Episode 8: HYPE Media

Today's episode follows a project undertaken by Homewood Youth-Powered and Engaged (HYPE) Media to research and write a comprehensive Wikipedia page for Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh. Stops along the way include discussions about information, power and the Internet; interdisciplinarity in community-engaged work; and the experience of the students involved in the project. The interviewer, Briana Wipf, speaks to Dr. Khirsten L. Scott, Elise Silva, Dr. Jaime Booth and students at the Westinghouse Highschool in Pittsburgh about their work on this important initiative. 

To learn more about Dr. Scott’s work, including HYPE Media, visit https://khirstenlscott.com/ and https://www.composition.pitt.edu/people/khirsten-l-scott. For more about Elise Silva’s work, visit https://composition.pitt.edu/people/elise-silva. For more about Dr. Booth’s work, visit https://www.socialwork.pitt.edu/people/jaime-booth. Students of Westinghouse High School who are members are HYPE Media and who worked on this project include La’Niya Brown, Kayla Butler, Sanai Carey, Nadia Dixon, Kamiyah Hall, Teresia Luster, and Amber Taylor. Visit the Westinghouse High School Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_High_School_(Pittsburgh).    

Interviews for this episode were recorded on April 3 and April 4, 2022. 

This season of the Information Ecosystems podcast is being produced in affiliation with the Year of Data and Society at the University of Pittsburgh. The website for the Information Ecosystems project is https://infoeco.hcommons.org/, and the website for the Year of Data and Society at the University of Pittsburgh is https://yearofdataandsociety.pitt.edu/.  

The Information Ecosystems project seeks to advance a deeply powerful understanding of where data comes from and how it is used, setting the present moment within a century-long history of information supply and its power-laden consequences. At a moment when societies are in urgent need of guidance to navigate rapidly shifting digital terrain, we are coming together to build a deep understanding of the social and political life of data.