Michael A. Spikes

Specialist in Electronic Media Design and Production, Application of Computer Technology and Multimedia in Educational Contexts, and Visual Journalism

BIO:

Michael Spikes, a native of Maple Heights, Ohio began a career in media production early, as he recalls, creating his own radio programs based around books he was reading with family members, complete with musical bridges, intros and outs around the age of 8 with a small tape recorder gifted to him by his parents.

At the age of 15, Michael joined PRYME, the Partnership for Regional Youth Media Empowerment as a youth producer for the weekly radio program “Our World”. During that time, Michael was trained in interviewing, sound capture, and the mechanics of directing a half hour pre-produced radio program. Michael continued with PRYME after graduating from high school in 2001, becoming a youth radio trainer and executive producer for Our World, producing more than 200 radio pieces for the program.

Michael then transitioned into a career in education, working with children in grades K-12, first as an Elementary Media Specialist in Ohio, where he trained staff and students in using multimedia applications in a wide variety of situations to enhance curriculum and learning in the school. A year later, Michael was recruited to join the Friendship News Network in Washington D.C., a new Youth Media venture founded in the Friendship Public Charter Schools. There, he held a wide variety of roles, including that of head of Radio/Television Production Division, in which he led high school and middle school students in the training of becoming both radio and television journalists, covering issues such as student health, HIV/AIDS issues in the DC area, local politics, and poverty issues in the communities in which the students lived.

During his time in Washington, D.C. Michael also was recruited as the Program Coordinator and Producer of the WAMU’s Youth Voices, a youth radio program run out of Washington DC’s NPR affiliate WAMU-88.5FM. There, he trained students in all facets of radio reporting, including interviewing, story pitching, writing and voicing for radio, and digital audio production.

Michael also joined the Washington, D.C. Public Schools in writing a new curriculum for the Digital Mass Media Program being taught at the high school level, as a Career and Technical Education course. Michael also taught classes in television and radio production and computer literacy, recruiting students, and coordinating various media competitions in and out of school for students in DC Public Schools.

Also during his time in Washington, D.C., Michael was part of a number of organizations centered around student produced media and the student press, including being a Board Member of the Maryland/DC Scholastic Press Association, a member of the Newseum’s Educational Advisory Team, the Journalism Educational Association, SkillsUSA, and the Washington chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Michael has also worked as a freelance videographer, radio and television producer, and digital audio and video editor for the past 10 years, working for various entities.

Michael joined the Center for News Literacy in 2012 after attending a summer workshop in News Literacy in 2010. During his time with the Center, he has acted as a presenter at the Center’s conferences in 2011, and 2013,  accompanied the Center for News Literacy’s Director Dean Miller to Bhutan to develop and train teachers in the Stony Brook Model of teaching News Literacy in 2012 and 2013, developed the Center's online Digital Resource Center, and has recently begun efforts to develop News Literacy workshops and programs in Chicago in conjunction with local organizations. 

Michael earned his Masters of Science degree in Technological Systems Management with a concentration in Educational Technology in 2014.