Capture Wales - Capture imaginations?

Our lecture with Daniel Meadows seemed to capture the imagination of the CJS diploma students, just as his Digital Storytelling project captured the imaginations of the 'ordinary people' who took part.

The project encouraged people to construct two minute digital stories, based around personal pictures. Daniel Meadows and his team held workshops around the country, and the results were broadcast on BBC Wales.

Alan Jeffreys was one of the participants. Alan's video illustrates his life through his relationship with his favourite stuffed animal. It's both touching and informative, taking us through the major markers in his personal history, while painting a clear picture of an older man reminiscing about bygone days. In just 120 seconds.

The people who took part in the workshops were helped by the Capture Wales team, but the idea spread beyond its seeds, with community groups producing similar videos without guidance.

If I had been told this before going to Daniel Meadows' lecture I would have been surprised - in my experience, people can be scared to do creative things without encouragement. But after seeing the digital stories produced for BBC Wales, many of the diploma students were rushing out to make their own narrative. Cemlyn Davies told the story of his beloved Liverpool triumphing over Chelsea.

Getting journalists to tell stories may be as difficult as getting the Pope to pray, so our enthusiasm as a group may not be the best example. So I typed "digital storytelling Wales" into YouTube, and one of the first hits was from a group called Merthyr Stories.

Merthyr Stories have produced videos like this:




The Capture Wales stories focus on individuals, whilst this video narrates the story of a community based around a mine in Treharris.

Daniel Meadows says digital stories, "when imagined as a tool of democratised media, it has -- I believe -- the potential to change the way we engage in our communities". He also talks about giving "a voice to all who are accustomed to thinking of themselves -- in a broadcast context anyway -- only as audience.”

Essentially, making digital stories has the potential to be a democratic form of media. But people need to be given the facilities to contribute to 'the conversation', and taught the skills to produce creative media. Merthyr Stories is run by the borough Council, the Welsh Assembly Government and Glamorgan University.

If people can be encouraged to produce creative media, could schemes to engage people with news media more directly be successful? People like to tell and hear stories, and what is news if it isn't a collection of stories? The success of digital storytelling in Wales shows perceptions of who is entitled, or able, to broadcast can be changed through involving people directly in the process.

If people are encouraged to contribute to news media in a similar manner, then "the conversation" could become truly democratic.

Image courtesy of wadem@flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wadem/2901137499/