Leicester Stories is looking to train four community reporters to find, record and share stories about what it means to live in a Smart City. We will be creating community radio and media stories that reflect the different communities of Leicester, and our experience of Artificial Intelligence as it increasingly shapes our lives. We will collect and share stories and testimony from ordinary people, in a way that is accessible, easily understood, trusted and relevant to people living across Leicester.
- Leicester Stories are looking for stories that will help people to understand the role of AI and the Smart City.
Leicester Stories creates and shares community stories to help people who don’t usually have a voice in our media. We create and share content for community radio in Leicester, so we can better reach listeners whose first language might not be English, or who have limited access to digital platforms. Many people in Leicester do not engage with local politics and local news, and don’t follow or watch mainstream national and local broadcasters or social media.
- Community radio is a trusted platform that reaches people who are often overlooked, and supports them in amplifying their voices so their stories can be told with respect.
Approach: Using readily available media tools, we are training community reporters to capture, edit and share stories and information that can be broadcast on Leicester’s community radio stations. These stories can also be shared on any supporting social media platforms. This might mean using smartphones creatively to capture content that we can share in different formats. Reporters don’t need professional media skills, just a good knowledge of where they live and how their community interacts.
Values: We want to tell and share experiences of how people are adapting to the use of AI in a Smart City, by capturing direct testimony from people who care for their communities. Leicester Stories will paint a picture of what a Smart City is, and why AI matters.
Safeguarding & Accountability: To make sure we stay safe, Leicester Stories will apply the De Montfort University Safeguarding principles. This means showing respect for one another, and the people whose stories we share. Leicester Stories is regulated by IMPRESS, so we take responsibility for the media we create, and the way that we share stories. Leicester Stories will make sure that our stories, and the information we share is trusted and reliable.
Becoming a Community Reporter: We have a limited fund to support up to four community reporters, who can be paid at £13.56 per hour for up to fifty hours each. Reporters will be contracted by DMU Unitemps https://www.unitemps.com/DMU-homepage
Contact: If you know someone you can nominate, who may be interested in learning about being a community reporter, or to find out how you can support Leicester Stories in other ways, please contact
Rob Watson
Email: robwatson@decentered.co.uk
Phone: 07817720688
Twitter: @decenteredmedia
Website: https://leicesterstories.uk
Email: admin@leicesterstories.uk
Twitter: @leicstories
The project is coordinated by Professor Edward Cartwright of De Montfort University, and is supported as part of DMU’s Public Engagement work, with over one hundred community projects across Leicester through DMU Local. This project is funded by The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence (AI), through its Public Engagement Grant award 2022. These projects form part of the Turing’s vibrant public engagement programme and empower researchers across the UK by enabling them to connect with the public in accessible and engaging ways on a range of themes relating to data science and emerging AI technologies.
