As some of you may know, at the heart of the ITAL project there has been a great deal of research accross multiple disciplines that we have been also carrrying out.
At the heart of our community series for example, which includes all of the community service videos, and the Texan Italian Stories, there is Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT)
Communications Infrastructure Theory was developed by Dr Ball-Rokeach from the Annenberg department of communications at the University of Southern California. In simple, mortal language, the theory suggests that healthy communication in a community is the product of a) something called the storytelling network and b) the communication action context.
The storytelling network comprises a) Residents and Families, b)Community organizations and non for profits and c) Geo Ethnic media (that is Media for a particular ethnicity within a specific geographic area.
Without trying to make this too complex, let's just say that given that you live in an area where communication is possible (you're not at war for example), then: The stronger the connections of those three elements we mentioned above are, the stronger the storytelling network will be. Now, The stronger the storytelling network is, the better that people will live in that community. Simple, uh?
Well... that's all for now.. check out a cool site they built to engage with community practicioners to know more about it. If you are interested in knowing how we employ CIT in the construction of our Texan Italian Stories just send us an email and we'll talk more about it!
