deemed as a form of “outside in” data collection which was less conspicuous and artificial than having professional media researchers conduct research in different neighbourhoods.   The youth reporters gathered information at some favourite “hangouts” about youth lifestyles and their perceptions of Nigeria’s problems and possible solutions.

This experiment proved successful as the reporters learned a lot while interviewing fellow youth, describing their settings and recording their findings on small hand-held recorders.  The findings were later analysed by professional researchers along with the data collected from focus group discussions held all over the country.  The data was rich and the research findings proved revolutionary in providing a wealth of un-tapped information about how young people see and interpret the world around them.  The results were used in planning CFC’s radio drama series “Ready or Not” and can be found on the Ready or Not Formative research page. Two of the youth reporters eventually became writers of the  series (one of them was only 14 years old), one of them wrote the theme music and a number of them acted in the radio drama and music video.