Koahnic's mission is to provide training so that more Native Americans will enter the media industry to more frequently and more accurately portray Native Americans in the media. Dinwoodie discussed the need for more Native Americans to learn new skills in communicating their news and cultural concerns. Towards this end, the Alaska Youth Media Institute offers 10-day workshops to train youth from rural communities in the writing and production of newspapers and the use of video and audio recording equipment. In both of these mediums, the youth learn how to put a story together and how to edit. They have to be involved throughout the process.
Staff can set up the program's technical parameters, but the content is up to the youth.
A key question is what are the motivations of the people who are teaching or leading the program. Strictly teaching new communication skills as a technology limits youths' imagination. It is helpful to develop exercises or models that stretch kids to bring their imaginations to the tool. Then, let them receive comments from each other about what does and doesn't work. My experience is that girls' interests drops off when it comes to the hands-on use of equipment.