humansofpandemics, A transmedia exploration of the experience of pandemic

This Agora project is the public-oriented extension of the ongoing FNS project <>. The goal of this research is to document and understand the relational disorganization and emotional turmoil that we have been through, both as individuals and as community members. The Covid-19 pandemic and the protective measures taken to cope with it have been sometimes seen in a negative way. A part of the population has felt forgotten or even sacrificed and has expressed distrust of scientist and other experts. To avoid the worsening or weaponizing of these tensions, it is crucial to communicate to the public but also to invite it to actively participate in a public inquiry. This is the main goal of our humans of pandemics project (HOP). Thought of as a multi-site, transmedia experiment, the HOP project intends to link the elaboration of a documentary to a "multilayered" website, as well as an Instagram and a Facebook account, in order to explore different channels of communication and to facilitate the participation of diverse types of publics. It is designed as follows:1)a three-level website, humanofpandemics, whose first level has already been completed, which aims 1a) to collect testimonies and to make portraits of different social universes through first-person accounts (probationer, director, prostitute, musician, embalmer, etc.) 1b) to engage the public in dialogue about those testimonies via social networks (Instagram and Facebook) 1c) to give access to the public to the elaboration of an ethnographic documentary, with the different steps, choices or dilemmas explained in a logbook 2)the elaboration of a documentary on a concern that has proved to be recurrent in the testimonies we collected: << what is really essential? >>. This topic is transversal enough to address fundamental sociological questions, such as identity recognition, forms of life and division of labour. The public will be invited to participate in the making of the documentary and to put itself in the shoes of the ethnographer 3)the organization of events, in particular 3a) discussions and conferences on our website 3b) the screening of the documentary on the stage of various national and international documentary film festivals 3c) the organization of screenings in different social environments, followed by discussions on the content but also on the very process of constructing a sociological inquiry In summary, this project aims to create a kind of digital agora, which invites the public to testify but also to seize sociological tools in order to conduct their own investigation into the pandemic and its social and psychological consequences. This collaborative transmedia experiment is not designed as an asymmetric process of popularization, intended to pass along a pre-established body of knowledge to an ignorant public. It is has been designed as multi-dimensional public space that rests upon a cooperative exchange between researchers, research participants and the general public. The presence of the public is implemented in the whole HOP architecture. In fact, this project aims to experiment a new collaborative research method, which encourages researchers to go beyond classical observation and interviews. This method is a new way of conducting sociological research because it integrates digital technology, not only as an object of research but also as a tool of sociological research. Social networks will be here of first importance to relay the website, share information on research, collect testimonials, gauge the public's interest, test which media work best, receive feedbacks. In shot, this HOP project does not consist of a sociology of the digital ; it is a digital sociology whose very essence is to be connected with the public.

humansofpandemics, A transmedia exploration of the experience of pandemic

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