California Student Media Festival

04/22/2025

04/16/2025

UNESCO has launched the “Journey Through the MILtiverse: Media and Information Literacy Toolkit for Youth Organizations”, an innovative resource designed to help youth organizations integrate Media and Information Literacy (MIL) into their policies, strategies, and operations. Developed in collaboration with CIVIX Colombia and partially supported under the UNESCO "Social Media 4 Peace" project, funded by the European Union, the toolkit offers practical, step-by-step guidance to build capacity and empower youth-led initiatives in embedding MIL into their work. This toolkit is available at

04/01/2025

This is your last chance to sign up to volunteer as a festival judge! It's easy and fun: go to This is your last chance to sign up to volunteer as a festival judge! It's easy and fun: go to https://bit.ly/judge59
It's no joke: Today is April 1 ...

Help celebrate student media as a judge in the nation's longest-running student media festival, the California Student Media Festival! All judges are provided an orientation session, a rubric and two weeks to score their category (roughly 15 entries per judge). All told, judging should require about...

03/18/2025

Go to mediafestival.org now....

03/10/2025

Want some tips for great videos? Watch
Media Literacy
https://csulb.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/CSMF+Media+Literacy++Video/1_u8bmu165

Content
https://csulb.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/CSMF+Content+video/1_an43gdh9

Content creators who place media on CSULB’s MediaSpace platform agree and adhere to CSULB Acceptable Use Policy For more information, please visit CSULB Kaltura Usage Policies

03/04/2025

CSMF © COPYRIGHT FOR STUDENTS
Proud of your media project? Then give yourself credit – and credit people and resources that helped make it possible.
Copyright is like a special rule that says, "This video or photo belongs to you!" It means no one else can copy it or say it's theirs without asking you first. It's a way to protect your creations so everyone knows you made them. So you can copyright your work – and if you use someone else’s copyrighted work, make sure you ask them first before you use it. We encourage you to use your original work, public domain works, and Creative Commons works.
What is copyright? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7QmSKHCQoY
Want more details about copyright in general? https://smartcopying.edu.au/students-and-copyright/
For videos, think of copyright in terms of movie end credits: https://kids.kiddle.co/Closing_credits (includes an example)
Want more details about film/video copyright? https://www.acafilm.org/copyright-compliant
Want to build a citation? https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/citationbuilder/
Need to cite using MLA? see examples athttps://www.cdaschools.org/cms/lib07/ID01906304/Centricity/Domain/654/Middle%20School%20MLA.pdf
Need to cite AI? see examples at https://lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=1340355&p=9896961
NOTE: If you are publishing your work publicly (e.g., open YouTube.com), then you probably need to get permission to use materials that are beyond the scope of Fair Use. SO: Copyright and fair use for student projects: Can you use it? https://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Copyright-Flowchart.jpg
Also, CommonSense.org has some good lessons as well a good explainer video on copyright for students: https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/creativity-copyright-and-fair-use

For festival-specific information about copyright and credits, go to tinyurl.com/FestivalCopyright

Festival Copyright Information Share this guide: tinyurl.com/FestivalCopyright The Festivals has a rubric category for Media Literacy, believing that media literacy is a critical skill in the world students will inhabit as adults. In 2023, California passed Assembly Bill 873 (AB873), which ...

02/18/2025

Who helps make the festival possible? Our partners and sponsors. See them at

Support our efforts by becoming an Outreach Partner, Festival Sponsor, or Presenting Sponsor. Download the sponsor prospectus and let us know how you'd like to support our efforts!

02/11/2025

Here are the 2024 media festival student winners: https://www.mediafestival.org/winners24 so this year top them!

This was a stunning year for festival entries. Below is the list of winners from the 56th Annual festival on May 21, 2022. We've broken them up into General and Special Category Winners.

01/21/2025

It's time! for students to enter their media projects for the Festival! the deadline is April 1 -- and now is the time to sign up as a volunteer to judge those projects (mid April). Get inspired either way -- at

The California Student Media Festival seeks to transform preK-12 student learning, recognizing creativity and student agency through the cultivation and celebration of original work.

01/14/2025

California Student Media Festival Fact Sheet
Vision: A California that elevates and celebrates student learning and creativity through the meaningful use of media and the arts.
Now in its 59th year, the California Student Media Festival (http://mediafestival.org) is our nation’s oldest continuing student media festival. Over the past twenty-five years, the California Student Media Festival has awarded more than $179,500 to California Schools. It has expanded to include the work of more than 6,000 student contestants from schools across the state. The Festival exists to celebrate the amazing media and multimedia projects produced by California’s K-12 students and teachers — rewarding and acknowledging their successful classroom work at an awards event in spring every year.
The Festival advocates for information and media literacy, encouraging students to display their talents through media and multimedia inside or beyond the classroom. It immerses the students in a culmination of boundless expression, storytelling, learning, and collaboration while it provides educators with the motivation to expand media integration in their own classrooms.
This 501(c)3 organization is managed by its dedicated steering committee of volunteers. These volunteers tirelessly take on various responsibilities for the Festival especially as the event day approaches all while working their full-time careers. The steering committee also relies on the participation of even more volunteers–leading educators, media and technology experts, librarians, and everyday teachers--who judge and select winners to fully execute the festival. To fund the festival, including its prizes, the Festival depends on sponsors and donors.
Festival Vision: A California that elevates and celebrates student learning and creativity through the meaningful use of media and the arts.
Festival Mission: The California Student Media Festival seeks to transform student learning, recognizing creativity and student agency through the cultivation and celebration of original work.
Festival Opportunities: The California Student Media Festival offers several opportunities for students and adults to participate.
• Students can produce and enter media products (video, photography, artwork, audio files, interactive media) into the Festival for free. Past student winners can help present, and other student can also help at the Festival event.
• Adults can encourage and guide student productions, judge student media products, help plan and carry out the Festival, sponsor the Festival, donate to the festival, and promote it widely.
Important dates: Students may enter their projects between January 20 and April 1. The festival event will be held May 17 at Hollywood High School.
For more information about the Festival, visit www.mediafestival.org.

01/07/2025

Inspire your students to make awesome videos with these resources:
INSPIRATIONS FOR MEDIA PROJECTS
Critical Media Project https://annenberg.usc.edu/research/critical-media-project Annenberg Center free media literacy web resources for educators and students (ages 8-21) that enhances young people’s critical thinking and empathy, and builds on their capacities to create their own stories.
Global Oneness Project https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library stories and lesson plans to inspire student media projects

Yum Yum Video https://www.yumyumvideos.com/blog/video-project-ideas/ 15 creative video projects for the classroom

Discover 15 video project ideas to take advantage of in any classroom and the important life lessons your students can learn from them.

12/31/2024

End your year on a positive note (and your tax benefits) by donating now to the Festival to support student voice. Simply go to http://mediafestival.org and click on DONATE. Students throughout the state thank you.

The California Student Media Festival seeks to transform preK-12 student learning, recognizing creativity and student agency through the cultivation and celebration of original work.

12/28/2024

Misinformation, AI-generated content, and viral trends constantly shape the narratives we encounter online. This spring, take an active step toward helping students navigate our media-driven world with confidence. Sign up for KQED's online workshop, GenAI Guidelines for Student-Centered Media Creation on Tuesday, January 21 . In this timely, hands-on workshop for middle and high school educators, we’ll share KQED’s new guidelines for productive, ethical and student-focused media creation using GenAI. We’ll then explore how AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be customized to provide supportive feedback on audio and video scripts–and other types of writing. Register at https://events.zoom.us/ev/ArCoioX7s0Xuk93b45zQOqag7jEfm3ojuyXbkrpdU9cqhUt7Ol14~AlCv8h8FyEEuveVTW2BJYlg7q21bxD0y8xlhDOJN4DnPJEo7w0SWbsQzh_kn5ZU-RRzNuswYYKXc3R54fjDYZWmUGw?j=1435953&sfmc_sub=195748519&l=127_HTML&u=30524674&mid=7273884&jb=8010&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20241228%20Education_Educator%20Newsletter_Newsletter&mc_key=93857412

Grow as a Media Literacy Educator this Winter/Spring
Strong media literacy begins with skilled, informed educators. The KQED Media Literacy Educator Competencies outline essential practices for teaching students to critically evaluate and create media. These competencies empower K-12 teachers to build lessons that encourage curiosity, skepticism, and thoughtful engagement with digital content. Pairing these competencies with strategies from our upcoming workshop help prepare your students to be active and informed participants in today’s digital world. Register at https://teach.kqed.org/p/medialiteracy?j=1435953&sfmc_sub=195748519&l=127_HTML&u=30524675&mid=7273884&jb=8010&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20241228%20Education_Educator%20Newsletter_Newsletter&mc_key=93857412

A media literate person, as defined by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), possesses the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and act using all forms of communication.