Virtual Open Doc Lab Talk: Adnaan Wasey

Please register in advance here: bit.ly/odltalk414

Impactful Media in the Age of COVID-19: Persuasive Entertainment and What Producers Can Learn From Social Science

The coronavirus pandemic has created a new purpose for media creators.  But what can we do to ensure impact when the cost of failure could be countless lives?  In this context, a new mode of media is set to thrive: Persuasive Entertainment. Persuasive Entertainment builds on decades of social science research that suggests entertainment as a primary means for engaging broad audiences around complex issues.  In this talk, Adnaan outlines the potential use for entertainment in achieving many of the same ends sought by journalists and social-issue documentarians and the position of Persuasive Entertainment within the social impact entertainment movement.

Adnaan Wasey is an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer, and director with a history of championing the work of diverse creators for mainstream media and emerging platforms.  He’s produced media for platforms such as PBS, The New York Times, Snapchat, and Twitch.  And as an innovator working at the intersection of storytelling and digital media, he’s earned multiple honors from the Webby Awards, Telly Awards, Shorty Awards, and others.  Adnaan is the recipient of the first Rita Allen Fellowship for Science Communication, for which he is analyzing how popular media engages diverse audiences around complex issues.