Sarah Stuteville and Morgan Dusatko – America in 5
What defines a journalist in this period of enormous technological and economic transition? Newspapers may be dying, but despite the institutional change, the need and desire for strong non-fiction storytelling remain. Sarah Stuteville and Morgan Dusatko, both journalists, present America in 5, an innovative way to deliver the stories America wants to hear. Meet the folks who do engagement with a Capital E: multimedia storytellers, Sarah Stuteville and Mogan Dusatko.
There has never been more need for trustworthy storytelling. In one year — with 12 teams, producing 265 stories that are each 5 minutes long — America in 5 is hoping to fill this need. Meet Sarah. She’s a journalist. And meet Morgan, a storyteller who likes to make films about unicorns.
What do they have in common? They want to tell stories about today, filling a void that mainstream media has created. Story upon story remains untold. Inspired by the Federal Writers Project of the 1930s—artists, journals and thinkers hired to document the changing America of their time, they shared images and stories of who we were and are as a nation.
America in 5 resurrects the idea of storytelling for the 21st century. As institutions collapse all around us, it has become even more crucial to listen to the stories of our neighbors. We have tools that document what’s going on around us and give us the ability to share these in more ways than we can keep up with.
America in 5 hopes to create an online living document that describes what Americans are feeling, living, thinking and experiencing today. Through 1 year, 12 teams 265 stories, 5 minutes. America in 5 teams will share a story a week so that their audiences can read 1 story a day.
What impact would it have on your life to receive one video, like this [their pilot story, “Joy”] per day? What would we learn about our neighbors?
This needs to happen now, Sarah says. We need to tell these stories now.
–Sophia Agtarap | @sophiakristina
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