inReads is an innovative new project, dedicated to a catchy new term called “social readia.” The website’s content is focused “on books, technology and culture and how the three intersect and influence one another.” The community is like a new, virtual book club and lets people learn and share what’s being read in today’s ever-changing world. One of our contributors, Felicia Pride, is the Executive Editor of inReads and discusses how the project came about.

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When I first met with Michael Holstein, the executive producer of the then-unnamed inReads, he told me, “We want to do something different.”

What I knew: This WETA initiative would be online and it would be about books.

Everything else was up in the air.

And you know how vast that is.

So as a team, which includes the amazing agency Interface Media Group (IMG), we brainstormed. No idea was off the table. How about Netflix for books? What about a site all about classics?

The conference calls were actually endless, but luckily didn’t feel that way because the conversations about the site were so riveting. It led to debates like: Where are books headed? How are we reading? How do we talk about reading now? And because our talks involved a range of minds including techies, bibliophiles and business people, they were layered and thought-provoking.

Who knew building a web property would be so philosophical?

And then it hit us. What we were doing is exactly what we wanted visitors to do: converse. And do so beyond their usual comfort zone.

Aha: We’re going to be a destination for conversation and community.

We quickly realized however that within the realm of conversation, narrowing down the focus is helpful. We came up with ours: books, technology, and culture. Which, if you think about it, pretty much covers everything.

Our next question: How is this conversation going to be facilitated within our community?

We knew we wanted the conversation to mimic traditional discussion but also take advantage of the many ways that we’re now able to converse because of technology.

Simultaneously, we had to figure out what we were going to call ourselves. I won’t list any of my suggestions here as to avoid all judgment. Let’s just say there were some winners and some losers.

There was something about inReads that rolled off the tongue. And as we continued to develop and shape what this site would be, inReads became more and more fitting. We’re not just books. We want to discuss all types of reads. And we want to do it in an exploratory and engaging way, as well as a technological one—we want to be literally in reads.

Then it was off to begin the site’s design and coding. Poor IMG. We put them through it. I’m actually scared to ask Clint, our project manager, how many different mockups were created. In the midst of all our back-and-forth, the one thing that we didn’t waver on was simplicity.

And here we are, just a few weeks after launch, many work hours, ideas, and conversations later.

I can’t tell you how excited we are to spark conversation and build community with everyone—techies, bibliophiles, cultural critics, those in between, and those who blur the lines.

Isn’t that what the best reads make us do anyway?

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Felicia Pride is an independent content producer, creative entrepreneur, and educator. She’s the executive editor of inReads.com, an initiative of WETA and the first community dedicated to “social readia.” She’s also a co-creator at 2MPower Media which focuses on projects that connect media, entertainment, and education. In addition to writing six books, Felicia has launched a youth film project, taught in the South Bronx, developed curricula for books/films, helped to launch an online teen book club, and completed her first feature screenplay which goes into production this summer. Currently, she is a fellow at the Hip-Hop Education Center at NYU. Visit her online at www.feliciapride.com or on Twitter at @feliciapride.

You can read Felicia’s posts every other Wednesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

You know what irks me? Movies where the characters are one-dimensional. The bad guys are bad–uh, just because–and the good guys are perfect.

You know what gets me irate? Media (read: journalism or stuff posing as such) that does the same.

I once took a screenwriting workshop where the teacher suggested to all the students that we create a character breakdown before beginning to write the story. This breakdown included details like physical appearance and occupation, but also probed for wants, goals, fears, conflicts and disappointments. She said with her movies, she can tell you exactly why a character does something—and connect that action to something related to the character’s personality, upbringing, fears, insecurities, and so on. She wants her characters to be as real as they can possibly be. Human.

I know that these days real is becoming hard to decipher.

But what isn’t changing: Humans are complex creatures. We rarely do things just because. We come with history and childhoods and environmental influences that shape who we are, how we think, and the actions that we take.

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Still. Let’s not sacrifice context for sound bites. Nor paint reality as utopia or hell.

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But lately, and maybe it’s just a sign of the instant times we live in or our overall propensity towards laziness, you can turn on certain national broadcasts and count how many sloppy good vs. evil snippets that are being offered up as reporting and “getting the story.” Which is a shame.

Well, dangerous actually when you think of how many of us take our cues, shape personal perspectives, and vote based on these superficial representations.

Media at its best can be a tool to contextualize. You know, media that highlights a town that is only known as X through popular representations and yet explore and show, that it is also A, B, C, D, E…

Or media that shows that a certain art form is more than just “loud music,” and “gangsters” or that a religion’s only face is that of a “terrorist.”

Great fiction does this. So do wonderful television shows and compelling documentaries, as does expert, thorough reporting. They delve into the story behind the story and explore the complexity of the person, place, or thing and show the layers of environment, background, and history.

Completeness. But I reckon it’s becoming harder and harder to be complete in our instant, bite-sized world.

Still. Let’s not sacrifice context for sound bites. Nor paint reality as utopia or hell.

*Photo from the movie High Noon. 1952, Stanley Kramer Productions.

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Felicia Pride is an independent content producer, creative entrepreneur, and educator. She’s the executive editor of inReads.com, an initiative of WETA and the first community dedicated to “social readia.” She’s also a co-creator at 2MPower Media which focuses on projects that connect media, entertainment, and education. In addition to writing six books, Felicia has launched a youth film project, taught in the South Bronx, developed curricula for books/films, helped to launch an online teen book club, and completed her first feature screenplay which goes into production this summer. Currently, she is a fellow at the Hip-Hop Education Center at NYU. Visit her online at www.feliciapride.com or on Twitter at @feliciapride.

You can read Felicia’s posts every other Wednesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

I tell this story often.

There I was, a bright-eyed, idealistic grad student studying book publishing. I was going to change the world through the printed form.

I was interning with a publisher where I was able to sit in on editorial meetings, the gatherings where decisions were made about what books would be published—what stories would be told, who would tell them, and how.

Something hit me as I looked around the room. There were a multitude of voices missing. I started to wonder how their stories would be told? Who would advocate for them? How would the world learn about their worlds?

The thoughts left me fairly depressed. And it was the beginning of a self-declared mission: highlight the stories of underrepresented voices. I found myself promoting the work of writers and storytellers who had something to say. It was not easy.

This is why a show like State of the Re:Union is so vital to our understanding of each other. It’s a distinct platform that tells the stories of cities and its people, uncovering the morsels of humanity that so often become lost within the cracks.

While my personal mission hasn’t changed—I’m still committed to highlighting stories of underrepresented voices—the way I go about it has altered somewhat.

First, I am a serious bibliophile, but I realized that people like to consume and create stories differently. Some like to watch them on a large screen, some like to view them on a small screen, some like to listen to them, and others like to participate. I’m committed to reaching as many people as possible in the ways that they prefer. It’s the teacher in me; we all have different learning styles and we should approach media production with that same perspective.

Second, because of the increases in technologies that allow teens to create their own movies using $50.00 flip cams, or anyone to start a radio show, or a grandmother to serialize her memoir on a blog, the field is being leveled somewhat. Granted there are still concerns with access, but more and more people are able to produce their own content independently. More people are telling their stories. This is a good thing. A very good thing.

I can attest that my life changed drastically the first time I was published in a community newspaper. Yes it launched my career as a writer, but it also emboldened me to raise my voice; people were reading it. Power.

So these days, I’m interested in supporting independent content producers and nurturing the next generation of storytellers. We can create our own media. We can be a part of the bigger conversation and tell the world about our worlds.

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We can create our own media. We can be a part of the bigger conversation and tell the world about our worlds.

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This is what I do independently and through 2MPower Media, the firm that I co-founded. At 2MPower we use media to engage, educate, build, and connect. We’re involved in a variety of very necessary projects—from developing educational materials for a forthcoming documentary that will air on PBS to launching a mobile journalism program for teens to creating original content that promotes the causes of a foundation.

On my own, I continue to tell stories that I believe need to be told—whether it’s the transmedia project that covers the legacy of my family living and dying in Baltimore or the screenplay that I’ve written about two people trying to recover love. I do it because I can.

And the beautiful thing is that you can too.

I look forward to connecting with you here on the SOTRU website about the ways in which media and technology can be used as transformative power.

Story. We all have one. The time is now to share it with the world.

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Felicia Pride is an independent content producer, creative entrepreneur, and educator. She’s the executive editor of inReads.com, an initiative of WETA and the first community dedicated to “social readia.” She’s also a co-creator at 2MPower Media which focuses on projects that connect media, entertainment, and education. In addition to writing six books, Felicia has launched a youth film project, taught in the South Bronx, developed curricula for books/films, helped to launch an online teen book club, and completed her first feature screenplay which goes into production this summer. Currently, she is a fellow at the Hip-Hop Education Center at NYU. Visit her online at www.feliciapride.com or on Twitter at @feliciapride.