The Ypulse 2008 [Y]ear In Review Part One

We’re kicking off our Year In Review coverage with my attempt to look back on what I thought were the biggest youth media and marketing trends of the year. If you think I’ve missed a big trend, please post your own in the comments. We also have lots more Year In Review coverage (Tech, Ads, TV, Movies, Music, Books and more) coming your way this week and next from Meredith and our Youth Advisory Board so stay tuned…

The Obama phenomenon
So much has been written about the success of the Obama campaign in reaching young voters, that it’s hard to add much more. The reality is that without the perfect storm of extreme dissatisfaction with the current president, most Millennials wanting bigger government/more security in turbulent times, the mass adoption of social media by youth (and increasingly by everyone else) and aspects of the candidate himself (young, bi-racial, a physical embodiment of change) played an even bigger role in creating the groundswell of youth support than any specific campaign initiative. It became a movement, inspired by the candidate, expressed in everything from art to hundreds of Facebook groups to YouTube videos.

From the Ypulse archives:

Seriously? Seriously. College Students’ Tastes Take An Upward Shift
Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East: What Every Brand Could Learn From The Obama Campaign’s Marketing To College Students
Obama Wins Youth Vote
Facebook Status Updates Help Candidates Get Out The Vote
College Students Embracing Early And Absentee Voting
When Obama Visited My College…
Political Convention or Pop Culture Festival?
‘Millennials’ Are The Next ‘Civic Generation’
Ypulse On ‘Attack Of The Show’

The moral panic around social networking dies down
The technology gap between adults and youth definitely still exists as does the sensational coverage of any youth victimization or other mishap online, but I believe that in 2008, social networking truly went mainstream. The fear around sexual predators began to subside, thanks in large part to researchers and law enforcement admitting they may have overreacted and giving us a much clearer picture of how online predators approach their victims (not pretending to be teens) and who is really at risk (teens who are already engaged in risky behaviors, who have been victimized in the past, experiencing problems at home, etc.). I also believe that the work being done by researchers, non-profits and other organizations (including my own work on these issues) has had an effect on calming the panic. The issues have shifted from an over focus on stranger danger to creating effective cyberbullying policies in schools, teaching new media literacies and figuring out the boundaries between youth and the adults who now share these social networks.

From the Ypulse archives:

Ypulse On The Today Show: KFC’s Bathing Beauties
Digital Youth Research: Living And Learning With New Media
‘Born Digital’: Fighting The Internet Culture Wars
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Are Tech-Savvy Teens ‘Nokia Lolitas’?
Ypulse Guest Post: The Problem With ‘Pushy Parents’
Growing Up In A Confessional Culture
The New Rules For Social Networking
Students Protest Facebook Photo Fallout On Facebook

Teen [print] magazine deathwatch
It hasn’t been a good year for print—especially for teen magazines. The death of the print version of Cosmo Girl this year, after losing YM, Teen People and Elle Girl, has basically left the print versions of Seventeen and Teen Vogue along with Teen (and the other tweeny bopper print mags),  and a bunch of indies. What I think is more interesting than the debate over whether print magazines will survive are the efforts at reinventing teen magazines online like myYearbook’s myMag, Elle’s foray into Stardoll, the new I Heart Daily newsletter as well as the smattering of online-only internet teen mags like Teen Scene Magazine or Sweet Designs. Back when Teen People folded, we wrote about how teens had aged up and were feeding their need for celebrity scoop with US Weekly and blogs like Perez Hilton. You could argue that this year teens’ need for fashion scoop is starting to be replaced by user generated fashion sites/social networks and an army of independent fashion bloggers…

From the Ypulse archives:

Tips For Young And Aspiring Media Professionals In Uncertain Times
‘I Heart Daily’ And The Teen Mag Business Model
Goodbye, CosmoGIRL!
If Only We Had The Pop-Up Concept In 2000
The Day The Music Magazine Died?
What We Can Learn From Flip.com
Technology’s Impact on Teen Trendsetters

Mobile lifecasting
A hat tip to Ypulse friend Allison Mooney from Next Great Thing for her suggestion of lifecasting as one of the biggest mobile trends this past year. In her own words, “Not only are you seeing it on dedicated channels like Your Flixwagon, but it’s everywhere… people sharing text, videos and photos from their cell phones to multiple channels on the web “reporting” on their lives: Tumblr, Flickr, Twit Pic, Facebook, etc.” While the concept isn’t new, Alli points out that this year, it has become more mainstream, more interconnected on different platforms, more multimedia and more mundane and personal. Thanks Alli!

From the Ypulse archives:

Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East: Tech Panel Highlights
‘Facebook And The Social Dynamics Of Privacy’
Will Microblogging Take Off With Teens?
Documentation Vs. ‘Look At Me!’

‘Twilight’ Turns YA Readers On To The Dark Side
This trend is from Ypulse Managing Editor Meredith Sires…Like any kid-litquake as massive as the “Twilight” series, the aftershocks sent through the YA industry were considerable. Just as the boy wizard before him, Stephenie Meyer’s vampire Adonis and his mortal lady love gave its young, predominantly female readers a taste for fantasy –- this time with a gothic twist—and sent publishers scrambling to satisfy their next craving whether that meant ghosts a la Tonya Hurley’s Ghostgirl, dragons a la Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr or simply more vampires a la too many to list. Booksellers did both publishers and fans a favor by shelving Meyer’s books in the YA sci-fi/fantasy section as well as general YA fiction allowing eager eyes the opportunity to settle on worthy otherworldly contenders they may not have been otherwise seen. While some hits landed squarely on the goth end of the spectrum like Libba Bray’s “Gemma Doyle” trilogy, others fell more into the general fantasy camp like Kristen Cashore’s phenomenal debut Graceling, while others still were pure sci-fi like Scott Westerfield’s “Uglies” series. The point here being not that these authors or titles were striving to compete with Meyer, but that because of the feeding frenzy she inspired, mainstream readers and pubs alike gave them the attention and publicity they so rightly deserved.

From the Ypulse archives:

What’s Love Got To Do With It: Edward and Bella
Review Review: ‘Graceling’ By Kristin Cashore
Me & My Mailbox: ‘Vampirates: Blood Captain’
Flashback: ‘Interview With The Vampire’