California Student Media Festival

10/08/2025

Honor National Banned Books Week (Oct. 5-11); books are often the inspiration for other media.

09/30/2025

Welcome to the California Student Media Festival apparel and drink ware collection, where style and functionality meet to enhance your festival experience!

Our apparel collection features comfortable and high-quality materials that are perfect for long days of enjoying your favorite student media creations. From classic tees to cozy hoodies, our collection offers a range of designs that showcase the Student Media Festival logo and highlight the festival's youthful and creative energy.

Whether you're a student creator, a festival-goer, or simply looking for some stylish and functional apparel and drink ware, the California Student Media Festival collection has something for you. Shop now and gear up for an inspiring festival experience!

Read more about California Student Media Festival at mediafestival.org

09/23/2025

Media yearns to be free:
The American Library Association announced Monday that the 88-year-old Takei will serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week, which takes place Oct. 5-11. Libraries and bookstores around the country will highlights books that have been censored, from Maia Kobabe's “Gender Queer” to Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye.”

09/18/2025

OCArts4All

SEE ME, KNOW ME:
Supporting Students who are Multilingual Learners in the Arts

Teachers will be provided resources and time to create plans to implement with their students, applying the CA Arts Standards and Artistic Processes aligned with Project GLAD® strategies designed to support Multilingual Learners in all five Arts Disciplines.

Media & Visual Arts: Oct. 26 and Feb. 4 4:30-6:30pm - it's FREE!
To register, click here: https://ocde.k12oms.org/1241-264617

Music: Nov. 4 and Feb. 12 4:30-6:30pm - it's FREE!
To register, click here: https://ocde.k12oms.org/1241-264617

09/16/2025

Research on Festival winning student videos' media literacy was presented at the international Communications and Media Studies conference in Paris on September 12.
Some of the main findings? Public and private school students did equally well as did students from different social-economic backgrounds. Media literacy levels were the same from elementary to high school; teacher/librarian guidance is a strong indicator of media literacy. Read the article: Farmer, L, & McClellan, J. (2024). (2024). Analyzing California Student Media Festival winning videos. Media Practice and Education.

The researchers conducted an extensive examination of winning student videos from the California Student Media Festival (CSMF) spanning the years 2009–2023. This content analysis aimed to gauge the...

09/02/2025

Start the school year with CSMF merch! Welcome to the California Student Media Festival apparel and drink ware collection, where style and functionality meet to enhance your festival experience!

Our apparel collection features comfortable and high-quality materials that are perfect for long days of enjoying your favorite student media creations. From classic tees to cozy hoodies, our collection offers a range of designs that showcase the Student Media Festival logo and highlight the festival's youthful and creative energy.

Whether you're a student creator, a festival-goer, or simply looking for some stylish and functional apparel and drink ware, the California Student Media Festival collection has something for you. Shop now and gear up for an inspiring festival experience!

Get details at

Welcome to the California Student Media Festival apparel and drink ware collection, where style and functionality meet to enhance your festival experience! Our apparel collection features comfortable and high-quality materials that are perfect for long days of enjoying your favorite student media cr...

08/27/2025

Big news! Mike Lawrence has been selected as the Festival's new Executive Director! Hall Davidson, who has led the Festival for years, is stepping down but will remain active in the Festival. Thanks for both men's contributions.

08/20/2025

Free Fender Play High School Songwriting Workshop for OC High School Students in partnership with Fender, Orange County Music & Dance, and Arts Orange County:
The OCDE Newsroom just ran an article about the FREE songwriting workshop.
Check out the article at this link.
At the end of the day, Fender will give away two Fender Acoustasonic® Player Jazzmaster® guitars (donated by Fender) for an opportunity drawing for one student and one teacher who complete all sessions and tasks at the workshop.
Saturday, September 20 at Orange County Music & Dance.
The flyer is attached and here is the FREE registration link.

Harmonizing Successes: Crafting Effective First Lessons for Band Students (All grade levels):
Along with classroom management, instrument pedagogy in partnerships with colleges/universities/arts organizations for beginning music teachers was one of the action items when we had our strategic planning discussions a few years ago. Brad Van Patten is working with Bertrands Music and Concordia University to provide a day of sharing instrumental pedagogy techniques and discussions surrounding musical literature choices for the year.
Saturday, September 13 at the Borland-Manske Center Charlie and Ling Zhang Orchestra Hall at Concordia in Irvine.
The flyer is attached and here is the registration link.

08/19/2025

Looking for ideas to incorporate news and media literacy into your middle and high school curriculum? Our webinar series will highlight free lessons and resources.
➡️ Join us for News and Media Literacy for All, a six-part webinar series centered on news and media literacy skills.
➡️ There is an opportunity to earn graduate-level credit through the University of the Pacific – Benerd College (UOP).
The series is brought to you by the California Department of Education, Santa Clara County Office of Education, Fresno County Office of Education, San Diego County Office of Education, Glenn County Office of Education, California School Library Association and the News Literacy Project. Each webinar is 45 minutes long and will include relevant NLP resources and highlighted content standards, guidance and frameworks from the California Department of Education. For more information, contact Jennifer Howerter at [email protected].

08/19/2025

KQED has a new online course that teachers how to break through AI bias to analyze and create media at

Generative AI can help you make images and write essays in 60 seconds or less. But how can you combat the often generic and cookie cutter media that AI generates? This course will teach you strategies to analyze and iterate on AI-generated media so that you can work with AI in a more thoughtful, fai...

08/12/2025

COMPASS: California Online Media Program for Access and Student Success. These online educational resources and tools are provided at no cost to local educational agencies through Prop 98 funding and are managed through the California State Library.

California offers — at no cost to public schools, districts, local libraries or students — online educational content and tools with COMPASS: the California Online Media Program for Access and Student Success. Guiding students and educators to school-library content and tools. These resources pr...

08/11/2025

The Orange County Department of Education invite syou and your students to register for this is a FREE songwriting workshop on September 20, provided by Fender for OC HS students.

Space is limited and here is the registration link:
https://tinyurl.com/FenderOC

Students will need a laptop/chromebook and it would be great if they could bring a guitar, bass or Uke.

At the end of the day, Fender will give away two Acoustasonic® Player Jazzmaster® guitars (donated by Fender) for an opportunity drawing for one student and one teacher who complete all sessions and tasks at the workshop.