Digital Storytelling for Civic Engagement
For this assignment, you will create a Digital Story related to your issue. Depending on the decisions you made earlier, its purpose might be:
- to interest a broad audience;
- to engage an interested audience;
- or to mobilize an engaged audience.
Your Digital Story will include audio from at least one interview. You do not have to use images of the person or people interviewed in the Digital Story.
You can use the Story Table handout to plan your digital story.
Your Digital Story should:
- Give a reason why the audience should care about the issue. Your campaign may be the first time a viewer will have even heard about an issue, so it’s important to make an impression and show why it’s important.
- Give viewers clear steps to take to address the issue. The most effective campaigns are aimed at convincing viewers to do a specific thing or take a first step towards a particular behaviour (for instance, call a cab or a friend/parent instead of driving drunk).
- Leave the audience feeling empowered and better-informed instead of guilty or depressed. Although community outreach campaigns often address very serious issues, it’s important that they leave a viewer feeling as though they can do something to make a difference.