Almost every day of the week, I get up at 6:30am (grab coffee #1), trawl the internet for interesting news (while drinking coffee #2), create an image to represent the selected story using toys such as Lego, then post the edited picture on my website and various social media platforms along with a brief summary

…But why do I do it?

Aside from my Love of Lego, I started The Short News to empower, educate and entertain. Being a lawyer, I like to use headings to structure submissions (I promise no more ‘lawyer talk’ from this point onwards), so I’ll explain each of these goals as follows:

Empower

I love the idea of people gathering around the water cooler to share stories and snippets of information. Knowledge is a form of social currency that we use to ‘trade’ and make ‘purchases’ within our social groups. As a result, we tell stories because we want our audience to find them interesting and think that we’re knowledgeable. This positive ‘transaction’ is cyclical in that many of the people in our group will share what they have learned with their groups and so on.

With this in mind, my aim is to empower people to have a couple of stories to share with their family, friends and colleagues every day so that they can feel informed and important.

Educate

I want to introduce children to the world of journalism so that they develop a thirst for knowledge and become informed and inquisitive adults. Although I don’t yet have children, my understanding is that when kids are occupied, they are less likely to draw on walls and break things.

The news I share might be ‘light’, but this is by design so that it appeals to children and adults who are not usually interested in the news. I feel that I’ve achieved this goal because adults and children regularly comment on what they’ve learned from the stories, and even share their opinions and experiences with each other from across the world!

Entertain

When I started The Short News, I did not own a single Lego brick (my childhood stash was given away/sold when the family temporarily located to the USA – a fact I remind my mum of constantly, of course) (don’t worry, I’ve more than made amends for this over the last 2 years) (if you haven’t already noticed, I LOVE using brackets). So, I was empowering and educating, but not yet entertaining. The introduction of Lego and other toys was an attempt to attract people to the news with memorable images.

Ultimately, there are enough people pushing sad/negative news, which is something I don’t want to do. I focus on happy/quirky/interesting and funny stories for a reason – to make people smile, laugh and connect with one another.

So why do I do what I do? To make the news fun!

My project relies on people being captivated enough by my images to read the stories, so I thank you for reading along, and thank Shelly for the opportunity to share The Short News with you.

Sean

You can follow The Short News on Instagram, G+, Twitter, Facebook and of course through Sean’s web site TheShortNews.com.

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