The New Digital Storytelling – Chapter 1 – Storytelling for the Twenty-First Century
- What are your main insights and ideas from the given L&K chapter?
- I liked the part where it talks about what a story is. I struggled with this word when I was doing my last digital story critique because I felt like it didn’t have a story at all. The article defined a story as having specific story elements. After reading this, I know that I was right. The digital story that I critiqued indeed did not have a story. It was interesting to read about the history of the word story. However, I would have thought the word went back much further. Even cave men left stories on the walls of their caves with makeshift paint. Egyptians shared stories through hieroglyphics on the pyramids and in other places. I’m surprised that none of these were mentioned.
- What unique terminology, jargon, buzzwords, and other concepts appear in this reading that required your careful attention and definition? What are your interpretations of these words and concepts?
- I went through the different steps of the storytelling process and made sure I knew what each one was. Those 5 steps are: inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax, resolution. These 5 seem to be the common ones that are mentioned so I wanted to make sure I understood each one. I thought about these steps and honestly I’m not sure if any of the digital stories that I have reviewed actually have all of these elements. It seems like all of the ones I’ve found have been too short to have all of these or even to have a complication. The closest one that has had these five was the Holocaust one.
- How does this reading challenge/expand/contradict your definition of (digital) storytelling?
- This chapter started out with a list of different things that could be storytelling. This was actually my favorite part of the chapter. I especially liked the one where it said novels read on mobile devices. It then went on to say that many of them might even be written on mobile devices. A novel written on a mobile device!? I hadn’t even thought about that before. I suppose it does happen. I can’t imagine trying to type out an entire novel with the keyboard on my iPad, let alone on my mobile phone. I wonder if laptops are thrown into the mobile devices category because technically they could be mobile. I am curious how writing on a mobile device would impact the content that is constructed.
- What additional scholarship, popular media, teaching resources, or other media are related to your developing understanding of both (digital) storytelling and this chapter?
- I am again reminded that I should read Robert McKee’s works after reading this chapter. It is mentioned as a foundation of what a story is. I have read quite a few things that refer to his books and I think I better take the leap and go ahead and read it, especially since I would like to write a children’s book someday. I don’t know how much of his work will translate into digital stories but it will definitely help with my own storytelling.
- I am again reminded that I should read Robert McKee’s works after reading this chapter. It is mentioned as a foundation of what a story is. I have read quite a few things that refer to his books and I think I better take the leap and go ahead and read it, especially since I would like to write a children’s book someday. I don’t know how much of his work will translate into digital stories but it will definitely help with my own storytelling.