Everyone loves a good story!

Mastering the art of storytelling is the key to media creation

We hope you’re having a great summer. As you lounge by the pool with your phone by your side, you might want to stop scrolling to see what we’ve prepared for you this month. While you’ve been sunbathing, we have been busy consuming and creating.

We’ve been particularly interested in the upheavals among journalism giants like CNN, and have also been keeping a close eye on existential dilemmas some media practitioners are facing.

Journalism keeps evolving and going through one disruption after the other, but its core remains the same: storytelling. Whether you’re a media mogul or a content creator with few followers, you both have the same pursuit: Telling a story that captures the attention and informs or entertains.

Telling a solid story is the primary building block of media creation. We’re here to help you master the art of telling it.

Happy reading.

Best wishes,

Rana F. Sweis

Founder of Wishbox Media

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💡 What we’ve been up to

• ⏰ A reminder that Wishbox Media is now on LinkedIn. Follow us to read updates and join the conversation.

• We’ve been reading the latest Oxford Reuters Digital News Report published this month. The report documents ways in which the connection between journalism and the public may be fraying:

  • 📉 Declining interest in news.

  • 💻 Websites are less relevant.

  • 📈 TikTok is the fastest growing social network: Across the global sample, it is now used by 44% of 18–24s for any purpose (and by 20% for news).

  • 🪫 More trouble for the business models of journalism: Growth in payment for online news has stalled in many markets.

• 🎙️ Live Talks: Our live talk this month featured author and storyteller Sara Badawieh, who shared some tips on storytelling #LIVETALKS.
  
  🎧 You can listen (Arabic) to an excerpt from the conversation with Badawieh below:

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🗄️ From the archive

We’ve followed the lives of three children from three different areas in Jordan to display their daily lives and the choices they were forced to make. One is a mechanic, another is a farmer, and the third is a carpenter. We compiled their stories in a multimedia format, showing a visual and audio context of the place and the individuals involved.

If you or your organization want to produce multimedia videos that tell compelling stories, please drop us a note. 🗳

We’d love to hear from you and discuss your ideas. Our website offers more information about our projects and training services.

📺 Our media consumption

• We’re really looking forward to delving into the book Hidden Genius by former Fortune reporter Polina Marinova Pompliano.  Five years after writing The Profile, Polina Marinova Pompliano studied thousands of the most successful and interesting people in the world and examined how they reason their way through problems, unleash their creativity, and perform under extreme pressure.

• We’ve been experimenting with the mind-blowing vidyo.ai. and loving it. It converts YouTube videos and raw clips into compelling shorts for social media. This is a game-changer. Down the line, it might replace your video editor.

• In this fascinating podcast, A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, discusses the future of journalism and why the New York Times has been an anomaly in the newspaper business. Sulzberger also insists on a clear-eyed pursuit of truth in reporting, even if it leads to uncomfortable conclusions: “In this hyper-politicized, hyper-polarized moment, is society benefiting from every single player getting deeper and deeper, and louder and louder, about declaring their personal allegiances and loyalties and preferences?”