Telling Our Stories

Producer David Grubin and Professor Elisa New discuss their public TV series now in development, Poetry in America, showing clips from an episode ("Harlem," featuring President Bill Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Sonia Sanchez and children from the Harlem Childrens Zone) and airing the challenge, and opportunity, of bringing poetry to TV. Elisa New, David Grubin

Before you can change the world, you have to be able to imagine other possibilities and see yourself as a political agent. This is what we call the civic imagination. Through interviews with more than 200 young activists, the USC Media, Activism, and Participatory Politics research group has documented the ways some innovative organizations are helping American youth to become more civically engaged and politically active. In many cases, this new political language appropriates and remixes storytelling elements borrowed from popular culture — from the Hunger Games to Harry Potter to Superman — in order to develop shared frameworks through which they can change the world. What if we saw fantasy not as escapism but as a tool for promoting social justice? Henry Jenkins, John Seely Brown

We’ve teamed up with the creator of the Future of Storytelling summit to showcase cutting edge technologies that are fundamentally changing the way stories are delivered in the 21st century. This session will explore Interlude’s interactive videos with multiple story lines and outcomes; Cowbird, a global online public library of human experience; the way Quill translates structured data into natural language narratives; and Wattpad, a thriving social platform for publishing stories. The very way narratives of all kinds are are collected and shared will surprise you. Kristian Hammond, Yoni Bloch, Jonathan Harris, Charles Melcher, Candice Faktor

Television and film stories can entertain, but they are also often one of the driving forces behind many social movements. This session will explore the power of emotional storytelling to shape our ideas, behaviors, and in some cases policy — examining compelling case studies of effective television shows and documentary films that have shifted behaviors and policy. What is the responsibility of storytellers to find creative ways to include social issues into their content that will be both educational and entertaining. What resources exist for storytellers to learn about issues so they are able to accurately portray them in stories? What role do networks and studios play in supporting these stories in a meaningful way? Neal Baer, Darnell Strom, Brian Knappenberger

Twitter and other social media platforms have ushered in the most dramatic change to news paradigm since the printing press. Now, “the people formerly known as the audience” are part of every stage of the news cycle — in a live and public way. They are the first to signal when news is breaking, participate in act of reporting, and serve as the social soundtrack as stories unfold. (See attached schematic). The most innovative news organizations are capturing that data to change the way they do business. In this panel, we’ll hear about powerful news tools to discover news as it's breaking, and from the journalists who are harnessing the power or twitter to engage audiences in the very act of journalism. Ted Bailey, Jim Bankoff, Vivian Schiller, Isaac Lee, Chris Altchek

Alfre Woodard and Elisa New discuss poets Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, and the voice of maternal authority. This session is a live taping for New's "Poetry in America" project., an upcoming series for PBS. Elisa New, Alfre Woodard

Where will people be getting the news in ten years? What is the future of infotainment? At what point are we totally saturated? Why do we care? Is the Internet making us stupid? Is the erosion of our collective attention span ruining the very fundamentals of journalism and storytelling? Or are we better off? Speakers: Jon Steinberg, David Leonhardt, Chris Altchek, Spencer Baim

Storytelling is ancient and modern. It helps define us as human. We dream in stories. In the modern age, storytelling is a buzzword, an advertiser's tool, a corporate mask. Can that diminish the value and interest of each of our personal stories? What constitutes a great personal story? What is required? Is the formula timeless, or can it become clichéd? Has anything changed since Homer? In an age where our attention is the most precious commodity, what captures your attention? What kind of stories matter, in a larger societal sense? Stories used to have gatekeepers — broadcasters and publishers. Now everyone has access to everyone else digitally. What is the affect on the importance of personal story?