What's at stake when local news and information flow doesn't serve all members of a community equally well? How can people respond? These are the questions at the heart of INFORMATION STORIES, a series of short digital narratives conceived by law professor Peter M. Shane and filmmaker Liv Gjestvang. Peter and Liv recruited a dozen storytellers from around the United States, who shared their personal experiences around these themes in a July, 2010 Digital Storytelling Workshop co-sponsored by the Ohio State University Digital Union (part of the Office of the CIO), the University Libraries, and the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
Who Funded INFORMATION STORIES?
INFORMATION STORIES was produced through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The series is intended to help make concrete some of the critical issues raised by Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age (Aspen Institute, 2009), which is the final report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. Copies of the report are available for free download at http://www.knightcomm.org, which offers many additional resources for helping to assess – and act upon – the needs of local communities for news and information.
Who Originated INFORMATION STORIES?
Peter M. Shane, who provides an introduction and conclusion to INFORMATION STORIES, was the executive director of the Knight Commission. He is the Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at Ohio State University, and author of CONNECTING DEMOCRACY: ONLINE CONSULTATION AND THE FLOW OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION (with Stephen Coleman) (MIT Press 2011), and MADISON'S NIGHTMARE: HOW EXECUTIVE POWER THREATENS AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (University of Chicago Press 2009).
Liv Gjestvang is a filmmaker based in Columbus, Ohio with over a decade's experience in community-based media. She is the Coordinator of OSU's Digital Union, where she organizes campus-wide educational programs and teaches workshops in audio and video production. Liv began working with youth and media production at Listen Up!, a multimedia network based in New York City. She has taught young filmmakers at Taos Talking Pictures and the Sundance Film Festival and currently teaches film, video and DJ/VJ classes to students aged 6-18 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. She has produced collaborative videos with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community as well as youth and adults living with HIV and AIDS.