A Shadow Remains Poster

MediaStorm Releases A Shadow Remains and Rite of Passage

We are pleased to release two new MediaStorm projects A Shadow Remains by Phillip Toledano and Rite of Passage by Maggie Steber. Phillip and Maggie are both celebrated photographers who turned their cameras on themselves and the ones closest to them at a time of deep introspection—the end of their parents’ lives. While both originally started photographing these events for their personal albums, their experiences magnified in importance over the years spent with their aging parents. As time passed, caring for their parents brought them through a process of self discovery that taught them as much about themselves as the loved ones for which they were caring. In the end, both Phillip and Maggie were left with bodies of work that relate not only their personal journeys, but speak to universal themes of love, life and family. MediaStorm is proud to have partnered with both Phillip and Maggie to tell their individual…

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Why We Switched to a Pay Per Story Model

Today we launched two new MediaStorm stories. We worked on these projects for almost a year and everyone on the staff contributed to them. Over the past seven years, we’ve done this countless times: used our resources to produce something we believed in, then distributed the final product freely on the Web. As an early producer of online documentary multimedia, our primary mission has been to raise awareness about important issues through a robust social media network. We’ve also tried to create a model that others could use so that more storytellers could harness the medium to effect change. By distributing our stories for free, we’ve been able to reach millions of viewers and bring attention to important causes ranging from climate change to conflict resolution. But the reality is, no company or industry can sustain itself for long without producing a product for which people are willing to pay. At MediaStorm…

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Bring it to the table

Support ‘Bring it to the Table’ on Kickstarter

Talking Eyes Media (TEM), a non-profit organization with a long history of producing powerful media for pressing issues, needs your support for their Bring it to the Table Kickstarter campaign. What is Bring it to the Table? It's a video and web project that brings citizens together around issues that normally tear us apart. The Problem Somewhere along the line, politics replaced sex as the one thing in America we don't discuss in mixed company – even amongst friends and family. Democracy is founded on robust dialogue, and if we can't have conversations across party lines, democracy doesn't work. The Solution Bring it to the Table is a participatory online platform, community engagement campaign, and a series of webisodes aimed at bridging political divides and elevating the national conversation. The project is for those who are tired of hyper-partisanship and want to steer political discourse back into the hands of the American…

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Alexia home screen

Alexia Foundation Launches New Site

The Alexia Foundation has launched a new website and a new grant competition. These developments demonstrate the foundation’s continued commitment to its mission of promoting stories that drive change and to remaining at the forefront of documentary journalism. The newly redesigned AlexiaFoundation.org showcases the foundation’s expansive archive of in-depth stories. The more than 90 stories featured on the site provide a critical perspective on social injustices spanning 21 years. It is a rich resource that will inform and inspire for years to come with stories by photographers such as Walter Astrada, Bharat Choudhary, Ami Vitale, Louie Palu, Marcus Bleasdale and many more. The Global Women’s Initiative will support visual journalists documenting the abuse of women worldwide. The initiative will kick off by awarding the Alexia Women’s Rights Prize this summer, and culminate in the Global Women’s Initiative symposium and exhibition in New York City, in the fall of 2013. Explore the site.…

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kansas digitial poster

Register Now for Kansas City Digital Storytelling Forum

Are you a story writer? A videographer? A software designer? A web designer? Are you an entrepreneur? If so, the Digital Storytelling Forum is your opportunity to learn about the future of this industry, how to do it and why. You'll learn from local entrepreneurs doing really cool work in Kansas City and beyond. Meet other creatives looking to make their passion for digital storytelling into a business or solid career opportunity. We're bringing in Frank Rose, contributing editor for Wired, to talk about the future of Digital Storytelling. He'll be showing you examples of where this industry is going. We also hope to inspire participants to develop their own capabilities in digital storytelling as they learn more about this promising area for career and business development. June 21 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. American Heartland Theatre Agenda 8:00 a.m. Registration/Continental Breakfast 9:00 a.m. The Future of Digital Storytelling 10:00 a.m. The…

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