1. The Design of Narrative Platforms
for Social Change:
Transmedia Activism
Lina Srivastava
Fundación Telefónica | Transmedia Living Lab
30 May 2012

2. Transmedia Activism

3. Transmedia Activism

4. Transmedia Activism
Framework for strategy to
- Create social impact
- Influence perception
- Build community
through storytelling by
authors, stakeholders and
communities who
share assets + create entry points
into issues and solutions
across multiple forms of media
Transmedia Activism

5. Design
User-Centered Design
Community-Centered Approaches
Design Thinking
User Experience
Systemic/Systems Change
Transmedia Activism

6. Storytelling
Leadership
Social Change
Local Voice | Humanizing Social Issues
Social Networks
Storytelling Technologies
Interactivity
Online/Offline Social Movements | Activist Media
Transmedia Activism

7. Social Innovation
A novel solution to a social problem that is more
effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than
existing solutions and for which the value
created accrues primarily to society as a whole
rather than private individuals. A social
innovation can be a product, production
process, or technology (much like innovation in
general), but it can also be a principle, an idea,
a piece of legislation, a social movement, an
intervention, or some combination of them.
James A. Phills Jr., Kriss Deiglmeier, & Dale T. Miller
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2008
Transmedia Activism

8. Using Transmedia to Create
Social Impact
Audiences
Communities
Issue Awareness  Engagement  Action  Change
Actionable Content
Story Universe
Transmedia Activism

9. The Benefits of Transmedia to
Social Action
Entry Points
Architecture:
User Journeys
Strategy, Coordination, Integration
Engagement | Participation
Story Building
Co-Creation
Co-Production
Collaboration
Multiple (Diverse) Perspective
Transmedia Ac-vism

10. “By collectivizing ownership of narrative,
transmedia breaks down the “us” and
“them”
It is no longer “you” supporting ”our” work
to help “them.” Rather, it is all of us working
together to meet and overcome a
challenge”
--David Jammy
Transmedia Activism

11. Why is This Important?
+ How to Tell a Story
+ How to Tell a Story Together
+ How to Tell a Story of a System, of Complexity
+ How to Tell a Story that is
++ an Element of Change
++ a Predicate for a Movement
Transmedia Ac-vism

12. Why is This Important?
Social Action: Essential Story Element
Transmedia Ac-vism

13. Narrative + Social Action
Assessing Your Social Change Model
Co-designing narrative with social action is a challenging
exercise in achieving simple, engaging stories that yet capture
nuance, complexity, and multiple perspectives. In any social
change campaign where you co-design narrative with action
to create positive impact in a community, ask yourself if your
campaign meets these three conditions:
+ Respect
+ Relevance
+ Resonance
Full model available at http://www.slideshare.net/lksriv/the-3-rs-co
Transmedia Ac-vism

14. What I Look for in Transmedia Activism Projects
+ It has at its core the use of local voice, in direct
partnership with the platform creators, aiming at
community-centered participation.
+ It uses its platform to move beyond awareness, to
connect audiences and change agents to commit to
a particular worldview, advocacy or action, by using
these local stories and art.
+Uses a number of platforms that are culturally
appropriate to cross borders to foster transformation.
Transmedia Ac-vism

15. Transmedia Ac-vism

17. Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Transmedia Ac-vism

18. Inside Comayagua Prison, Honduras

19. Lakou Mizik
Transmedia Activism

20. Lakou Mizik
Content Production
+ Lakou Mizik music
+ Lakou Mizik webisodes
+ Lakou Mizik Sessions
Distribution platforms
+ Album
+ Concert film shot in a classic Haitian outdoor “Lakou”
+ Website: music discovery and marketplace for musicians
+ Short-form interactive documentary films on featured musicians
+ LM “episodes” (downloadable song, short film+music video)
+ Media for television and film festivals
+ LM Collective music tour both in Haiti and internationally
+ Dedicated YouTube channel
+ SoundCloud (download, streaming, remix)
Transmedia Activism

21. Lakou Mizik
Social Music Platforms:
+ Community
engagement
+ Cutting through noise
+ Creating and
harnessing empathy
Transmedia Activism

22. Lakou Mizik
Social Action
+ Tangibles:
Culture Regeneration
Economic Development
Community Vibrancy | “Leave Behinds”
++ Direct paths to action, where suitable
++ Lakou Mizik Marketplace
++ Lakou Mizik Studio
++ Education, Training, Networking
+ Intangibles: Awareness-Raising:
++"Positive awareness" + "empathy": Shifting the narrative to a
more positive picture of Haiti
++ Cohesive picture of systemic change, through musicians’
stories about issues in their communities
Transmedia Activism

23. Lakou Mizik
Social Action
+ Developed in collaboration with grassroots organizations
working to address the social issues raised in the Lakou Mizik films
+These will focus on positive work being done by Haitian
organizations
+In this way we will both be addressing difficult realities while also
continuing to focus on positive Haitian stories
Transmedia Activism

24. Lakou Mizik
Tounen Lakay (by Beken)
Transmedia Activism

25. Lakou Mizik
Audiences | Fans:
+ Haitians in-country
+ Haitian Diaspora
+ Fans of World music
+ Fans of Caribbean music
+ Arts/activism
+ People who helped post-
earthquake and who need
to reengage
Transmedia Activism

26. Lakou Mizik
Transmedia Activism

27. Lakou Mizik
Transmedia Activism

28. Risks and Challenges
+ Intellectual property concerns
+ Gulf between theory, critique, and practice
+ Love of the platform and technology
Transmedia Ac-vism

29. Risks and Challenges
+ Intentionality
+ Creating rigor and around and recognizing the
intentionality behind "citizen" media
+ Parsing out the fine lines between story to
engagement to propaganda
+ Bridging the engagement/action gap.
Transmedia Ac-vism

30. Lina Srivastava
http://linasrivastava.com
info@linasrivastava.com
@lksriv