Like Real Campfires, Digital Campfires Are Meant to Illuminate

Lucky Post Helps Craft Launch Video Featuring Animation & Design To Inspire Change

There’s a new media project in town. New_Public, a media project seeks to build better digital public spaces. Edited by Vice Media and Wall Street Journal alum Marina Garcia-Vasquez, and backed by an editorial board of leaders in technology, media, and design, New_Public is a new hub for individuals imagining and building a more inclusive digital world.

To describe and promote this effort, New_Public released a launch video produced by Civic Signals and Lucky Post.

Founded in 2019 by Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble and co-founder of Upworthy, and Talia Stroud, professor at University of Texas at Austin and founding Director of the Center for Media Engagement, Civic Signals’ mission is to support the development of more equitable and flourishing digital public spaces.

New_Public aims to draw on learnings from physical public spaces to envision more productive, open, and democratic digital spaces. In an inaugural op-ed with WIRED, Eli Pariser explains the links between the design and functions of public parks and digital platforms, and why it is imperative that we look to this history when building more inclusive digital public spaces.

“It’s imperative that we design digital spaces that help us come together — as communities and as a nation. Thriving societies require flourishing public spaces, and the design of our online spaces greatly shapes our public conversations and sense of national identity,” said Pariser.

“As the global pandemic continues to keep societies physically distanced, social interactions have increasingly moved online. Now more than ever, we need online public spaces that are safe and welcoming to everyone, and that connect people in ways that foster belonging and cohesion,” said Stroud. “Rather than continuing to perpetuate the isolation of opinions, digital spaces should be well-designed to allow contention to exist, while still ensuring those conflicts are productive.”

Crafted by Civic Signals and Lucky Post, “We Are New_Public: The Light.” reflects what it means to have democratic public digital spaces to share information and ideas with people of all backgrounds.

“Successful online public spaces require ongoing collaboration, not just from designers and technologists, but also from social scientists, the communities they serve, and those who will care for them,” said Marina Garcia-Vasquez editor of New_Public.

Client: Civic Signals
Co-Director: Eli Pariser and Talia Stroud
Chief of Staff: Neelam Sakaria
Creative Director: Romy Nehme
Executive Producer: Erin Germain

Post Production: Lucky Post
Creative Director, Writer, Director, Editor – Sai Selvarajan
Animation: Seth Olson, Jake Odgers
Audio: Scottie Richardson
Executive Producer: Jessica Berry