Post on 17-Feb-2023
Why do people choose to tell specific
stories? Understanding the narrative
impulse in digital storytelling workshops
with elderly people across Romania with elderly people across Romania
Mark Dunford and Camelia Crisan
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live….We live entirely, especially if
JOAN DIDION, THE WHITE ALBUM
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live….We live entirely, especially if
we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate
images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting
phantasmogoria which is our actual experience”
About Digital Storytelling
• Telling personal stories through story circles, and an inter-disciplinary approach, using drama, photography, drawing, music, video clips.music, video clips.
• During an intensive workshop people learn to:� write a script� edit pictures, drawings, photos
� record a voice over and sound-track
Seven Steps of Digital StorytellingJoe Lambert – Digital Storytelling Capturing Lives Creating Community (2002)
• Owning your insights
• Owning your emotions
• Finding the moment of insight or emotion
• Seeing your story• Seeing your story
• Hearing your story (voice)
• Assembling your story (edit)
• Sharing your story
Adapting the approach
• Links to local elderly people established through the Library system.
• IREX and the Progress Foundation adapted the method and combined it with introductory work on computers such as basic keyboard skills, image use, file saving etc
• Created over 200 digital stories across
Romania – June 2011 Fieldwork across Romania
• Created over 200 digital stories across Romania in a four year period
• A means to overcome social isolation within communities and build ICT literacy amongst older Romanians
• A means to establish connections within Romania and to link people to relatives living abroad
Moving On
Plummer (documents of life 2) suggests a life narrative
possesses:
� A sense of ordering – usually linear – of events
� A sense of the person behind the text
� A sense of the voice and the perspective belonging to the � A sense of the voice and the perspective belonging to the
narrator
� A sense of causality
Digital Storytelling as Mediation
Couldry (2008) proposes three main angles to explore digital storytelling by studying
• How digital storytelling’s context and processes of production are becoming associated with certain practices and styles of interpretation
• How the outputs of digital storytelling practices are • How the outputs of digital storytelling practices are themselves circulated and recirculated between various sites and, and exchanged between various practitioners
• The long term consequences of digital storytelling as a practice for particular types of people in particular types of location, and its consequences for wider social and cultural formation, even for democracy itself
Digital Storytelling as Personal
Narrative
Poletti (2011) looks at the potential and limits of digital storytelling as a form of life narrative by noting:
• The influence of the framing discourse of digital storytelling which anchors digital storytelling as a medium of personal storytelling
• The restrictions placed on digital storytelling by an • The restrictions placed on digital storytelling by an emphasis on narrative accessibility, closure and coherence of theme
• The relationship between the personal and collective provides a productive way to “coax life narrative into the public sphere through pedagogical practice like digital storytelling”
Understanding the Participants
36
30
35
4037
30
35
40
Age Terminal age of Education
18
16
6
0
5
10
15
20
25
40-50 51-60 61-70 71-80
1
18
10
8
2
0
5
10
15
20
25
Understanding Benefits
Rank First Second Third Fourth Average
Being Part of
a Community
4 16 16 46 1.79
Express
Myself
8 19 36 13 2.29
Doing 41 19 12 4 3.28Doing
Something
Creative
41 19 12 4 3.28
Learning IT 23 22 12 19 2.64
Understanding the Romanian Stories
• Reasons for telling a particular story in the
digital storytelling format
• The significance of saying something, of being
seen and heardseen and heard
• How the digital storytelling format shaped
story choice
• Personal and professional experiences after
the course
Reasons for Stories
“I chose the story at the
suggestion of the facilitator,
and several others mentioned
that the reason for choosing a
particular story was that it was
depicting an important event
“I chose the story because it
was about me, about my
whole life and it felt
interesting that my children
and grandchildren hear who I
was and how I lived”depicting an important event
in their life”
“to display emotions, thoughts
and accomplishments – a life
time dream”
was and how I lived”
“I wanted to keep the memory
of my parents alive”
Observations
• Practical reasons for selecting particular
subjects primarily the availability of imagery
• Conservation and presentation of memories
or stories for posterityor stories for posterity
• Workshop used as a means to shape stories
rather than determining what is being told
Significance of saying something, of
being seen and heard
“I wanted it to be public, not solely for myself”
“The fact that my story will be published has not influenced me”
“I approached the subject “I approached the subject from a real perspective, ups and downs, the life with good and bad because they are all part of life and I realised that the negative can be presented in a positive way”
Observations
• Sense of having capacity to say something and a platform to say it
• Ability to share and learn from others on line
• Story Circle increased confidence but also shaped perception of acceptabilityperception of acceptability
• Publishing shaped stories: Two people told different stories and others changed the emphasis within their stories by stressing the positive elements
• Drawing line between public and private spaces
How the Form shaped the Story
“Only the photographs that
I had or didn’t have for my
story”
“I could use pictures of the “I could use pictures of the
old Focsani. It aroused so
many beautiful and sad
memories. To hear my
voice recorded has been
super”
Observations
• Importance of taking care and crafting what is
said. How the form shaped the story
• Seeing a critical, reflective, therapeutic and
political dimension to the stories told.political dimension to the stories told.
Personal and Professional
Development
“I posted my movie on
Facebook and I have sent it
on to my family by email. I
have done a movie for my
friend on her birthday”friend on her birthday”
“I can teach my friends a
thing or two about the
computer, now I am their
teacher.”
Observations
• Power of stories beyond the workshop
• Telling more stories
• Establishing digital connections with family
• Forging new friendships• Forging new friendships
• Taking on new roles
Conclusions
• Narrative emphasis on closure, affect and universality partially determines the story
• Personal creations within a supportive and collaborative mode of making. Confidence to tell storiesstories
• Caution about saying too much about the person behind the text: A fear of being too personal of exposing too much
• The power of digital storytelling narrative to recast reality. The long term consequences