City Voices

In Swedish, the same word is used for vote and voice: "röst". Something to keep in mind when looking at what's being said about my hometown Göteborg. Of course, there's the official websites www.goteborg.com for tourists and www.goteborg.se for citizens. And our best promotion person Håkan Hellström has been very popular with the press lately and he's still famous for his "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg" (Don't be sorry for me, Göteborg).

During the past months, Göteborg has also been frequently mentioned in the national press, but not for positive reasons. Several scandals regarding misuse of public funding and bribes have shaken the decision-makers into looking deeper into the fabric of the so called Göteborg spirit of collaboration.

One of the organisations figuring in the media is Göteborg Energi. They have now launched a campaign in order to shift the public opinion, contracting the artist Timo Räisänen to do the song for their commercial video.



Another interesting story-telling project has also been presented lately, but by totally different people and for quite another reason: The Gothenburg Shout initiative. Here people for different parts of the city present their story with photos, voices, sound and music guided by students from Kulturverkstaden. An article about the initiative states that they got inspiration from city of Berkeley. Since this is the hometown of the non-profit Center for Digital Storytelling, this makes sense.