Some of the Amercian NGO’s are creating amazing multimedia
Written by duckrabbitTwo of the best are The Open Society Institute and Human Rights Watch.
Why are they so good? Because they are creating seriously good journalism for all the right reasons. They want to educate and inform people about what’s really going on in the world, not just tap them up for cash.
Ed Kashi’s work in the Niger delta has to rank as some of the most important photography so far this century. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he wins the Prix Pictet award later this year because his work is honest, unpretentious, popular and complex, and it speaks to my heart. I guess I enjoy and admire working with David White so much because I think his photography has the same quality.
Over on the Open Society Institute there is a great piece of multimedia featuring Ed Kashi’s stills as well as his voice:
‘Photographer Ed Kashi has documented the stark contradictions between the abundance of Nigeria’s oil and the poverty that overshadows daily life in the Niger Delta. Asume Isaac Osuoka is an advocate for transparency and accountability, and works to ensure that extractive industry revenues benefit the people who live amid Nigeria’s vast natural resource wealth. In this multimedia piece produced by OSI and partner Revenue Watch Institute, Kashi and Osuoka describe the struggles of the Niger Delta’s citizens and the dire need for fair and responsible revenue management’
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (5 Comments)
‘Shadows and Light’ is fantastic. The personal combined with the big picture. I would like to have seen a few photos from the ‘other end’ i.e. US motorists, oil company CEOs or Nigerian politicians just to emphasize the inequalities, but that is a minor point. Although it is not clear how the multimedia is being used, Revenue Watch clearly has an organised campaign on this issue.
Human Rights Watch has obviously been making a concerted attempt to produce good multimedia products over the last year or two. Although of a high standard (I wish Amnesty International invested in stuff like this) it is rarely linked to a mechanism for the public to take action.
Although raising awareness is good I would suggest an NGO needs to offer more than the media in its mission for social change. HRW is not a membership organisation so cannot feed this work out to national and sub-national offices and activists to use – though it could in theory be providing this to civil society partners. Most of HRW’s work is through government lobbying, so I would like to know whether these products are used in this work, and if so how? I think there is much more room for this type of visual material in government advocacy, which tends to rely on the text based research report, briefing or brochure.
Rob
if you haven’t watched the original Niger Delta multimedia piece put together by Kashi to accompany his book (Curse of the Black Gold), you should check it out here. http://www.curseoftheblackgoldbook.com/sources/frontsite/display_file.php?file=slideshow/7/NigerDelta_FINAL_forweb.mov
it’s much fuller than the Human Rights Watch piece.
I’d highly recommend checking out the book as well.
Thanks Ciara, the original Niger Delta piece is even better. Ed Kashi’s photos and Brian Storm’s production work great. Is there a version on Vimeo, YouTube etc. that I can embed in my blog?
Cheers
Rob
erm..
not 100% sure but I suspect not.
maybe just do a screen grab and link that to what i just gave you…?
i’ve never seen any of Kashi’s full pieces on the likes of Vimeo…probably because they are commercial pieces I guess.