Creativity, Comparison and Sharing in the Co-Creation of the Communication Campaign

In the fourth chapter the evolution of Oltre's online campaign will be transversally analysed, focusing on the path of awareness acquisition by the second-generation youth involved in the co-creation process of the campaign. Afterwards, we will be analysing in detail the backstage of the creation of content. Through the participatory method, we will be highlighting how the content creators of our campaign selected the themes and the perspective from which to deal with them. We will be underlying how the content creators dismantled the circulating representation and built a counter-narrative or an alternative narrative and converted the idea, through a process of creative co-construction, in audio-visual content, to which the caption was then accompanied. In particular, the 4 phases of the creative process will be analysed: (1) conception, which is, the identification of the content to be covered and the purpose of the post; (2) storytelling, which clarifies the narrative modes of the message; (3) visual transposition into images and video; (4) drafting of a caption aimed at summarising in a few lines the essence of the content. The process that led to the co-production of the posts was based on three irreplaceable elements: creativity, essential to ensure the originality of the final product; comparison, necessary to take into account different perspectives; sharing, useful to find a common path to achieve the common objectives. The choice of images and the way they were used are central to this process. Images are the heart of the message to spread and can take on different functions within the participatory process, by playing different roles. They have a strong “evocative” power that might be interpreted in different ways. Examples will be given to describe how images sometimes give life to a non-codified creative space, sometimes to a space for dialogue, and sometimes to a mediating space. By analysing the evolution of the campaign and the process of coproduction of the posts, we come up with some questions: What were the dynamics within Oltre project that facilitated the formation of a “conscious” community and what were the weaknesses that provoked a change of direction? What were the dynamics that characterized the process of cocreation of content within the Oltre campaign? The social campaign was accompanied step by step by observing everything that was happening in the backstage (through conversations on WhatsApp chats, both those of general coordination and temporary ones for the creation of individual posts, and coordination meetings). This allowed us to observe the changing configuration of the participatory communication campaign, and the non-manifest dynamics in the formation process of the Oltre community.