Multimedia Projects – Page 4 – Latest News from MediaStorm

The Ways: Sharing Contemporary Native Culture Through Story

Post author:Lisa Jamhoury
Post published:January 23, 2013

Finn Ryan, a producer, educator and March 2011 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop participant is a big believer in the importance of storytelling in education. His 2010 project, Climate Wisconsin, which uses multimedia and interactives to explore local climate change impacts, received significant attention when it was published, including a regional Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement for Informational/Instructional Programming. His most recent project, The Ways, produced with Wisconsin Media Lab, features storytelling as a means to share contemporary Native culture and language from around the central Great Lakes. I contacted Finn to hear about his experience creating The Ways and to take a closer look at contemporary ways to use storytelling in education. Below is a lightly edited version of our conversation. An Interview with Finn Ryan You recently launched The Ways, an online storytelling publication about language and culture of Native communities in the central Great Lakes region. Why did you start the…

New Stories from the November 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop

Post author:Lisa Jamhoury
Post published:January 8, 2013

We are pleased to launch two new stories produced in the November 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. In our November 2012 Storytelling Workshop a team of journalists collaborated with MediaStorm to create, The American-Made Benny and Luv Schtick. During the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop participants work directly with MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge. Read the accompanying blog post, "The Challenge of The American-Made Benny." Dani Luv is a musician and comedian at the well-known Sammy’s Roumanian Restaurant in New York. Luv likes to sing classics from the likes of Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong. We are currently accepting applications for two upcoming MediaStorm Storytelling Workshops in…

The Challenge of The American-Made Benny

Post author:Eric Maierson
Post published:January 8, 2013

We had numerous challenges in reporting, producing, and in making the decision to ultimately publish this story. We feel this story is incomplete due to access issues and time constraints inherent with MediaStorm's approach to a workshop story. Sometimes you can learn as much from your shortcomings as from your successes. As such, we hope this will serve as an important case study about the ethics of storytelling. - Brian Storm, Executive Producer, MediaStorm Unanswered Questions: On the Limits of the Single-Subject Interview by Eric Maierson By any measure, the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop is an intense week. It is a product-focused experience, meaning that unlike in other teaching environments we are wholly focused on producing the most compelling story possible, one that demonstrates the collective skills of the participants and the MediaStorm staff. The week consists of one day of lectures, three days in the field, and another three days editing. Workshop…

Matter Ventures: Exciting New Opportunity for Media Entrepreneurs

Post author:Lisa Jamhoury
Post published:December 6, 2012

Matter Ventures, a new start-up accelerator for media ventures, launched this week offering financial, strategic and management support to entrepreneurs looking to create meaningful and profitable media businesses. The program is designed for media startups with multi-disciplinary teams who have early-stage prototypes, mobile applications, B2B media services, and content production engines. Matter will invest in entrepreneurs who show high potential to create media ventures that make a meaningful, positive impact on society while pursuing a sustainable, scalable, profitable business model. Startups selected to participate in Matter will receive a $50,000 investment, work side by side in a creative space in San Francisco, and participate in a four-month intensive acceleration program. Matter was founded by three media nonprofits—KQED, the Knight Foundation and Public Radio Exchange (PRX)—to encourage media ventures that make a meaningful, positive impact on society while pursuing a sustainable, profitable business model. KQED and the Knight Foundation are each investing $1.25…

Call for Participants: POV Hackathon 2

Post author:Lisa Jamhoury
Post published:November 30, 2012

The PBS documentary series POV has announced its Call for Participants for POV Hackathon 2. Ten teams of filmmakers and technologists will converge for a January weekend in New York City to create prototypes that seek to reinvent the documentary for the web. The application deadline for filmmakers, developers and designers is December 7, 2012. There is no fee to apply or participate. More information is on POV's hackathon site at http://www.pbs.org/pov/hackathon/.