MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Be Your Change Media

One-line solution summary:

Be Your Change is an all-female, all digital and physical media training platform.

Pitch your solution.

Be Your Change is looking at closing the media gender equity gap by training women online and offline to acquire the technical and confidence skills to produce and develop podcasts.

We train and mentor women and girls online and in-person in podcast development, digital marketing and media business fundamentals to amplify their work and connect with a global community of women in media.
Women reported a sense of new confidence in themselves and in their ability to launch a podcast or a tv show after attending our events and a feeling of belonging to a community. They reported that the desire to teach their community what they have learnt.
By training more women to develop media entities and gain ownership of the media narrative, we will help amplify women’s impact, accelerate social changes and balance the media narrative.

What specific problem are you solving?

There is a gender gap in the media and it creates an imbalance of messages.

Women and most minority groups owned less than a 10th of big TV stations (Women Media Center)
15 male Billionaires Own America's News Media Companies [2016, Forbes Magazine]
Despite all the women singers you can think of, less than 5% of the people working in the field of music production & recording arts are women—[Women’s Audio Mission]
Only one in three chart-topping podcast hosts are women (Bello Collective)

What is your solution?

We provide podcast training and mentoring via our website beyourchange.co and via the organization of women podcasting retreats.

For our first retreat this year, we provided a certain number of scholarship to women and girls to attend. We received more than 65 requests from women around the world to attend the retreat.

Over 4 days, at the El Coronado Ranch, in Arizona owned by a woman environmental activist, we brought together 10 women from different horizons. Under the guidance of podcast experts who have produced stories for the BBC, NPR, The New York Times and The Atlantic and other stories to advance social justice, we introduced women and girls to storytelling. They learn how to create and produce a podcast, basic audio editing skills, sounds capture beginner skills and marketing skills to launch their shows.

We are now working on bringing this intimate experience to an online settings to assist a larger number of women to launch their podcast with a focus on women who comes from underserved community and with the desire to provide access to resources and opportunities to turn their newly podcast skills into work opportunities.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our solution serve women and girls interested in starting a podcast. They either comes from an underserved background and/or are advocate for social changes.

They have been thinking about starting a podcast for a while but have not started yet. They might not have the resources (time) or (financial) to start their own podcast. They often found the process of learning audio technical skills overwhelming. They are not sure where to start. They want to share personal and intimate stories but lack the confidence to pursue their ideas. Bringing these women together into a supportive learning community is very powerful experience.

We have identified and stay in contact with these women through:

women's survey to collect feedback on their pain points.
collect data from the 65 scholarship applications we received
circle back with women who have attended our events
develop our community and network through a large network of women.

Our solution is not only to provide access to training and mentoring but also to provide opportunities to women by helping them to find work opportunities in the podcasting industry. The demand is growing and currently you can be an audio producer or editor from any parts of the world.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Increase the number of girls and young women participating in formal and informal learning and training

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

The podcasting industry is booming and expecting to grow to $1billion in revenue by 2021.

There is a growing demand for storytelling and audio editing skills and podcast is a fairly easy medium to learn if well-taught. Once girls and women have acquired the podcast basic skills, it is important to help them to understand how the job market works, how to connect to opportunities, and how to build a portfolio and negotiate their fees.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Los Angeles, CA, USA

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Juliette Roy, Founder