Building meaningful cross-sector partnerships for children and media initiatives: a conversation café with scholars and activists from around the world

In this essay, we bring together academics and activists from around the world in a “conversation cafe” to share their perspectives on the past, present, and future of children and media with specific emphasis on building meaningful cross-sector partnerships. Key change-agents from academe, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations committed to youth and media literacy from the USA, the UK, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia, and India participated in this discussion. A unique online conversation cafe was set up to facilitate discussions over a three-week period. The conversation provides a flavor of the changing media landscape, local-global tensions, industry-academe-nonprofit initiatives, and unique challenges and opportunities relating to building cross-sector partnerships in various cultural contexts. Future directions for scholarship and activism relating to youth media, technology, and arts are discussed.