Youth Media Distribution Toolkit

This toolkit contains information about the distribution of youth media, including knowledge and expertise from distributors and youth media specialists, guides to structure your efforts, practical tools and tips, and related resources, organizations, links, and articles.

About this toolkit

Published August 5, 2008 | by Jennifer Gilomen, Lead Developer of
Strategic Initiatives and Natalie Ruiz Tofano, Distribution Assistant, Bay Area Video Coalition and prepared for Youth Digital Filmmakers, a project of the California Council for the Humanities with funding from ZeroDivide.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Why this toolkit

In order for media to have its full impact, a distribution strategy
must be included when engaging in digital storytelling or media
production of any kind.  A distribution strategy allows organizations
to evaluate the resources necessary for a program and determine if they
match the intended impact.  We hope that you will find this guide
useful in your current digital media activities and as a tool for any
future endeavors.  The team of nonprofits who worked together to support the creation of eight youth films have extended their
relationship to produce this toolkit and disseminate the knowledge and
resources we have used in our own work, as well as to contribute case
studies from these projects so that others might learn from our
successes and mistakes. Each of the partners in the YDF collaborative
approach community and youth media with a different lens and with
different strengths, but we share the idea that a well thought-out
distribution strategy can transform how an organization approaches
digital media. Learn more about the partnership and more about why we created this toolkit >

Who this is for

This toolkit was created with the following audiences in mind:

• Youth media organizations and programs
• Short-format content producers, especially youth
• Teachers
• Community-based digital storytelling practitioners
• Documentary filmmakers and film students

Contents

This toolkit contains information about the distribution of youth
media, including knowledge and expertise from distributors and youth
media specialists, guides to structure your efforts, practical tools
and tips, and related resources, organizations, links, and articles.

1. Distribution defined
   • Traditional distribution
   • Distribution in the new media space
2. Planning
   1. Defining your audience
   2. Setting goals
   3. Creating a budget and timeline
3. How-to
   1. Research and prioritize opportunities
   2. Create your distribution package
   3. Approach your targets
   4. Use press and publicity
   5. Use online social networks and tools
   6. Evaluate your impact
   7. Long-tail distribution: archiving, preservation, and accessibility
4. Tools
   1. Audience and goal-setting worksheet
   2. Discussion guide template
   3. DVD package templates
   4. Web compression guide
   5. Distribution tracking template
5. Additional resources
   1. Case studies (will be published in January, 2009)
   2. Organizations
   3. Opportunities