The purpose of this multimodal text is to tell Ma Sarah's and Mama Sania's story. I needed to find a mode that would most effectively share their story, given that we had footage of their interview, we used that. Having their faces in the piece, as they tell us their story, establishes an emotional connection from the community members to the audience. However, knowing that our primary audience is the community members who took part in our storytelling project and those involved in Roger Williams University Quest for Refuge, the biggest obstacle we faced was not about how credible our sources were, but rather if we could do our stories justice. In that sense, there wasn't a methodological way to create this piece, instead we grabbed the "takeaways" that both community partners gave us and tried to create a cohesive work surrounding that. By "takeaways," I'm referring to a moment in the interview when I asked them what they wanted to come out of this project. The reason why I asked them this is because I didn't want this to be my (or Kerry's or Megan's) version of Ma Sarah's and Mama Sania's story--it had to be their story. We really weren't think about "writing choices" initially--it was simply our duty to present their story. 

 

I think when Sana came to speak with us the message was clear: do not exploit your community partner. Although we certainly got a lot of footage of the women crying, we never considered using that after hearing Sana and Chanda speak to us. It wasn't worth compromising the integrity of the story for a tearful shot. I think this also goes back to the realization that this video, although it is a grade for us, is the story of someone's life. Remembering the humanity behind the project makes the ethnical question moot--there is no other option but to do the stories justice. As a producer, if you understand and respect the life and story of another person, it will likely be reflected in your work. That way, you translate that same respect to your audience.

 

In our video, we have aural, visual, and textual modes in our video featuring subtitles, footage from our interview, and historical text slides. We also took advantage of breaks and pauses by our interviewees to create space for reflection in our work. I think a video was the best mode to present the stories we were told. Personally, I would have added more still images throughout the video, especially because there is a 5 minute chunk of solely interview footage. I also think having their faces present as they tell their stories makes it more personal to the audience. This isn't the story of some refugee from miles and miles away, she is standing right in front of you. Video was the best way to create this face-to-face connection with the audience.

 

Our composing process consisted of going through all the footage and picking out the pieces that fit together and helped create a cohesive and comprehensive story. This process was difficult because we had to shorten to stories to fit into one video. This is why it was crucial to come up with an overarching theme and various sub-themes in the video. Creating those themes helped us organize the video so that we could do justice to both stories while making them complimentary. We developed the overarching purpose from things we heard from the interview: Henri mentioned PTSD and Ma Sarah kept repeating "we really suffered." After hearing them, it became pretty clear that this video would not only share their stories but also encourage members of the audience to develop their empathy. Because of the work both women have had with Henri and Higher Ground, we also thought it was necessary to include something about Higher Ground. Prior to the interview, we did our research about Liberian history specifically about the civil war.

 

I think the greatest thing I learned is the importance of humanity in writing situations. Although a fantastical story or a serious documentary may be cool to create, understanding "why" and tying it into the human experience is what makes any work relatable for any audience. I've also learned to appreciate multimodal work and all the applications it has. It really allows a producer to create work to be understood by a good diversity of people. Multimodal is a successful mode to reach a larger audience. I also have learned the importance of directing work towards your audience for them to understand--I learned that because we had to work on a specific project for a specific audience. The work in this class helped me become a critical consumer and producer of public, multimodal discourse by forcing me to think critically about ways to appeal to different audiences through a multimodal project. It also forced me to consider the work that needed to be done in order to reach a complete and cohesive multimodal work--because of all the parts it's encompasses, it's very different from writing an essay.