A Girl Can Dream
A Girl Can Dream is a photo series by the National Public Radio that follows the lives of Afghan school students. NPR is an American non-profit media organization operating since the 70s.
From the get-go, the title page, introduces you to the topic and style of the project. The background is a GIF of a young female student, while you’re given the instruction to use headphones. This first page makes you feel like you’re about to have an interesting, immersive experience complete with sound and pictures.
Next is a short video in which a camera is set up at an Afghan public school and the children answer a few simple questions about themselves (i.e. name, hobbies, etc.). In between answers, a voice-over narrator explains the situation of the school and what the students are like. The narrator explains that in Afghanistan the boys do most of the talking, learning, and working, and girls exercise submissiveness and obedience. However some of the answers from the girls, such as Somaya who is an aspiring brain surgeon, challenge those expectations.
After the introductory video, we delve into the informational and somewhat interactive aspect. Using stills of the students at school and corresponding chunks of text, we learn more about the education system and everyday school lives of the children. It is presented in a slideshow format, where we are able to take our time looking at the photos and reading the text, and move on when we are finished. The second slide includes a hyperlink leading to another page within the NPR website displaying an article in which you learn about how claims regarding the new school system were the exaggerated and “ghost schools”. The hyperlink is a smart addition. It provides the viewer the option to read more without cluttering the page or getting too off topic.
In the following slides we get to know the girls a little better. We learn about their aspirations, their thoughts on school, boys, and their safety in Afghanistan. We see them messing around and teasing each other, eating lunch together, and being as carefree as their surroundings allow. Every once in a while they input some statistics to give the user some background knowledge (i.e. according to recent Afghan government estimates, only one college slot exists for every five students who want to go). The last slide has credits, asks if you liked the story, and the suggests a similar “Up Next” story.
The photojournalism narrative tools used in A Girl Can Dream (photo, sound, hyperlinks, voice over) are a compelling way to learn about things that seem so foreign and distant to us, because we are confronted face to face with the real children of Afghanistan. They become hard to ignore when you are reading their words, looking at their faces, and learning about the difficulties they face for the sake of education — something we take for granted. These methods bridge the gap you sometimes feel when simply reading about these kinds of stories.
However, there was definitely something missing. At its core, it is a simple slideshow. The only real interaction that the user has is a single hyperlink, and the ability to read and view at your own pace by clicking the arrow button to proceed to the next set of photographs. The story itself and the way we experience it is out of our control, bringing into question the level of interactivity of this project. Perhaps more hyperlinks to a variety of articles, studies, videos, etc. would allow the user to delve further into what interests them.
I also would have liked to hear the female students speak more about their individual experiences in an Afghan school, and their personal lives. If I were to add to this project, I would have at least one slide where the user could click on a student to watch a video or learn more about them. And, since it is a photojournalism project about the school I would have loved being able to take a tour of the school itself , either through a 360 degree experience like the New York Times 360 daily videos, or even just stills of parts of the school.
So while it is more immersive than a simple newspaper article and possesses the beginnings of an interactive experience, it leaves the user somewhat unsatisfied and wanting more.
