Media Impact Workshops
Educate your team and learn the research around (and the business case for) responsible content creation through interactive sessions
We weave together our unique expertise in academia and the media industry to craft novel workshops tailored to creatives. Our media impact workshops are designed to build collaboration, spur important conversations, and offer tangible ways for your organization to create content through an authentic and inclusive lens that is good for business and positively impacts audiences and society. We develop workshops for all roles in media creation, from writers, showrunners, animators, designers, to gaming developers, executive leadership, and more. Our workshops can support your company’s values and goals at any stage of the creative process — including development, casting, marketing, and beyond.
About CSS Workshops
Each workshop is grounded in innovative research that proves how authentic and inclusive storytelling isn't just better for the world, it’s also better for the bottom line. With our workshops, we want to help you harness the power of storytelling to level up your impact while also helping you make the case that inclusion is good for business. We partner with more than 100 subject-matter experts from around the world to deliver insights in digestible nuggets, bringing research to life through an interactive format that inspires teams to apply the learnings to their creative process.
Latest cutting edge research from subject matter experts in media, psychology, and social science
Firsthand insights from young people about their lived experience and media preferences
Practical skills for making your project more unique, engaging, and successful, all while having a more positive social impact on youth audiences and society at large
What to Expect
Topic Examples
Intersectionality & Combating Implicit Bias
Race, Colorism & Culture in Youth Media
Portraying & Practicing Allyship
Gender Stereotypes, Identity & Expression
LGBTQ+ Identities & Content
Socio-Economic Inequality
Character Creation & Body Diversity
Authentic Disability Storytelling
Adolescent Mental Health
Latinx & Hispanic Representation
Cultural Appropriation
Format
Interactive & Engaging
Designed with your goals in mind
25 to 250 attendees
1.5 — 2 hours in length
Virtual or in-person options
All workshops are fully customizable and tailored to your team’s specific needs
CSS Workshops Leadership Team
Yalda T. Uhls, PhD
Recognized as one of the top 100 people in Hollywood and one of nine DEI experts changing Hollywood, Dr. Yalda T. Uhls has devoted her career to making a positive impact through the power of entertainment. Before training as a developmental psychologist, she spent almost two decades working in the movie industry, serving as a senior executive at studios like MGM and Sony, where she supervised multimillion dollar films from initial stages to final distribution. She is an internationally recognized research scientist, educator, author, and expert on the science of media and adolescent development, the importance of authentic inclusive representation, and the evolving nature of parenting. Learn More →
Sheena Brevig
Sheena Brevig studied neuroscience with an emphasis on community health and then became a filmmaker to leverage the power of authentic storytelling to positively impact society. At CSS, she merges her backgrounds in neuroscience/psychology and storytelling to lead the workshops team to craft and curate unique Media Impact Workshops. She is passionate about increasing accurate and inclusive representation across all media, in particular for her LGBTQ+, Asian/Mixed Asian, and disability communities. Through this work, she’s supported thousands of content creators in understanding how to create more authentic and inclusive content. Learn More →
Nina Linhales-Barker, MA
Nina Linhales-Barker is an LA-based Brazilian-American writer and media researcher who grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Washington, DC. After obtaining her BA from Hampshire College (and studying abroad in Havana, Cuba), she graduated with a MA in media studies from The University of Texas at Austin. Her master’s thesis focused on how ethnicity and nationality influence how Latinx viewers watch Latinx representation in English-language television. Through her role at CSS, she helps support various projects and events aimed at helping creatives craft stories that are authentic, inclusive, and have a more positive social impact. Learn More →