Who Runs This Place?

In the run up to the 2010 election, Team Video Productions recruited a group of young people from different backgrounds to ask the question 'Who runs this place?'The outcome would be turned into a classroom resource for Citizenship and Politics aimed at 16 - 18 year olds.

The idea emerged out of the uproar around MP’s expenses scandal and the crisis in the financial system. It seemed like an opportune moment to open up the political system to young people’s scrutiny. Let them ask the question: ‘Who runs this place?’ and ‘What’s in it for me?’ They were carefully recruited to represent a cross section of young people in the UK, and backed up by a team of facilitators, who helped them gain access to the boardrooms and corridors of power, to scrutinise, enquire and question.

Recruitment followed an intensive round of briefings and screen tests in schools and colleges in the south of England. Once recruited, the two essential qualities required of the investigators were enthusiasm and reliability.

Training took place in a series of ‘research’ sessions where the young people recruited kick started the investigative process. They were asked to find out who were the key people in business, finance, the media and government. The internet was invaluable.

Reza, one of the 17 year old investigators from Hampstead School described the process:

"We started talking about the vast topic of the media, and who we would most like to interview. On the internet we discovered News Corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch. What followed can only be described as a cacophony of hysteria. Ameer exclaimed “They own MTV! They even own Fox Sports and Fox News!” Then Ayesha quipped “How is that even possible?” Then Mikael summed up the disbelief and confusion so eloquently saying: “they can make us want, whatever they want us to want"."

These research sessions were the making of the project. They were discovery sessions, which fired the imagination and motivated the students.To reduce the intimidation involved in interviewing important and powerful people, the students worked in Teams of three, and prepared the interviews with the help of the facilitators. It is a tribute to our mainly state education that the interviewers conducted themselves robustly and without a hint of obsequiousness.

The fact that we were able to do interviews with many of the people we researched was a mixture of luck and judgment. The rich and the powerful, it seems, are intrigued by the prospect of having their work and achievements held up to the scrutiny of 17 year olds.

And the outcome of the enquiry has given young people themselves a resource which is uniquely theirs.

Follow the investigative trail on the website:

www.whorunsthisplace.co.uk