Objects of Storytelling and Digital Memory (MEMO)

Memories can be formed around contact with physical objects that populate our everyday lives, we make sense of the physical world by the memories we create. We can create levels of understanding in relation to objects by organising significant memories into stories that hold meaning. The story of an object can involve the story of the personal relationship people have with it, the object can be a trigger on more than one level. In this project the physical, acts as a bridge to the virtual to provoke memory and sometimes instigate new memory formation in relation to an object. The artefacts of collective digital memory are accessed and rearranged through interaction with objects, the performance of this interaction gives space in which memories and stories about the objects and virtual artefacts can form. Physical manifestations of meta-data are used to create an unconventional interface to a database of existing memories. This paper seeks to frame the project theoretically and describe the resulting piece of work

Conspiracy in the Time of Corona: Automatic detection of Emerging Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories in Social Media and the News

Abstract Rumors and conspiracy theories thrive in environments of low confi- dence and low trust. Consequently, it is not surprising that ones related to the Covid-19 pandemic are proliferating given the lack of scientific consensus on the virus’s spread and containment, or on the long term social and economic ramifications of the pandemic. Among the stories currently circulating are ones suggesting that the 5G telecommunication network activates the virus, that the pandemic is a hoax perpetrated by a global cabal, that the virus is a bio-weapon released deliberately by the Chinese, or that Bill Gates is using it as cover to launch a broad vaccination program to facilitate a global surveillance regime. While some may be quick to dismiss these stories as having little impact on real-world behavior, recent events including the destruction of cell phone towers, racially fueled attacks against Asian Americans, demonstrations espousing resistance to public health orders, and wide-scale defiance of scientifically sound public mandates such as those to wear masks and practice social distancing, countermand such conclusions. Inspired by narrative theory, we crawl social media sites and news reports and, through the application of automated machine-learning methods, discover the underlying narrative frame- works supporting the generation of rumors and conspiracy theories. We show how the various narrative frameworks fueling these stories rely on the alignment of otherwise disparate domains of knowledge, and consider how they attach to the broader reporting on the pandemic. These alignments and attachments, which can be monitored in near real-time, may be useful for identifying areas in the news that are particularly vulnerable to reinterpretation by conspiracy theorists. Understanding the dynamics of storytelling on social media and the narrative frameworks that provide the generative basis for these stories may also be helpful for devising methods to disrupt their spread

CAST: Proximity broadcasting as a mode of news distribution in rural Armenia

CAST (DisCovery Amplification Sustainability and InTeractions) has trialled a new community communication network in rural Armenia developing models to emerge alternative news media in a highly politically pressured national state. The project was a collaboration between the Media Innovation Studio, UK, Impact Hub Yerevan and SMART Edge Platform provider WICASTR™, Yerevan. The project also ran with the support of the United Nations Development Programme, award-winning investigative journalism outlet Hetq, and Civilnet from the Civilitas Foundation. It was a three-phase year-long pilot that ran in 2016 and 2017, funded by the UK Higher Education Innovation Fund. The aim was to: Build a lightweight community connectivity system for content distribution Generate proximity insights: new data analytics that allow publishers to pinpoint what content is consumed where Facilitate novel approaches to digital literacy by creating engaged digital communities New knowledge and impact have been created around: How to build hyperlocal proximity networks using online to offline wifi technology Future scoping information systems for remote communities New hyperlocal news data analytics for publishers Novel methods to add to media plurality in a highly politically pressured environment Strategies to improve digital literacy and community communication that can challenge a digital divid

Once Upon Online: Conversations With Professional Storytellers About Adapting From In-Person to Virtual Storytelling Performance

This study examines how professional storytellers negotiated a new storytelling stage—the videoconference platform—as they pivoted their careers during mandated shutdowns due to COVID-19. An examination of the literature reveals extremely limited research involving either professional storytellers or live virtual storytelling. After interviewing five professional storytellers, I analyzed their stories through narrative inquiry. Analysis revealed that the storytellers negotiated the limitations and affordances of Zoom and adapted their storytelling to successfully connect with their audiences. Through crafting a narrative of their stories, I was able to represent their emotions, unique experiences, and abilities to adapt to the online environment. Their stories document significant changes in the art of storytelling during a historic era. This research reveals how storytellers can master the techniques of online storytelling and effectively tell stories to synchronous virtual audiences

Crafting better team climate: the benefits of using creative methods during team initiation

This study employs a mixed methods approach to investigate the effect of creative methods, the combinative use of model building and storytelling, during team initiation on team climate, a critical people-related factor in the management of collective innovation work. Qualitative analysis provides empirical evidence that creative methods benefit team initiation by raising participative confidence, engagement with the social environment as well as the team activities, friendly competition among team members, and by reducing fear of failure and habitual thinking. We also find support that the use of creative methods initiates and supports the development of positive team climate over the span of a team’s life. A quantitative comparison with two control groups using the 14-item team climate inventory (TCI) 13 weeks after the team initiation indicates that the test group has significantly higher values in all dimensions of the TCI than the two control groups. Overall, this examination informs the work of innovation managers and scholars with vital insights about the effectiveness of using creative methods during team initiation

Media Innovation Studio Interactive Review: Volume 1

The Media Innovation Studio’s founding aim in 2012 was to work across disciplines to explore the potential of creative and digital technologies to bring about positive change. Our ‘action research’ approach is lodged in a desire to create inclusively-designed prototypes as responses to real-world issues. Originally positioned within the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) School of Journalism and Media, and now part of the College of Culture and the Creative Industries, the Studio’s remit is to inhabit ‘liminal spaces’ between disciplines. It hopes to explore, research and innovate within the digital ecosystem evolving around us. The human race is more socially, economically, politically and technologically interdependent than at any time in its history. Yet, inequality, instability and unsustainability remain. Collectively, the Media Innovation Studio is trying to understand whether technology has a contribution to make to resolving this broader set of fundamental social issues. Perhaps more interestingly, we’re asking whether there are an emerging series of ideas bound up in the creation and use of Information Computing Technology as it is repurposed by global communities to support activities that make our lives better. We do not believe that technology enables everyone by magically bridging the ‘digital divide’. Nor do we believe that its use by supporters of ‘digital democracy’ is any more democratic because of the use of ICT. Instead, we have discovered through a combination of talking to people, building relationships and making things together, possibilities for change are created. Thankfully, there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate we’re capable of this. This review shows some of our projects, approaches and methodologies which combine disruptive design techniques, traditional social science and established practice-based methods from the arts. Focussing on the last 12 months of activity, the book also incorporates earlier projects that helped shape the thinking that brought us together to create the Media Innovation Studio