Digital Storytelling: What It Entails
Introduction to Digital Storytelling
For those of you who may be unaware of the term ‘Digital Storytelling’ I will do my best to provide you with a description. Digital storytelling to me, is the way authors can portray a story using different types of media such as audio, visual aids and texts etc. Why should we care for digital storytelling? It is a way we can connect with those around us. Yes, you may say that’s why we have our phones and books for, but digital storytelling enhances how you connect with someone and what they have to say. With our digital world expanding in classrooms, the workforce and our day to day lives; we are more than likely to encounter digital storytelling.
Video Summaries and Reflections
Digital storytelling helps an author create captivating and engaging stories through the usage of digital forms of media. The video mentions that there are seven components of Digital Storytelling. The seven components being Point of View, Dramatic Question, Emotional Content, Gift of Voice, Power of Soundtrack, Economy and Pacing. What do these mean?
- Point of View- What are you, as the author, trying to convey. From what perspective and why is what you’re conveying important.
- Dramatic Question- Used to engage/hook the audience
- Emotional Content- Allows the audience to connect emotionally with the author’s content and is more likely to be remembered
- Gift of Voice- Provides a meaningful interaction with the content using tone when reflecting on certain moments and/or memories
- Power of Soundtrack- The inclusion of music helps the audience to relate to the content they are reading
- Economy- To tell a story in an efficient way as well as using images and audio to aid with your story
- Pacing- Allows audience to digest and understand the content, also withholds the audience’s attention
This video above helped me to gain a better understanding of digital storytelling. If you had asked me what I thought it was before watching this I would have told you something along the lines of “Digital storytelling is using a website to publish stories”. In school we are taught a lot about point of view, tone and using a ‘hook’ to attract the audience’s attention in our writing. Since then technology has evolved and we can now apply those ideas to digital storytelling as well.
2. The power of digital storytelling | Emily Bailin
In the Ted Talk above, Emily Bailin goes into detail about an after school program that she hosts for students. This program allows for students to find new and innovative ways to tell stories. She touches on a poem she has each student participate in that lets each of them talk about where they are from. Through this project she wants them to dig deeper than the city or state that they were born in. She encourages students to use visual aids that can help engage the audience with their poem. She discusses how using different media types you can help sway an audience to feel certain emotions as you tell your story. Digital storytelling can help convey different meanings that you may not understand if you were to just read a written piece. It helps to clarify the author’s tone and showcase what they were feeling in that moment. It also allows the audience to feel a part of the story. Digital storytelling allows for more authentic connections to take place between people.
Bailin’s Ted Talk helped me to realize how enhancing your stories with something as simple as images or intricate as music and videos can help with encouraging your audience to feel a certain way. This new understanding of digital storytelling can help me with blog posts if I were to continue with them outside of class.
3. Digital storytelling — changing people, perceptions and lives: Jim Jorstad
Jim Jorstad touches on the fact that just photos alone can tell stories. His Ted Talk is about his experience with different people he has met during his career as a photographer and how some of the stories he encounters intertwine with other stories he has had the opportunity to capture. He talks about the fact that technology is a tool that we can use to connect with the world around us but it has also made us more disconnected than ever. We truly aren’t using our ability to communicate with others on deeper levels as we tend to learn surface level information. There are stories all around us, we just have to take initiative to discover them.
Jorstad and his eagerness to capture images and tell stories, some of which get published, has helped me to understand that we can learn more about each other through digital storytelling. Digital storytelling helps us to connect with others on a more meaningful level. As someone who wants to get a career with my Communications and Digital Studies major I hope to connect with people from many backgrounds and be a voice to those who may need one.
4. The Digital Storytelling process
This video touches on the process of digital storytelling from start to finish. When first looking to partake in digital storytelling you have to generate ideas that you may want to dive in. After finalizing the main idea you want to write about you should do some intensive research and planning. Research what you wish to convey and plan out how you will do so. Now comes the actual creation process. Create your story either through video, audio recording or writing. Make sure your story is well thought out and crafted in a way that will be engaging to an audience. After creating your story, edit it to enhance the final product for those who will view it. Finally, publish your story and make sure it is accessible to any and all viewers.
This video helps me to realize that digital storytelling does not have to be an overwhelming task. The video breaks down the steps into a more digestible list and is perfect for those new to the digital storytelling process. This is a great video to help get started on a digital storytelling project.
Personal Summary
All the videos above allowed me to get a better understanding of digital storytelling and what it entails. It is something that I think can impact all of us in the digital space in a positive way. I find it significant as we are constantly developing new technology and social media platforms. It is easy for us as consumers of digital media to get caught in repetitive and unoriginal media. Digital storytelling can be a form of expressing ourselves in meaningful ways and it could help us build new connections with others. I can see myself using digital storytelling in my dream career field. I want to help musicians make new connections and build a sense of community that supports their music. Using digital storytelling can be utilized to accomplish this.