Category: digital story

Digital Story Critique – “Opening Doors”

Immigration is a very hot topic.  From American politicians (or pseudo-politicians) advocating a ban on Muslims from entering the United States to European leaders closing their boarders to Middle Eastern refugees from war-torn countries, there is a lot of concern regarding immigrants.  Most of the soundbites come from influential people in power.  The immigrants, many of whom come legally for educational or employment reasons, rarely get an opportunity to give their perspective.  That’s why it’s refreshing to watch “Opening Doors“, a StoryCenter video created by Tahira Hussain, a student from Pakistan.  She carries the responsibility of being the first person in her family to go to college.  For this critique, I judged the digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):

  • Story – Hussain draws the viewer in by telling her story first-hand.  She gives a glimpse into the cultural traditions of her community in Pakistan, including the staggering difference between how a family is treated when a daughter, rather than a son, leaves for college.  Even before she got accepted into a college, she admitted she was “too scared to apply.” She also comments that she could not go to the local doctor by herself because she was “not allowed to go out without a man.”  By the end of the story however, Hussain seems more confident after completing her studies.  In addition, she remarks how she has inspired other women in her Pakistani village to get an education.
  • Originality, voice and creativity –  If Hussain had told this story in her native language, there might have been a greater emotional undercurrent in her voice, but she does a solid job of unfolding the timeline of events in English.  She includes a number of personal photographs from her childhood in Pakistan as well as her schooling in the United States, including photos of her creating banners in support of environmental causes.  There are also a couple of images, including a video clip of rippling water, that add abstract emotional layers to the story.
  • Media grammar –  It’s fairly evident that this was Hussain’s first time creating a digital story.  Some of the photos were scanned at lower resolutions and the audio level of the narration varies throughout the video.  Still, it’s not bad for a first effort.

As a tutor at the Community College of Denver, I often work with students from far-off places in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  I sometimes wonder if each of these students have their own story to tell about leaving the world they were born into then and the world they live in now.   Even loud-mouth politicians could learn a thing or two from them.

 

Scholarly Response: “Story Time”

Recently, I was skimming through On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine from my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to articles about noteworthy alumni, there are often stories about professors and students conducting innovating research projects on the Madison campus.  One such article, “Story Time”, detailed a unique storytelling project involving UW students and military veterans at a Madison-area Veterans Administration (VA) hospital.  The project, called “My Life, My Story“, was initiated in 2013 by a UW School of Medicine and Public Health psychiatry resident and has since been adopted by six other VA facilities across the country.  The program gives veterans an opportunity to tell their stories about what they have gone through in military and civilian life.  A volunteer, usually a medical or literature student, acts as an interviewer and writes a 1000-word story.  This personal testomony enables a health care provider, such as a VA doctor or nurse, to better understand the background of a patient.  The article gives some enlightening examples of patients telling their stories and students commenting on the significance of the project.

It’s a remarkable how storytelling can help people discuss about the adversity they have encountered in their lives.  In cases such as this, it enables medical professionals to look at something other than a chart to get a better picture of a patient’s history.  Especially if a patient has put his or her life in harm’s way.

Weekly Reflection: Spring (Break) Has Sprung!

1280px-Daytona_Beach_Sunrise_from_La_Playa_MotelToday is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  For students at the University of Colorado-Denver, tomorrow is the first (official) day of spring break.  A perfect time to get away from school work and rest the mind.  At the same time, students at several major universities will be thinking of their schools in the downtime as their basketball teams compete in the NCAA basketball tournament.  The men’s team of my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be playing Xavier University tonight, so I’ll be heading to a sports bar later to cheer the Badgers on to victory!

So it’s fair to say right now that my mind is not occupied with my studies, but I did want to mention something about my Learning With Digital Stories (INTE 5340) class.  This past week, I explored a unique digital storytelling cite called StoryCorps.   If you’re an avid listener of NPR, you’ve probably heard these personal stories from time to time.  Many of them involve people discussing how an adverse event or situation has changed their lives.  In my previous blog post, I wrote a critique of a moving digital story entitled “1st Squad, 3rd Platoon.”  With StoryCorps, I was amazed how much emotional detail can come from an audio recording of a person.  This gives me some ideas of what I might be able to accomplish when I create my own digital story later in this semester for this class.  I’m glad Lori, our instructor, gave us some flexibility in submitting future assignments.  Routine can dull the mind.

So now it’s time to sit back and relax.  Granted, I won’t be going to a beach in Cozumel, but at least I’ll have time to get outside and enjoy the (mostly) sunny terrain of Colorado and cheer my team in the Big Dance.  Go Badgers!

 

Digital Story Critique: “1st Squad, 3rd Platoon”

From time to time, I’ve listened to episodes of StoryCorps that have aired on NPR.  The simplicity of personal stories using audio recordings is remarkable.  At times, you can hear the emotional undercurrents as people discuss pivotal moments that have forever altered the course of their lives.  A number of these audio recordings have been supplemented with  animation.  To be honest, I’ve often associated animation with comedy genres (“Looney Tunes”, “The Simpsons”, “Futurama”, etc), but I was amazed how the animation work done by the Rauch Brothers complimented the adversity story “1st Squad, 3rd Platoon.” This reflection is told by Marine Lance Cpl. Travis Williams, who talks about how he’s been able to cope with life after a roadside bomb killed all his team members in Iraq back in 2005.  For this critique, I judged the digital story on the following assessment traits (as discussed by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom:

  • Story – Williams unfolds his experience in chronological order, which gives the viewer time to absorb his story.  The narration feels genuine.  I could hear the sadness and struggle in Williams’s voice as he talks about returning to an empty barracks after the roadside bomb killed his comrades.  Fortunately, the story ends on a positive note as Williams admits he is finding ways to reflect on his good fortune and cherishing every day in civilian life.
  • Originality, voice, creativity – In addition to Williams’s earnest narration, the Rauch Brothers animation’s adds visual context to the digital story.  The expressions on the faces of the characters match the tone of Williams’s voice over.  At no point did I feel the visual element draw my attention away from his narration of tragic events.  The StoryCorps project producers (Lizzie Jacobs, Maya Millett & Mike Rauch) deserve a lot of credit for giving Williams the room to tell his story.
  • Media grammar – Excellent.  Having working in television production, I could recognize the stellar production quality of the entire StoryCorps production team.  Williams’s audio recording was crisp, clean, and rich in detail.  In one instance, I swear I could almost see him crying by listening to the narration.  The video and sound editing are smooth and efficient.  There is some nice instrumental music that adds to the tone of the story.  As I stated earlier, the animation by the Rauch Brothers was impressive.

This was a very emotional story to absorb.  It took me a while to condense my thoughts in a blog review.  Still, I plan on coming back to StoryCorps to check out more personal reflections about people dealing with adversity in their lives.

 

 

Chapter Review: “The World of Digital Storytelling”

1024px-Family_watching_television_1958(Photo by Evert F. Baumgardner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Chapter 3 of Joe Lambert’s book Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community gives a broad overview of how the author came to San Francisco and helped found what would later be known as the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS).  In Chapter 4, Lambert discusses the components of a digital story and how these types of personal narratives fit into what he calls “the taxonomy of media practices” (p.38).

At the start of the chapter, Lambert lays out seven components the CDS values as important in a digital story.  In addition to elements such as photos, soundtrack, length and design, there are a couple of attributes I found interesting.  First is the concept of personal narration.  Unlike documentaries, which sometimes include narration by a celebrity or a professional voice-over artist, the first-person perspective offers more insight and emotional subtext in the tone of the voice.  Second is the “self-revelatory” component that gives the viewer awareness that the author experienced a significant turning point in the course of his/her life. Lastly is the idea of intention, where, as Lambert says, the digital story is “process over product” (p.38) where personal self-awareness by the author is the primary goal and concerns over the social media audience is a distant second.  This final component is significant.  In a Facebook world, it’s challenging for people to tell a revealing story without thinking of pandering to wider audience for the sake of a popular, trending topic.

When Lambert delves into the idea of “the taxonomy of media practices”, there is a statement that caught my attention.  He says, “In our view, the defense of creative control by the specialist creative class tends to ensure voice is not democratically distributed”(p.41).  These words made me reflect on my past experience working in television production.  Often times, it is the cable programmers and production companies who have the editorial power in deciding which sound bites from on-camera individuals make the final cut into the program.  Honestly, I like having that creative control to determine what media elements will be included as well as deleted from the project.  In the world of the decentralized YouTube programming, smartphone cameras and iMovie editing, the common citizen has more opportunities to create and distribute their own stories.  “Creative class” professional such as myself have come to see the impact in both positive and negative ways over the years.  Perhaps the biggest impact has been the steady downsizing in the media industry since the start of the 21st century.  Still, I like the fact that anyone with the proper skills and technology can voice their opinion on the World Wide Web.  This is something that Lambert and his collaborators emphasize in his organization when he states, “We are seeking a broadly applicable method for participatory media production” (p.42).

Overall, I like the simplicity of what Lambert and his cohorts at the Center for Digital Storytelling have established with facilitating the personal narrative.  To be sure, people can feel reluctant to express themselves to a cyberworld of strangers, but Lambert’s model makes storytelling an easy process that can be used by anyone.