In response to my earlier post about MediaStorm (MediaStorm Doesn’t Go Far Enough), Brian Storm, the founder of the company, contacted me with a reply, and permission to pass on his response.
My main critique was that MediaStorm doesn’t go quite far enough on large
issues. Storm responded, saying, “I don’t agree with you that we don’t
touch on big issues. Big issues are all over our site,” mentioning
stories from the site that do touch larger issues. Some of these
include AIDS, Immigration, Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder, and more.
Storm goes on
to say, “If we can help people gain a better understanding of these
issues, isn’t that a worthy goal? Do you really believe the stories
don’t inform or educate? If our stories help people see or understand
something they’ve not seen before, I think we have succeeded. To me,
the statistics are less relevant than creating human
connections.”
I agree that a better understanding
of the issues is most definitely a worthy point.
But I would also like to suggest that Socially Aware Media perhaps
should go a step further. Often, with these larger issues, there is
something that is simply not right about the situation. In these cases,
why should we be content to stop short of including some kind of
proposed action? While watching several of MediaStorm’s stories, I
found myself wanting more than just knowledge; I wanted to know what I
could do about it, or at least what could be done by somebody about the
situation.
MediaStorm has a pretty interactive Web
site, with links for everything, comment forms- a whole slew of ways to
be involved. Some (but not all) of the stories, including Chernobyl
Legacy, have links to Web sites where people can find out
something more to do. These links are adding what I think is a
necessary aspect to the viewing experience. I think that this kind of
information would be appropriate and is needed within the actual
presentation. On the other hand, MediaStorm seems to be concerned that
including this may detract from the real story, the human experience.
What do you think?
As for me, I’m planning on adding
a bit more in the way of follow-up on my movie pages, by adding
relevant links and the like.
I’d really like to thank Brian Storm and MediaStorm for being willing to respond as I critique the
site through the lens of Socially Aware Media in order to understand a bit more of what that phrase actually means. They really do excellent work, and do contribute to increasing understanding of complex issues.
Continue to check them out as they release more.
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