Last week, Laura Sahramaa wrote a blog about the connections between documentary media and social change as witnessed through the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko. As a huge documentary fanatic (especially those aimed at creating social change) & aspiring documentarian, I wanted to highlight a couple of examples of simple, online videos made by the YouTube generation that are aimed at social change, if only to prove the point that you don't have to have a major movie studio or a distribution plan to pick up a video camera and start making some waves in your community.

For the past six years of my life I have been trying to delicately balance my roles as a media producer and an activist.    

At journalism school, I was taught to remain "objective" no matter the issue.  Meanwhile, as an activist, I bemoaned the media's lack of attention to progressive causes and what seemed like, although often objective, unfair coverage.  

Although I maintained my belief that media is by far the most influential force in our society, I felt helpless to reform the system.  After being torn apart by these two sides of my psyche and completely giving up on the media as an effective tool for change, I decided to drop out of journalism school in order to pursue a life of full-time activism.