An ex-paparazzo capturing couples as they get engaged just makes is brilliant. It also makes for a great story.

By Serena Solomon and Annette Witheridge

DNAinfo Reporters

CENTRAL PARK — As the lovestruck couple wandered through Central Park, a shadowy figure darted in and out of trees, training his huge, long-lensed camera on their every move.

As the would-be groom dropped onto one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket, the photographer — now hiding behind a foodcart — clicked frantically. A crowd had gathered next to him, eager to find out who the couple were.

Were Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finally getting engaged? Had Jennifer Aniston’s love life finally improved?

Former paparazzo James Ambler, who spent five years documenting the lives of the famous like Jolie, Tom Cruise and Tiger Woods, is accustomed to fielding such questions. In June he launched the company Pap the Question, turning his skills from celebrities to making normal couples like Mayank Desai and Lisa Sheth feel like stars.

James Ambler captures Mayank Desai, from Texas, as he proposes to Lisa Sheth in Central Park. Pap the Question/James Ambler

“For the first time in my life I am not photographing celebrities, just photographing happy couples about to get engaged,” said Ambler, an English expat now living in Chelsea.

He said he came up with the idea for Pap the Question when he realized he had no pictures of his proposal to his now-wife Kate.

The 31-year-old Ambler remembers the bout of nerves he felt that day in Central Park, an experience he uses to help his clients through their big question.

“It is terrifying, absolutely terrifying,” he said. “My poor wife must have known there was something up.”

With the $450 basic package, including a walk-through of the engagement, Ambler has become something of a pseudo consultant giving advice to ensure a spectacular moment and calming the nerves of his clients.

“We like to do a run-through with our clients so its makes them much more at ease and our job a lot easier,” said Ambler. “With the nature of this work we only have one shot at this.”

Ambler took DNAinfo through the recent proposal of Desai and Sheth in Central Park. Desai surprised his girlfriend by flying in from Texas — and then surprised her again by proposing.

Ambler snapped every second of the emotional moment.

While Pap the Question is yet to capture a proposal dud, Ambler says he offers a 75 percent refund to any man whose proposal ends in a “no” — as well as the comfort of a cold beer.

“We don’t want to break their bank as well as their heart,” he said. “Let’s face it, it’s going to be pretty tragic.”

While Ambler is now working full-time on his new company, he occasionally still takes on real paparazzi jobs. He had his own moment of fame four years ago while trailing Angelina Jolie — she gave him a lift in her car after the bike he used to follow her got a flat tire.

With the fast world of celebrity-chasing almost behind him, Ambler is now relishing his new softer role.

“It is one of those stories that you will always think of it,” he said. “As a young couple it is the first moment where you are really making that big step together.”

An image from Places We Live by Jonas Bendiksen. Take a trip to slums of the world.

Stunning would be one word to describe it. Jonas Bendikson’s “The Places We Live” made news-media into art when he created this web documentary. Stirring emotion through sound, image, words and interaction, this project allowes the audience to have a large degree of control.

Bendikson takes you into slums in Kenya, Indonesia, India and Venezuela, allowing you to understand the struggles and even joys of families living in these communities. This work is stunning. Stunning in technology, in photography, in audio and stunning in an ability to take you into the lives of people.

Through this web documentary the audience is able to take ownership and direct the story through interactive technology.  Choose the country and choose the person. By harnessing the 360 panoramic photo Bedikson will place you in the middle of someone’s house and in the middle of their life. The places where others live, in some distance country or circumstance, become the place that you live.

Why this is good for news and for young people…

Web documentaries are generally interactive.

As I outlined in Choose Your Own (News) Adventure interactivity means ownership and young people thrive on ownership. Bedikson allows the audience to choose which country to visit, the house you will go into and the image you see when in that house. The project allows you to explore, helping a young person to learn about their world.

The Wall is Broken Down A Little Further

Other forms of media bring out the glimpses of news from behind a wall, keeping reality at arms length and often preventing the audience from truly digesting the story. A 30 second newscast, while giving you facts, does not have the time to explore the lives of people effect by the headlines. Bendikson’s web documentary allows the audience to take the time to go behind that headline wall, making the news more real.

From Their Own Mouths

Again, using soundbites, the people tell their story in their own words. Without the need for a made-up and dramatic newscaster, the reality of each story is closer to the lives of the audience. As Hanson Hosein outlined in his interview young people crave what is genuine.

Visit  Visa pour L’Image or the New York Times Lens Blog for more web documentaries

“I want to go to school,” said a lone Afghan boy in English. “I would like it if I could be — it sounds like a lot to ask — an engineer of computing.” The Photo: Intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard, most of them from Afghanistan, were held in the port of Mytilini before their transfer to a detention facility. Photo by Moises Saman at nytimes.com

Where are young people in the news?

Each week expect a summary of interesting articles from around the world about young people. Over time patterns will develop of how young people are framed by the media, what importance they are given in news-media  and what their relationship to the different medias is – so stay wired.

Afghan Youth Seeks a New Life in Europe

New York Times – Leaving family and war behind, thousands of lone Afghan boys are making their way across Europe. They struggle to learn the language of the country they find themselves in, as many try to exploit the young refugees. This story  brings echoes of Sudan’s Lost Boys, who fled their war-torn country to forge another life in the developed world.

Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens

New York Times – Just 11 percent of Twitter’s users are aged 12 to 17, according to comScore. Instead, its explosion in popularity has been driven by an older group. Many young people, Facebook, MySpace and text messaging is their primary method of communication. They say there simply do not need Twitter. I would add that many young people lack the lifestyle to be feeding a site that is updated constantly not to mention an expensive data plan or a phone that allows you on the Internet. Also sites like MySpace allow young people to be creative and make a page that is more unique and displays their identity.

Can the Color Your Kids Wear Really Make a Difference. Brittany Johnson Thinks So.

Reuters – Brittany Johnson, creator of “Color 4 Kids,” believes the colors your children wear can have a direct impact on their self-esteem and how they do in school. It does seem a little farfetched to me that color can equal failure or success in school or suggest a parent’s love for their children. Surely other factors have exceedingly more baring on value and success then clothing color . But use your critique to decide for yourself.

Child Evacuees Relive Their WW2

BBC News – Lives of Britons during World War Two seemed like a movie, scripting a civilized society pushed to the edge. When about 1.3 million children where sent away from areas under attacked from German bombers, they were placed in the homes of strangers. For some it was a story book adventure, for others is meant abuse. How would todays young people fair in such an event?

Note to Self: Young People Still Like to Read

New York Daily News – Can books really be dying? Thousands of children swarm local libraries for Summer reading programs reminding us that book enthusiasm still exists. Who knows what the Kindle will achieve in society but reading a good story will never die. Imagination is stirred in young people when they turn pages.

Unplugging the iPod : Test for Parents and Kids

Baltimore Sun – I cannot imagine a road trip with a television, kids these days cannot imagine it without one. Media can have a tendency to disconnect us from our surroundings, creating a parallel universe called the mediated world. Michael Franck documents the pulling of the plug on his kids addiction to the iPod, portable TV and Nintendo DS for a ten hour trip back from holidays. Although it was not smooth riding all the way, the kids provide surprising results. They invent games, they take naps and stare out the window. This is a nice story to warm your heart.

Many Girls Abused By Boyfriends

BBC News – According to a NSPCC survey of 1,400 British girls, a third of teenage girls suffer sexual abuse in a relationship and a quarter experience violence at the hands of their boyfriends. Immense peer pressure for both boys and girls can lead them down an abusive path with girls bearing the brunt. The NSPCC stressed that, while the British government is working on how to best help young people in prevention and identifying those who are in an abusive relationships, parents must play their part. My experience in working with young people in abusive relationships is that the fear of loneliness often outweighs fear of abuse, which is why it is hard to pry a young person out of an abusive situation.

It Is True: School Causes Headaches

Doctors say they see more headaches, and more severe cases this time of year, just as kids are heading back to class. Dr. Ann Pakalnis cites several reasons. First is a lack of sleep. Switching from summer schedules to school hours can be tough, and using caffeine to compensate for it can make things worse. Dr. Pakalnis has published a study that show kids who have migraines often have restless sleep and can show signs of depression.

Parent Talk Corner: Helping Set Limits on TV for Kids

Boston Globe – Liz Lee gives some tips of how to involved television in lives of kids such as planning to watch a show rather then aimlessly watching a hour of television. One point that jumped out: according to Lee the American Pediatric Association recommends no television or DVD viewing before a child turns two. I think the challenge for TV is it develops few abilities in a child and does not utilize all the ways that they learn. They can look and see but they do not touch, smell, feel or taste. Children learn by experience and interactivity with television discouraging both of these.

Indonesia: Unregistered Children at Risk

IRIN News – “We don’t need birth certificates, we need to eat,” said Satri Rama’s 39-year-old mother of five. However, according to IRIN News and UNICEF this puts them at risk of exploitation as the lack of ID makes it difficult to enforce laws to protect the child. Indonesia also requires a birth certificate to get an education. Although birth certificates should be free, hospitals and medical officials charge customers. What is demonstrated in this article is how poverty often takes away any interest of the future. Needs, such as water and food, are so short term and urgent that long term concerns are really a waste of time.

Interactivity means ownership and young people thrive on ownership.

Hello Dear Old Friend: some sweet memories we have with choosing our own adventures.

Interactive entertainment for young people is not a new thing. Even when Edward Packard created “the Cave of Time” in 1979, the first “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, it was not a new thing. The more inventions there are the more you realize that everything is just a remodel of something our ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Lets assume interactivity was even in Africa at the cradle of civilization.

So the latest interactive antics of MySpace, Bebo and the likes are not onto something new, but just a remake of what always has been. Using MySpace as the example, this year the social networking site launch a video series, Freak, about British young people, labeling it an “audience-centric style drama.” Each webisode takes three minutes,

projecting the normal soap opera feelings of emotion and drama. The twist is the audience can interact with the show by picking the sound track, inviting characters to be “friends” on Myspace, inputing into the story-line and giving characters advice.

In the context of young people interactivity is a massive, yes MASSIVE, power of the Internet. And a reason why? Take a look at the lives of children to teenagers to young adults – they spend much of their time absorbing, learning and being talked to. There are few opportunities for involvement and a platform to share. One could argue there is the debating team in school but that only covers 0.001 percent of the youthful population, and often just the “talented” ones.

Young people like to be given the responsibility of being “in-charge” because it communicates that someone believes in their ability to contribute. When working with a young person who had challenging behavior I found giving them responsibility or a chance to share their thoughts instantly change their countenance and often altered their behavior for the rest of our time together. Interactivity means ownership and young people thrive on ownership.

Young people want to be involved and they are capable of being involved.

For news-media it is a relief to see news organizations embrace interactivity when delivering the news. Young people want to be involved and they are capable of being involved. Traditionally news has been a one-way communication line where journalist communicate to their audience without a caring for response – except for the few columns of op-ed and “Letters to the Editor.” However, rather obviously this back lane one-way is turning into a two-lane highway with media companies jumping on the okay-fine-give-the-audience-at-bit-of-a-voice train. CNN loves to read out Facebook comments from its readers, even the pets of reporters have Twitter accounts and citizen journalists are gaining some street cred as a cheap and viable option for content.

When it comes to interactivity on the Internet, although technically difficult and expensive, it is making a mark. An example of fine interactivity was when the New York Times knit together a ton of photographs of President Obama giving his inauguration address. The outcome was a large photo where Internet users could zoom into any section and run their cursor over faces revealing names of the people who surrounded the president as he spoke. The user is in control of their news experience causing them to linger longer on the page.

In an interview with the interactive media team at the New York Times, Aron Pilhofer said there are many ways that technology and journalism connect in the newsroom. Examples such as graphics, computer-assisted reporting and multimedia departments are unavoidable when logging on to any news.com. Interactive teams such as those with the Times are not cheap, but for engaging the next generation in news-media they are worth every penny.

Hopefully news-media will continue its experiment with the interactive and engage more young people in the process. We want young people to be active consumers of news and the ownership that comes from interactivity is one way to ensure that.

Young men guarding the entrance to their village in northern Iraq take a break for lunch. The duties and chores of young people around the world could not be more different. Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

Where are young people in the news?

Each week expect a summary of interesting articles from around the world about young people. Over time patterns will develop of how young people are framed by the media, what importance they are given in news-media  and what their relationship to the different medias is – so stay wired.

Your Baby Is Smarter Then You Think

New York Times – New studies demonstrate that babies and very young children know, observe, explore, imagine and learn

more than we would ever have thought possible. In some ways, they are smarter than adults.

Hilltop Youth Push to Settle West Bank

BBC – Young Zionist activists are taking on the Israeli authorities by setting up West Bank outposts illegal even under Israeli law.

Teenagers Struggle To Learn

BBC – In-spite of the recession British teenagers have not cut back on spending even if parents are withholding money or part-time jobs are harder to come by. Even with the recession partly being blamed on easy access to credit, young people still see it as an answer to their needs.

Who Still Wants To Be A Young Republican?

Christian Science Monitor – Since the U.S. election last year when people under 30 voted for Obama 2:1, his support is dwindling in the young voters. Even with the elderly image of John McCain stuck in one’s head there are still young republicans out there stirring.

A Billion Teenagers For Better Or Worse

New York Times – A new analysis confirms that while fertility rates are dropping in many places, some of the world’s most turbulent and poverty-stricken regions are seeing explosive population growth leading to enormous numbers of teenagers and children.

In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, boys – and girls – crack open schoolbooks once again

Christian Science Monitor – Hundreds of boys and girls returned to school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley this month, returning to their lessons after being forced to flee fighting between the Army and Taliban. Even girls, who had been banned from school by the militants who dominated the area until April, showed up.

Teens Spend 10 Hours Looking at Screens Each Day

IT Pro – This includes texting, watching TV, using computers at school and other screens that teenagers encounter each day.

Parents, Teens Disconnect on Social Networking Habits

Tennessean.com – New statistics show kids increasingly connect with friends, classmates and people with similar interests through social networking sites — and that parents are out of the loop. Parents drastically underestimate how much their children are on social networking sites.

The cover of comic book series, the Unknown Soldier

Could young people connect with the news or  current affairs through a comic?

The Unknown Soldier brings us the Ugandan child solider in comic book form. The developer, Vertigo, meant it when labeling the comic for “mature readers” as the Unknown Soldier shies away from nothing – blood, self-mutilation, beatings, death – in its depiction of civil war in the small African country and the child soldiers who are involved in the conflict.

In an excerpt posted on the nytimes.com, a nun is shown following a platoon of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who have kidnapped girls that were in her charge. This is common practice for the LRA, often forcing children to fight their war or be sex-slaves for commanders of the army.

Speaking to the man in charge she requests the release of the girls, only to be given the option of choosing ten to take to freedom, leaving the others to a life of rape, forced marriage, violence and death.

The expert also shows the beating of a kidnapped child by other children. Children inflicting rape, violence and death on another child is a tactic of the LRA, turning them into a heartless and effective fighters.

So is this a way to communicate to young people? Well first the comic is far too graphic and brutal for teenagers and kids, ruling out any benefit for those age groups.

For young adults, 18 to 25, the comic is genuine in the sense that writer Joshua Dysart visited Uganda in 2007, providing a powerful introduction to the world that he would write about.

“I interviewed a reformed child soldier who was forced to bite to death a woman,” Dysart told the New York Times of one of his encounters.

As Hanson Hosein mentioned in an interview to the Generativity Tribune, “the bull-shit detector” is on high for young people. I would agree. In my experience working  young people, they can sniff out a pretender in no time and feel no remorse in hanging them out to dry – so be warned.

While comics are obviously not as popular post-T.V, readers can still get engrossed in characters and narrative. Like a novel enlists the vivid imagination that young people have, comics can do this without the pages of text that is not so appealing to the young.

Young people want reality and a comic is one may that brings a picture, close to reality, without making an audience sick. The Unknown Soldier shows the reader more detail then would be feasible if it were depicted on T.V. Quentin Tarantino, that notoriously blood-loving director, used cartoons in movies such as Kill Bill Two. In my mind, this enabled the director to be more graphic in what happened on the screen. The same can be said for this comic.

So could the news and current affairs in a comic help young people connect in a different way?

- Cheap to make. Compared to a newscast or documentary it would be.

- Taps into the imagination of young people

- Can be genuine if the author and artist believe in their cause

- Simple, just like the good old days

Pioneers… oh pioneers… come my tanned faced children… get your weapons ready… have you your pistols?

Yes! Yes! Yes! Within this 30 second advertisement I had become a young person ready to fight. For what I was unsure, but mesmerized I would do whatever Levi’s “Go Forth” was telling me to do.

I am in the process of tracking down someone from Widen and Kennerdy, the brains and company behind this remarkable campaign, and get them talk: What was the  intention behind the campaign? The reaction from young people? How does the videography stir the audience? Any other questions do suggest. Just remember… “Go Forth” even if it is just grab a coffee.

Click on “read more” to see the ad.

It would not be surprising if Hanson Hosein’s fingers dropped off from excessive levels of twittering, perhaps a common injury for players in a the new media landscape. To the envy of some his resume might even spur the interest of a few young people: war reporter, Emmy Award winner, director of the Masters in Digital Media at the University of Washington, a independent documentary maker and guru of the social networking realm.

Whether it is making his films, like Independent America, that encourage the underdog or his natural and genuine manner in the classroom, young people like him.

“They loved that I was an all do-it-yourself kinda thing,” Hosein said about the response of young people to his projects. “They want natural, authentic communication.” Hosein got his sea legs after seven years as a reporter on NBC. After a few stints in Iraq and around the Middle East he left to be a do-it-all-yourself filmmaker, a change that represents the overall shift in the media industry, from a few dominating players to the now democratized world of media.

So does Hosein think that established news organizations, like his former employer NBC, take young people seriously?

“They wish they could,” said Hosein, “but they don’t speak the language that is going to reach them.” The planned and polished newscast has failed to captivate the young. One just needs to take a look at the often made-up news anchors, with the concerned face of an actor, which changes instantly to the rehearsed chitchat that fades the show out. Genuine and natural are far from it.

Surprisingly, when it comes to newspapers, Hosein is more optimistic. With the media crisis hitting newspapers before T.V they are further down the path in adapting to the new-media climate.

“I like what the New York Times is doing,” Hosein said of the elderly paper’s use of multi-media, social networking sites and blogs  (Full disclosure: After the interview I became an intern at the New York Times). “It seems to be beginning to pay off.” Although it may spike the interest of young people, making money off it is another issue.

Another way to grab the mind of a young person, according to Hosein, looks more like entertainment and a 140-character message then a 30 second newscast or pedantically laid out newspaper

“It might be a mixture of entertainment and news, like John Stewart,” said Hosein, “or using the media young people gravitate towards – cell phones, text messaging, social networking sites.”

In Hosein’s opinion, young people pick up their information by piecing together samples from the Internet, friends, T.V or something they just come across. They no longer rely on one place that has it all, which has been the case for media of old. This is a theory that is supported by Harvard professor, Thomas E. Patterson, in his study on young people and news.

“They are grazing,” Hosein said about the news gathering habits of the young. “They are getting it in snippets from a diversity of sources, not from one centralized place.”

But for Hosein one of the most important elements of this discussion is teaching media literacy to the younger generation. News-media is a central part of democracy but falls below the radar, unlike the three levels of government and voting. If anything, intentionally consume news to be an aware citizen.

Young people have also been born into a world dominated by media, a benefit and a curse. With demcratized media, they need to know how to weigh each opinion, as well as how to communicate themselves.

“Because we are so saturated by media we need to teach critical thinking and ethics in how to communicate,” said Hosein. “They can reach the entire world with a film before they can vote.”

As for Hosein’s beloved Twitter, he admits that the social networking site is not the big hit one would think. Young people basically lack the tools to use a site that must be updated constantly. Expensive data plans are not what an average young person has access to but perhaps that will change.

“Twitter has really become a marketing tool for older people,” said Hosein, “I can’t believe young people have not gravitated towards it.”

“Clearly, there is a wide generational gap in news consumption. The daily news is not an integral part of the daily lives of most teens and young adults.”

The majority of young people, those who the world is bequeathed to,  do not have a daily newspaper habit. Many do not actively seek out news on any medium – print, T.V, radio and Internet – and if they are ever in the path of oncoming news they are likely to pay less attention to it.

His study examanied many angles of young people and news, comparing their consumption to that of adults. Patterson addresses soft and hard news, how much respondents new about the news stories that were questioned, what type of medium the news came through and whether news was actively sort.

To list some of the statistics, more then a third of older adults were aware of the recent news story that were included in the study and were able to identify the details of the story. This is compared to only one fifth of young adults.

Another obvious point: soft news travels fast. Soft news – celebrity deaths, the cute and the just plain weird- is something even the most snobbish engage in. Hard news – politics, war and economics, takes a little more effort. Surprisingly, adults were still more informed on soft news stories than young people, with the younger trailing by 17 percent in their awareness. However, when it came to hard news, awareness among teenagers was, to quote Patterson, a “whopping 30 percent” below that of older adults.

Some would argue that young people are aware of the world through the Internet, but what news are they actually getting. There is only so much you can fit in 140 characters on Twitter. You could be aware of an event but to understand it in-depth takes more effort then a side-way glance at a sentence.

So for young people and their relationship with news, the kind that could develop an “informed citizenry”, the relationship is not going well.

At this stage it is always fitting to inject some hope. The desire for news appears to an inbuilt and unmovable desire within all people. Michael Stephens, associate professor at New York University and author of a “History of News”, does bring us good tidings: “the frenzied, obsessive exchange of news is one of the oldest human activities.” Whatever gloomy, exciting or trivial happenings in history, we are all on a want to know basis. And young People are no different.

So the quest is this: how do young people like their information, their news served? Where will they get it from? This blog is an eternal effort to answer these questions.