As a young broadcast journalism student, I was taught that news reporting is really a form of storytelling, and that the basic elements of every story are who, what, when, where, why and how. Translated into conventional story telling jargon, that would be characters, plot, setting and motivation. Whether in news or fiction (some would ask, "What's the difference?"), you need all of those elements to tell a good story. But what if you are not satisfied with telling a "good" story? What if you want to tell a "great" story?
For the answer to that question, I turn to a master story-teller, my former pastor, the late Fr. Dave Meinholz. Fr. Dave would always reach a point in his sermons where he would pause and ask, "So What?" In other words, we understand the basic elements of the story, but how does it affect us? How does it impact our life? Why do we care? Adding this element turns a good story into a great story.
Digital storytelling, then, is the art of telling great stories combined with the science of using digital tools. I have done a fair amount of storytelling during my years in the newsroom and working in public relations and marketing, and I have learned quite a bit about using digital tools, but I have not had a lot of opportunities to combine the two. I am looking forward to being able to tell great digital stories to my current and prospective students as well as my colleagues, friends and family.
I enjoy your ideas on merging the two - that will be key.
ReplyDeleteThe story of your pastor is great. It really illustrates how we can refocus attention to the theme just by asking for input from the audience. I'm going to try this with my students and see what happens the next time I can incorporate a small tale into our discussion. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDelete"So what?" is a simple but very effective question when used in that context. Good luck.
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