Video that Changes the Debate
Training Tag(s): Media / Journalism / Blogging, Arts & Culture
Starts: Saturday, Jun. 9 1:30 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Jun. 9 2:45 PM (Eastern)
So you’ve been told to create a “viral video,” whatever that means. How do you create media that not only succeeds online but also changes the debate? How do you make content that people pass around that also pierces the national conversation? We’ll examine these questions in-depth, speaking with those responsible for creating or spreading political videos that have made an impact—and learn how to do the same in our own activism.
Moderator
Andy Menconi
Andy Menconi is a graphic designer and animator who has been creating viral content since 2000. While working as a web designer for Bank of America he won ‘Bush in 30 Years’: a flash animation contest sponsored by MoveOn.org which opened the door to being the graphics guy for many leftist political organizations.
He went on to form Agit-Pop Communications, an award winning viral media firm with partners John Sellers of the Ruckus Society and Andrew Boyd of Billionaires for Bush. On tax day in 2010, Agit-Pop communications began a new project called ‘The Other 98%’ as a meme to help shift the dialogue of the culture war to one of economic justice.
Andy Menconi was born in Texas, graduated from AAC in San Francisco, loves punk rock, the NFL, green chile and romantic dinners on the beach.
Panelists
Andy Cobb
Andy Cobb’s satire has recently been seen on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX News, NPR, Newsweek, Huffington Post, Nightline, Moveon.org, Current TV, Al Jazeera, and over 25 million times online. He’s written sketches for Comedy Central’s “Key & Peele,” and makes videos called “genius” by Andrew Sullivan and Chris Cillizza, “brilliant” by Huffington Post, and “intrinsically awesome” by Rachel Maddow. Andy has written, performed and directed satirical advocacy projects for Brave New Films, SEIU, AAEI, Courage Campaign, and Healthcare For America Now. He started as an ensemble member at Chicago’s Second City, where he recently developed shows on the “Art Of Satire” with Economist Magazine, and made video as Political Director for Second City Online. He directs the satirical video groups Heavy Crude Video, The Partisans, and Public Service Administration, and performs live with The 313. He sometimes blogs with the fine folks at Crooks and Liars.
Haik Hoisington
Haik Hoisington is a Brooklyn-based freelance animator. He strives to use animation to illustrate alternative perspectives of urgent social and political issues. His work has been shown in film festivals, broadcast on television and featured in on-line and print publications. It includes award winning music videos for musical artists Eminem and the Coup, as well as animation for the feature length documentaries American Blackout and Lockdown USA.
Haik is a graduate of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University.
Anne Thompson
Anne Thompson leads MoveOn’s video production team. Prior to working at MoveOn she was a producer at MSNBC, led the DNC’s rapid response video team for Obama’s re-election in 2012, and worked on campaigns to raise the minimum wage and expand health care access at the National Employment Law Project and Campaign for America’s Future. Her work has been featured by ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, The Washington Post, The AP and more.
Jasiri X
Jasiri X is the first independent hip-hop artist to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate, which he received from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2016. Still, he remains rooted in the Pittsburgh based organization he founded, 1Hood Media, which teaches youth of color how to analyze and create media for themselves. His critically acclaimed album Black Liberation Theology (2015) has been recognized as a soundtrack for today’s civil rights movement. He has performed his music from the Smithsonian to the Apollo Theater and has discussed his views on hip-hop, race, and politics at leading institutions across the nation, including Harvard University, the University of Chicago, NYU, Yale, and Stanford, among others. In 2017 he received the Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellowship to start the 1Hood Artivist Academy. Jasiri is also a recipient of the USA Cummings Fellowship in Music, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellowship and the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
Other sessions: Turn It Up: Using Hip-Hop to Mobilize in 2012, Criminal Justice in America