Week 6: Jamie Schaub

Community: A perfect title for this week’s web immersion + viewing.

Localore
Reading about who AirMediaWorks is and what they are about, I really liked how descriptive their About section is. I found the phrase ‘new taproots’ being a great way to describe what they want to achieve: dig deep into a community and become part of the foundation, and use storytelling to be the inner-webbing of a community.

 AIR’s nationwide Localore production accelerates innovation at public radio and TV stations and sinks new taproots into local communities with “full-spectrum” models that blend on-air, screen, and street media. Together, Localore’s 10 lead producers—with their stations, interactive storytelling partner Zeega, and a team of more than 230 collaborators—are laying the ground for a more inclusive 21st-century public media.

The two videos that I watched and dug deep into were ‘I See Change’ and Planet Takeout

• I See Change – a video about a community grappling with climate change and the journey that they have been on.  Storytelling and reporting of an mountainous community of farmers of their concerns, their hopes and how they are living with climate change.

It wasn’t until towards the end of the video that I understood what ‘I See Change’ meant to the community. It meant and in their words: “I see change in the environment, every day, every year.” ; “I see change in how our waters are full or not.” ;  “I see change within our local politics.” ; “I see change with each other.”

• Planet Takeout – They take all the elements that diners experience in a Chinese restaurant and create stories out of each one and invite users to participate in their collaborative documentary. Genius!!!
  • Such as:
    • Neon: encouraging engagement by solicitating submitted pictures of neon signs Chinese restaurants via Twitter and Instagram.
    • Fortune: Love this, too! I have my own story. But this is a great idea, too, for engagement. Call in or submit your fortune cookie.
    • Kitchens: pics and videos of Chinese kitchens.
    • Lucky symbol
    • Homeless Stories: Fascinating idea. Homeless men telling their stories (using pictures rather than face-to-face video) about why they come in to the Hong Kong Chef Restaurant.
    • Tell stories about what happens outside of the restaurant.
    • Participate – I love how they included directions on how to participate. Since collaborative documentary is so new, it’s thoughtful that they included instructions as to how people can contribute and engage.

Triangle of Fire
The Open Archive is an interesting concept. Still trying to understand if it’s a ‘real’ place or online or a hybrid, based on the locations of the objects. My one feedback is in the writing of what it is. There are so many ‘floaty’ words being used in new media, and I found myself confused by such sayings as ‘tangible incarnation’ what does this mean?

Bear 71
Powerful multimedia video documentary. Enjoyed the creative storytelling but as a 9 month pregnant woman, I found it to be too much, emotionally, and I couldn’t explore all of the links. As I mentioned in three of my classmates comments, i found Bear 71 storytelling effective, but perhaps after I deliver I can watch it, again.