The Story of Digital Storytelling

By Ella Harrison

Spring semester of sophomore year is definitely a story to tell. This spring marked some of the most incredible experiences of my life and some of the most challenging. It was also the first term that I took all major classes. Out of all four of my classes, Digital Storytelling was by far the most informative.

CONTENT CONSUMER

As a communications major, it was so interesting to learn about different theories in the field. Dan Gillmor’s theory is that we must have media literacy since we are a mediactive society. Media literacy involves knowing how to read a medium as well as how to create in that medium and understand how it can be used for both good and bad.

Gillmor presents 5 basic principles of media consumption:

Gillmor's Mediactive Courtesy: Amazon

1. Be skeptical.

2. Exercise judgment.

3. Open your mind.

4. Keep asking questions.

5. Learn media tech.

When writing blogs, I had to be skeptical of all the sources I used as hyperlinks. I also had to learn various Adobe programs such as Audition for my Podcast and Photoshop for my visual essay. In addition to Gillmor’s theory, we learned 5 ways to be media literate.

1. Make responsible choices.

2. Analyze messages in a variety of forms.

3. Create content in a variety of forms.

4. Reflect on one’s own communication behavior.

5. Take social action by working individually and collaboratively.

With the large personal reach of media today, I was reminded through his theory of how important it is to be aware of what I produce and publish. I want to put out reliable information for consumers to receive. In the same vein, I must be aware that what I see created by other people could be falsified; therefore, I must verify everything I see online. I want to create things that are impactful and that matter.

Howard Rheingold presents 5 social media literacies:

Courtesy: Howard Rheingold

1. Attention

2. Participation

3. Collaboration

4. Network Awareness

5. Critical Consumption

All of these aspects of literacy are connected, and the most important part of being fluent is putting them all together in a meaningful way. The area that I became most fluent in this semester was participation. Obviously, I consume media frequently, but I had never really created that much of it. That changed with all the projects like my PSA and mini documentary.

CONTENT CREATION

Content creation is a process which takes plenty of planning. Creating content is not something to be taken lightly as it includes the communication of a message through the organization of information that will be interpreted by a mass audience. Any good content is going to require storyboarding. Storyboarding helps bring in the elements that every good storyteller has. For both my podcast and my visual essay, I created a preliminary storyboard before ever working on the project. In any story, there must be a narrative that includes an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Along with that, you must include the appropriate characters. Once you pick your characters, the interview is the next part of creating content. Interviews are essential because you need the character’s voice in order to properly tell the story. For the interview, lighting and location are most important. For visual content, a solid knowledge of framing techniques is also necessary.

These framing techniques are:

Photograph I took after learning composition techniques.

- Rule of Thirds

- Rule of Odds

- Frame in Frame

- Leading Lines

- Change of Perspective

Once you have the content, some rearranging might be necessary to get the best story. In order to make a story effective, you must include logos, pathos, and ethos at the correct points. In my PSA, for example, I used both logos (logic) and pathos (emotion) to achieve my goal. I used statistics to show the prominence of poor heart health, and I used my family as characters for the audience to connect with.

STELLAR STORYTELLER

I have found my voice as a storyteller in the types of stories I have chosen to do. I love a feel-good story, and I think I am really good at finding unique perspectives in storytelling. For example, after listening to my podcast, several classmates commented on how they would have never thought about the connection between sports and music. I think my experience in the arts helped when I created that sports story because I was able to see a different angle. Being able to find a different viewpoint makes a story engaging and interesting to the audience.

LOOKING AHEAD

Although my goal is to one day do sports reporting, the skills I have learned in this class will help me succeed in any profession. One of the biggest skills I have learned is time management. Having multiple projects going on at once was difficult, especially since I missed a lot of school for cheer this semester. However, planning ahead helped me stay on top of my assignments. I also think storytelling is such a good life skill. A good storyteller must look beneath the surface to find the things that do not appear easily. I think this is a great skill to have to be a better people person. Being able to see past the surface of someone to know what makes them the way they are helps you create better relationships with your coworkers and other people in your daily life.

This was one of the most difficult classes I have taken. However, looking back I can see it is a story of true development; thankfully, this story has a happy ending.