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

Developing our Understanding

Revisit the storytellers Focus on specific stories

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”

Sample Story

•

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuZN120

w-ss

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