Linking the spaces between : an interdisciplinary media content production project for community engagement

Abstract

Beginning with the question “How can the process of developing, producing and disseminating community stories, interests and issues via broadcast and social sharing of digital content be used to engage and mobilise community interests in shared endeavours that will help drive social cohesion?” - research staff, production staff, students and community groups in a tertiary education institute’s urban environs are working together during 2014 to create a series of programmes for broadcast on Face TV. We are interested to assess how, in the process of creating content for wider audiences, a strategic approach to the dissemination of this content may facilitate better communication across community stakeholders and beyond. Influenced by the view that “a strong storytelling network is essential to creating effective reach, outreach, and mobilisation of residents, community organisations and...media” (Annenberg School for Communication USC, 2013), as well as research on the uses and limitations of digital storytelling for empowerment of marginalised voices in community-based projects (Podkalicka and Campbell, 2010, Spurgeon et al., 2009), this paper explains the rationale for a multi-layered, complex methodology, the methods being used and the longer-term vision of outcomes for this type of collaboration involving a variety of shareable as well as “broadcast-able” digital content as tools in community communication strategy.