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Preface
At first glance, the book Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
connects three distinct entities. Ihe aim of the volume is to present the typical
narrative forms of the information society, as well as the areas of research
and education in which the analysis and creation of narratives can be utilized
in higher education.
The book is divided into five major sections. In the first part, storytelling
is examined with the help of scientific approaches and definitions from
different disciplines. In the first chapter, the role of storytelling in human
cognition, memory, and interpersonal communication is explored through
approaches from cultural, narrative, cognitive, and evolutionary psychology.
The second chapter examines the structure and functions of narrative texts
with the help of narratology, an interdisciplinary discipline in itself. The third
chapter of the first part reviews the characteristics of storytelling through
technical media. The first part of the book uses different disciplines to define
the conceptual framework by which the narrative feature of cognition and
cultural knowledge transfer can be interpreted in a complex way. Narrative,
narration, narrator, representation, fabula (story), and syuzhet (plot) are
definitions that help to understand the connections and phenomena described
in the rest of the volume.
The second part of the book presents the characteristics of the new
storytelling conventions of the information society. The first chapter focuses on
how digital narrative conventions have been transformed in the first decades
of the 21“ century by the emergence of smart devices and web 2.0 platforms;
in addition, phenomena such as media convergence, hypertextuality and
participatory storytelling are characterized. The second chapter explores
the 21% century’s modular and interactive transformations of the traditional
audiovisual narrative expressions of the 20" century. These new storytelling
practices are then presented and adapted to the complex media environment
of the 21“ century: transmedia storytelling which is a multimedia form of plot
extension; interactive storytelling, which turns the recipient into an interactor
who can influence the plot; data-driven storytelling, which is a complex and
dynamic form of narrative data visualization; and digital storytelling, which
can take the form of individual and participative content communication
and self-representation.