丁香园AV

Tara Mahoney is the creative director and co-founder of . She is passionate about engaging young people in the democratic process.

Working as an intern at the  headquarters in Washington, D.C., a young Tara Mahoney became aware of the media鈥檚 profound ability to influence civic life. In a city 鈥渁t the centre of power," Mahoney became troubled by the media鈥檚 tendency to portray people, and society more generally, in a negative light.

鈥淚 started to notice how much power the media have to interpret certain messages. They are the gatekeepers of the people鈥檚 consciousness, and, particularly in the U.S., they are doing a really bad job.鈥� Mahoney lamented that most of what she saw in the news centred around negative themes like violence or cheating鈥攖hemes which, she thinks, don鈥檛 accurately represent the intelligence and spirit of most people.

After completing a master鈥檚 degree in media production, Mahoney began working at  in Vancouver. There, she met Fiona Rayher, and together they went on to co-found : a media production company that focuses on civic engagement within the Generation Y demographic.

Mahoney says the focus on Generation Y came out of an interest in generational theory. According to the theory, generations reoccur in cycles of four, and every four generations a hero archetype is born.

The hero archetype comes of age during a time of social crisis or social decay. As members of this generation form their opinions about the world, so the theory goes, they perceive that the way things operate no longer makes sense. As Mahoney understands it, this realization creates 鈥渁n opening in the consciousness for large-scale social change within a generation.鈥�

Hoping to help Generation Y realize its heroic potential, Mahoney and Rayher took it upon themselves to provide a new and inspiring source of media representation. It鈥檚 no small task, but Mahoney considers it to be a very important one. "There are a lot of crazy things happening that our generation will have to make decisions about, and if we aren鈥檛 making those decisions collectively, there鈥檚 a real danger."

If given the chance to make decisions together, in a democratic way, Mahoney believes this generation will achieve positive change. And Gen Why is about providing the inspiration and creating the space to do just that.

Take, for instance, the documentary that Gen Why is currently working on. The film looks at hydraulic fracturing in B.C. and the impact it鈥檚 having on Indigenous culture. Mahoney describes the film as a story of young people鈥擨ndigenou and non-Indigenous鈥攚orking together to come up with better ways of doing things. After releasing the film to the public, Gen Why will host community conversations around the same theme, online and offline.

Talking about the film, and other Gen Why projects, it鈥檚 clear Mahoney is excited by her career path and truly believes in the value of the work she鈥檚 doing. Still, she admits she鈥檚 uncertain about what the future holds for her and her work. Mahoney says people often assume that she, and others who have started their own organizations, are 鈥渟ure of something,鈥� but it鈥檚 not quite the case. 鈥淚鈥檓 just going step by step. I can see the next step fairly clearly and I take that one. As far as the big picture goes, I鈥檓 no more certain of that than anyone else.鈥�

One of the steps Mahoney took was enrolling in the Civic Engagement and Dialogue program at 丁香园AV. She says the program taught her a lot about listening, and gave her tools to interact with others in a meaningful way.

Speaking about 丁香园AV, she also gave us a shoutout! 鈥淚鈥檓 really glad 丁香园AV Public Square exists,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ecause it helps legitimize the work Gen Why and other civic engagement practitioners are doing. The program demonstrates that democratic values are important, enough so to be endorsed by the university in this huge way.鈥� It鈥檚 a great thing to hear form a civic influencer, who is evidence enough to us that the hero archetype exists.