An enormous thank you to Lina Srivastava for her talk, Making Your Media Matter: Narrative Strategy and Social Impact, held at Watershed on 5 June. Lina took the audience on a journey through a number of case studies of media projects she has worked on that have had incredible impact in their communities – local or issue-based – and presented a number of concrete take-aways for anyone working in the media impact space. Perhaps encapsulating her company CIEL‘s raison d’etre, she said,
Creative media and cultural expression have the power to contextualise human need and experience and to catalyse change.
Lina Srivastava
It’s often stated vaguely that the way to connect with an audience is through story, but Lina teased this idea further apart, looking at:
+ How to Tell a Story Together
+ How to Tell a Story of Complexity
+ How to Tell a Story Based on Lived Experience
You want tool kits? Lina has toolkits. Importantly, though, they were all deeply context specific – from a project using Augmented Reality to spark interest from kids, to a project that had almost no tech at all as it wasn’t suited to the community. See below for links to some of the resources that she and her company CIEL have developed.
Finally, Lina talked about her latest work on Transformational Change Leadership – using a systems approach to developing more nuanced leadership styles and methods within communities aiming for positive change.
Resources:
1) Narrative Design for Social Impact Canvas
2) Who Is Dayani Cristal? On US/Mexico cross-border migration.
3) Who Is Dayani Cristal? Impact report
4) WelcomeALL Toolkit. On building a welcoming community culture for migrants.
5) Media Interventions and the Syrian Crisis
6) Memria.org. Allowing partners and clients to capture audio feedback stories from participants.
7) Video for Change Impact Toolkit
8) Transformational Change Leadership
9) Transformational Change Leadership: discussion guide
Original post:
In partnership with Digital Cultures Research Centre – Creative Economy Unit and Pervasive Media Studio, i-Docs is thrilled to be hosting a talk this week by Lina Srivastava, founder of CIEL – Creative Impact and Experience Lab.
Using case studies from her own work, Lina will discuss strategies to create social impact with documentary stories and immersive media. The talk will focus on the use of strategic planning and design tools for production, outreach, and distribution for impact in the areas of human rights and international development.
Lina Srivastava is the founder of CIEL | Creative Impact and Experience Lab, a social innovation strategy group in New York City. She is an American Film Fulbright Specialist, and on faculty for the MFA Design and Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts.
The former Executive Director of Kids with Cameras, and of the Association of Video and Filmmakers, Lina has worked on strategic project design with organizations such as UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank and on social engagement campaigns for award-winning documentaries, including Oscar-winning Born into Brothels, Oscar-winning Inocente, and Sundance-award winning Who Is Dayani Cristal?
TALK DETAILS:
1-2pm, Wednesday 5 June, 2019
Watershed Cinema 2
1 Canon’s Rd, Bristol, BS1 5TX
Tickets are free but essential – book your seat here.