“Alaska ‘Bout It” Gives Teens a Voice

As part of Anchorage-based Spirit of Youth’s programming for young adults, Alaska Teen Media Institute (ATMI) helped journalists-in-training to produce a new radio program around the topic of COVID-19. Titled “Alaska ‘Bout It,” the show aired twice a month in 2021-2022 on University of Alaska Anchorage’s radio station 88.1 FM, allowing youth producers from ATMI to reach a new audience with the latest COVID-19 vaccine information. For each show, producers interviewed community members, including health and education professionals and their own peers. Teen producer Daisy Carter won a Youth Journalism International’s award for her important contributions to the show. She also took third place in the Alaska Press Club Award contest for her interview of a local school district official, beating out professional journalists for the prize. Daisy said: “I was just super stressed and nervous about the pandemic, and I moved that energy into journalism work.”

Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.