“Child marriage”, is the first in a series of long-format stories that will be successively published on our platform. Along with the long written story are several shorter ones that use multimedia to address the same issue of child marriage. This interplay is exactly what our project, StoryLeb, aims at in its effort to advance the use of multimedia and digital storytelling in journalistic work in the region.
Here, on this platform, you will read stories from Lebanon. Their protagonists are people who live amongst us. They are narrated by young journalists and content makers who went through extensive trainings over the past few months, against all odds and difficulties and despite the social distancing, rearrangements and delays, as imposed by both Covid-19 and the prolonged and ongoing economic crisis in the country.
As a conscious decision, the stories are written as long format texts, despite the predominant idea that “the youth are not interested in reading”, let alone in reading long stories! In this project of ours, we’re betting on the falsehood, or at least, the inaccuracy of this idea. The content we’re producing on this platform claims (and hopes) to be different than anything the mainstream media shares, as our stories are rooted in the direct interests of the people within their own regions and surroundings. They delve into the daily lives of their respective heroes and heroines, giving each story the time it needs to develop, rather than summarizing and condensing information.
Nevertheless, these stories don’t fail to keep up with the latest trends and diverse developments in the world of journalistic production. They meet these standards by using multi-faceted media in the narration, and using a wide range of publishing platforms.
Finally, the subjects of the stories that will be published consecutively over the next few weeks have been chosen by the participants themselves, who come from different regions in Lebanon. The project benefitted from the financial assistance of the European Commission, within the framework of the “Shabab Live” project, which brings together a group of innovative media projects under its umbrella from Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Feel free to follow these stories here!
