Worth Clicking: Nairobi, Spielberg, Primates and Why Your Audience Has an Audience

All links are hand-picked by the MediaStorm staff for your enjoyment this weekend. Cheers! Meet Epic. Extraordinary true stories. [Epic Magazine] Want to watch free movies online? Here are 575 quality films to get you started. [Open Culture] In Photographs: Islamist militants ambushed a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday killing more than 50 people and terrorizing the city. [Boston Globe] Video: Steven Spielberg's techniques and themes. [YouTube] Primate glamour shots from Japan’s traditional monkey theaters. [Wired] New site alert: directly support your favorite filmmakers and comedians on Chill. [Chill] Samia’s blog debut. Find out how MediaStorm plans to measure the impact of our films. [MediaStorm blog] Kevin Slavin and Kenyatta Cheese argue that audiences have “a fundamental feeling of wanting to be in sync with each other.“ [Future of Storytelling] Photographer Marcus Bleasdale witnesses the human cost of our electronics. [Mashable] And just for fun… bubble football! [YouTube]

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Read more about the article Data, Dollars And Love: How MediaStorm Measures the Impact of Our Films
Attendees of Neighborhood Centers' "H-Town Stories" premiere interact with displays. Photo Credit: Neighborhood Centers Inc.

Data, Dollars And Love: How MediaStorm Measures the Impact of Our Films

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Today’s post is from Samia Khan, MediaStorm’s Director of Partnership Development. 


One of the questions I am often asked is “what is the impact of MediaStorm’s films?” It’s a reasonable question. After all, we ask clients to invest their time and resources into a project that simply unfolds. We ask our clients to trust us and to understand that no matter what happens, we’ll deliver a product that tells their story like none other. It’s a lot to ask. We get that. So we’ve made a commitment to measure impact, to develop metrics that help us answer that fundamental question – “why should I invest my limited resources in a MediaStorm production?”

In the coming weeks, you’ll see the results section of our most recent project, H-Town Stories for Neighborhood Centers Inc., packed with data. We’ll tell you how many people attended the film premiere on September 18th; how many people were moved to sign up as volunteers as a result of the film; whether any dollars were raised. We know we live in a world obsessed with numbers so we’ll jump on that bandwagon too.

But what I won’t be able to describe is the sense of connection, empathy, and love that took place at Sundance Cinema on September 18th. I won’t be able to accurately describe how moved everyone was by the stories they saw, and how inspired they were by the families portrayed in the films.

Attendees of Neighborhood Centers’ H-Town Stories premiere interact with displays. Photo credit: Neighborhood Centers Inc.

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MediaStorm Welcomes Director of Partnership Development, Samia Khan

MediaStorm is excited to welcome Samia Khan to our team as the Director of Partnership Development. Samia Khan is dedicated to using the power of collective action and storytelling to build a more just world. She has spent the past decade working on human rights and development issues in Kenya, Pakistan, and the United States; with organizations like the UNDP, UNCDF, the World Bank, and Ashoka. Most recently, Samia worked as a strategic planning and fundraising consultant, where she helped organizations clarify their missions and programs and execute successful fundraising campaigns. Samia is also a founding Board Member of the Nur Project, an organization that seeks to shine a light on stories of hope and change in Pakistan. Samia holds a Master's in Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog.

Continue ReadingMediaStorm Welcomes Director of Partnership Development, Samia Khan