Mining Kids’ Preferences: Will Facebook Ads Turn it Into MySpace?

"Fan of Froot Loops? Facebook Has an Ad for You," writes The Wired Campus’ Andrea L. Foster in this mini-brief on Facebook’s fall plans to push advertisements on teens based on hobbies, hangouts, travel tastes and faves... Up until now, advertisers on the popular social-networking site have only used gender, age, and location...The new game plan for Facebook? … [Read more...]

Are Kids “Internet People?” A Peek Into Digital Youth & Pop Culture

There’s a clever animated send up of media moments making the rounds called “Internet People,” created by cartoonist Dan Meth (yes, that's his real name, poor guy) with music by Micah Frank (and featuring the horn section of Bruce Kapler and Al Chez from Paul Schafer's CBS Orchestra on David Letterman's Late Show). The funniest thing about Internet People … [Read more...]

What The Heck IS Machinima, Anyway?

Digital movies made in online virtual worlds seem to be ‘the next big thing’ in youth created content these days. For the uninitiated, machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies. Check out the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences for FAQs and examples, Paul Marino's Thinking … [Read more...]

Danica McKellar, First Honoree For “People Shaping Youth”

When the media and marketing machine work in positive ways to trigger youth enthusiasm, it can skyrocket into a global phenom in a heartbeat. We’ve seen movements take hold and spread like wildfire using the internet as fuel. From disaster relief like ICare and Humanlink to teen blogging projects and virtual videos (Global Kids' amazing year long after-school machinima … [Read more...]

Energy Craze Run Amok: Caffeine Comes to Potato Chips?

“Not recommended for young children,” reads the warning on the NRG Phoenix Fury Potato Chip package. Yep, that’s right folks, news reports confirm a new entry in my ‘yougaddabefreakinkiddinme’ marketing file. Kiddies can now turn their fingertips bright orange like Cheetos, but get zapped with caffeine, B-vitamins and taurine, in new … [Read more...]