What is Digital Storytelling?

Introduction

Digital storytelling, while it may seem to be an everyday occurrence to those in GenZ like me, is a fairly new form of conveying information and stories. Digital storytelling is a multimedia form used to tell stories or information in an online space.

There are plenty of examples you can find of digital storytelling. Video essays and indie animations are examples that come to my mind, but there are more.

Digital storytelling is a new way to create stories, like interactive fiction and video games, but digital storytelling isn’t only influential in creative writing. The Amoeba Sisters’ and the “Parts of the Cell Rap” videos were great ways to learn about biology in my school. They helped keep our attention enough that we actually learned the information. That reason is why digital storytelling is important to many different fields.

What is Digital Storytelling?

Summary

This video tried to define digital storytelling. It did this by breaking digital storytelling down to its core elements: point of view, dramatic question, emotional content, gift of voice, power of soundtrack, economy, and pacing. The digital stories created are captivating content in an online or blended setting.

Reflection

I knew some of how multimedia stories captured an audience’s attention, but the video went into detail on this topic. I was surprised, however, on how many of these elements are just elements of a good story in general, rather than a good digital story.

Digital storytelling is important because it is, essentially, the next evolution of the narrative.

As for how this video relates to my life, it shows why some pieces of online content are engaging. These pieces of content use these elements well. For example, this video on Barbie movies,

is very engaging despite its length. That is because it uses these elements, like pacing, well.

Digital storytelling is essential for me to know as I want to go into publishing. Knowing how more forms of media succeed will always be helpful in that field. Print media learns from digital media and vice-versa. It also will impact me because I want to create digital stories. Knowing these elements will help me with the game I want to create or in editing the interactive fiction story I have made.

Why is Digital Storytelling Powerful?

Summary

This video focused on an exercise that the speaker does with her students asking them to tell a story about where they’re from. She only really talks about the digital aspect of these stories at the end of the video, but we can glean some information from the video.

Digital storytelling pushes against print storytelling by bringing in things you can’t communicate in words. It also allows the audience to experience the work in multiple different ways which helps with their understanding.

Reflection

This video brings in one really big benefit of the format: the ability to convey things one can’t put into words. While part of my major is putting the inexplicable into words, digital storytelling gives another avenue for doing so.

This video shows how digital storytelling is important in society: it is a way of enhancing a story. Digital storytelling has a different impact than traditional storytelling.

A way that this video impacts my life is in how it shows the impact of digital storytelling. I see a lot of videos about this indie game,

and it’s a great example of the power digital storytelling has. The game would not be nearly as cozy or unsettling if it didn’t have the animations to accompany it.

In my own writing, I think a lot about how to make my stories’ format. It is important to me that the way the story is portrayed has an impact on the story. This video showed me another form of storytelling that I can add to my repertoire.

Digital Storytelling – Changing People, Perceptions, and Lives.

Summary

This video focused on the stories each person in a society has. In the video, the speaker talks about a series of people and their stories that he got to tell. This video was more connected to storytelling in general. There was a strong emphasis on how images tell stories and how stories are not just words, but also photos.

Reflection

This video didn’t change my understanding of digital storytelling. The other videos were more fundamental in creating my understanding of digital storytelling.

This video did show another way that digital storytelling is important. Digital storytelling is a way to find stories. The speaker would not have been able to share as many stories as he did if we were not in the digital age.

A big theme in the video is that we are a disconnected society due to phones. However, I find that this conflicts with my experiences. I am able to communicate with people far away from me because of phones. As well, I am able to find wonderful pieces of art because of the Internet, such as my favorite indie songwriter.

This video did not add to the ways that I see digital storytelling impacting my career or professional life.

The Digital Storytelling Process

Summary

This video described the steps to creating a digital story. The steps to creating one are idea generation, research and planning, production, post-production, and publication.

Reflection

This video didn’t change my understanding of digital storytelling, but it did show how to create a digital story. I would say that the list of steps is less like a line, however, and more like a circle winding back on itself.

This video showed a impact of digital storytelling I hadn’t considered before: community engagement. I had never considered that digital storytelling was a way to get messages out to your community.

A current event that can be related to this video were the protests about Trump and the way he is acting like a king. It is more than likely that digital storytelling was used to get the message about these protests out.

This video did not add any ways that digital storytelling will impact my life. However, it did show how to create the digital stories that are already going to impact my life.

Conclusion

To me, digital storytelling is the next evolution of storytelling. It’s a way to engage people using multiple forms of media. There is a place for all forms of storytelling, and it is important to match the form of storytelling to the story you want to tell. It is important to learn digital storytelling because it uses different methods to create similar effects, such as using sound instead of word choice to create a tone.

In my own work, I will use the elements and methods discussed to create digital narratives. By knowing more about digital storytelling and its benefits, I can improve my existing digital stories or create better digital stories. Knowing about digital storytelling is also a benefit for my future career in publishing. We are in the digital age, so publishing is still impacted by digital stories and digital media.