Mary Hess

New work in media education

Three new resources that I find particularly powerful in media education are the following: the 2017 issue focused on “Agency” of the Journal of Media Literacy (available for free) Sonja Vivienne’s book, Digital Identity and Everyday Activism: Sharing Private Stories with Networked Publics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) Henry Jenkins’ book, By Any Media Necessary: the New Activism

New work in media education Read More »

Commercials for theological reflection

I frequently invite people — in my classes, in church settings — to do theological reflection using commercials. Patricia O’Connell Killen long ago published a lovely book with an excellent process in it for more general theological reflection, which I have adapted. You can download my handout, based on her book. And here are some

Commercials for theological reflection Read More »

Historyapolis

While it is not a digital storytelling site, per se, the Historyapolis site in Minneapolis combines photographs from various archives with blog posts offering more information about the stories from the photos. It’s a really interesting and innovative use of historical documents woven into a set of stories for the purposes of creating engagement with

Historyapolis Read More »

Healing America’s spiritual pain

That’s the substance of a profound essay by Serene Jones appearing at Time.com. Her prescription for healing America’s spiritual pain? “We need a new common narrative about who we are as a country.” I won’t quote the whole essay — please read it! — but here’s an excerpt: As Americans, we have a “theological” national story we tell

Healing America’s spiritual pain Read More »

Haven for Queer storytellers

Rainbowfamilytree.com calls itself a “Haven for Queer Digital Storytellers and their friends and families.” Using the core processes of digital storytelling this site (StoryingFaith.org) advocates, RainbowFamilyTree offers dozens of stories created by individuals who seek to share both the joys and the sorrows of their experiences as GLBTQ people in the world. No matter your

Haven for Queer storytellers Read More »