Category: scholarship response

Scholarly Response: “Who is Trying To Destroy Digital Storytelling?”

Every week when I conduct a Google search to find articles on “digital storytelling”, I come up with a variety of links.  At the top of the search page came this piece posted yesterday: “Who is Trying To Destroy Digital Storytelling?”   It comes from a website created by a Boston-area digital marketing firm called Skyword.   Personally, I’m a little suspicious of for-profit organizations that describe digital storytelling in terms of “brands”, “markets” and “entertaining experiences.”  I’ve come to believe that true storytelling should be influenced by factors such as personal desires rather than corporate profits.

Still, I decided to delve into the reading.  The author, a content marketing specialist named John Montesi, gives some compelling examples of well-know tech companies making investments and taking risks in far away lands to give people an opportunity to tell their stories online.   Montesi cites YouTube’s relaunch in Pakistan to meet the government’s rules about illegal content while striving to ensure that the citizens there still have an opportunity to upload and view content.   In addition, Montesi mentions Twitter’s battle with ISIS after it shut down many terror-related accounts.  It’s a tightrope that Twitter must balance between confronting the promotion of terrorism but not to the point where the company denies account users’ rights to freedom of expression.  Much of the article praises the efforts of these social media companies dealing with very tighly-controlled governments and radical organizations.  I wish Montesi would have said something about how many of these same companies are blocked completely in China.  I guess that will be something for another article.

Much of what is considered digital storytelling, whether for-profit or non-profit, would not be possible without the efforts and investment of companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  Definitely something we should all “Like.”

Scholarship Response: “Getting Real With Student Bloggers”

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In my exploration of how digital storytelling can be used to elaborate on the theme of adversity, I found on online article from Inside Higher Ed entitled “Getting Real With Student Bloggers.”   The author, Eric Stoller, discusses the pros and cons of student bloggers being compensated by universities for telling their real stories.  Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an example, Stoller noted an example of a student who discussed both the challenge of being a successful student at the school as well as how those same challenges will benefit students after graduation.  On the other hand, the author mentioned how a number of blog entries seemed to benefit the image of MIT rather than give an opportunity for student to express themselves.

I’ve found that it’s very important for a digital author to express themselves fully without any pressure or influence from the organization or company that hosts or maintains a website.  Obviously, when an author is getting paid for their services, there will always be a certain level of editorializing.   If an educational institution truly wants its students to learn about digital storytelling and how to build a career, it must give them a fair opportunity (with just compensation) to express themselves regardless of public relations or marketing agendas.