digital storytelling

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digital storytelling

• where are we?where did we think wed be? what
  are the elements of digital stories?
• Nora Paul Institute for New Media Studies
• University of Minnesota

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who we are / who are you?

• Nora Paul Institute for New Media Studies
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Leah Gentry Gentry / Finberg Associates
• Los Angeles, California
• Silvia Llombart laMalla.net
• Barcelona, Spain
• Elizabeth Osder Univ.of Southern California
• Los Angeles, California

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the schedule

• 900 - 1030 Digital Storytelling
• 1045 - 1215 Structuring Non-linear Stories
• 1230 - 1400 Storyboarding Workshop
• 1400 - 1500 Lunch
• 1500 1630 Summing Up Roundtable

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where are we?a new media environment

• Legacy New

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Analog Digital
where are we?a new story space
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where are we?progress since 1995?

• What are newspapers NOT providing now?
• Different attitudes / viewpoints / expressive
  forms
• Personalities / identities for reporters
• Background How I wrote the story
• Links to past stories
• Follow-up on stories
• Interaction reporter community / between users
• Personalization of news
• Supporting documents
• Deep local news

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where are we?progress since 1995?

• How will the way we tell stories change?
• Mixed and multimedia
• Chronological presentation through linking
• New relationship between words and graphics
• Stories will be annotated, footnoted
• New story-telling software
• Readers as contributors
• Linking will replace inverted pyramid

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where are we?progress since 1995?

• Have we made progress?
• What blocks us from the vision?

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where are we? current conditions

• Conformity

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where are we? conformity
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where are we? current conditions

• Conformity
• Confused by collaboration / communication
• Convergence sort of

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where are we?convergence sort of
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where are we? current conditions

• Conformity
• Confused by collaboration / communication
• Convergence sort of
• Content compost heaps

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where are we?content compost heaps
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where we need to gochanges and challenges

• from storytelling to storybuilding
• from passive to experiential
• from episodic to encyclopedic
• new navigation
• converged content
• digital headwater
• support for RD

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where we need to gothings to think about

• Your website isnt something people read, its
  something they do. Visiting your site is an
  activity.
• industry newsletter

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where we need to gonew navigation
where we need to gothings to think about

• New media is interactive. In contrast to old
  media where the order of presentation is fixed,
  the user can now interact with a media object. In
  the process of interaction the user can choose
  which elements to display or which paths to
  follow, thus generating a unique work. In this
  way the user becomes the co-author of the work.
• Lev Manovich The Language of New Media

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so many terms, so little clarity

• Hypertext

• Interactive

• Multimedia

• Experiential

• Multi-nodal

• Immersive

• Non-linear

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elements of digital storytelling
www.inms.umn.edu/elements
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elements of digital storytellinggoals

• provide clarity on terms
• assess current levels of use
• begin testing audience effects

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elements of digital storytelling

• media
• action
• relationship
• context
• communication

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current usage

• Looked at 30 top news sites for two weeks
• Homepage Finding Overview
• Relationship Less than 1/3 utilized open
  content.
• Action 90 of homepage contents were static.
• Media Over half of the stories were single
  medium (print only).

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current usage

• Looked at 30 top news sites for two weeks
• Special Project Package Finding Overview
• Relationship Only 1/4 utilized open content.
• Action Most static or dynamic / active.
• Media Virtually all multiple medium.

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effects testing project 1

• Difference between multiple media and multimedia
  on memory and motivation
• Voices for the Land research

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findings project 1

• Generational differences
• HS and College Preferred multimedia
• Senior citizens Would have preferred print
• Clicked on more multimedia stories but didnt
  finish them
• Multiple media stories easier to comprehend

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effects testing project 2

• Testing for flow between different styles of
  news infographics

Zoom graphic Dynamic / active Non-linear Multipl
e media
Animated graphic Dynamic / passive to Dynamic /
active Non-linear Multimedia
3D graphic Dynamic / active Manipulable Multiple
media
Baseball card Static / passive Multiple media
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findings project 2
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what works and why?

• New media has its own expressive properties
  encyclopedic, spatial, procedural, participatory.
  Janet Murray
• The conventions of new media are still being
  formed.
• There is still much to be learned.

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Without tradition,
final thought

• art

----news

• is a flock of sheep without
• a shepherd. Without innovation,
• it is a corpse.
• Winston Churchill