Oldal 33 [33]
32 | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
the delivery of private letters, books and newspapers, telecommunications
services such as the telegraph and later telephony were added to the postal
services (Barbier & Berjho Lavenir, 1996). The time required for long-distance
interpersonal messaging was drastically reduced; the telegram was a written,
essential narrative, while the telephone conversation was a simultaneous oral
dialogue over a network.
3.1 Mass Media Communication in the 20" Century
The new storytelling inventions of the turn of the century were the motion
picture and the radio. The radio continued the mass communication
conventions of periodicals, presenting breaking news in a narrative framework
and, like newspapers, publishing narratives (such as radio plays) in a serial
format. In addition to fiction feature films and documentaries, movie theaters
also showed film newsreels with subtitles and later with talking features
covering political and sporting events, social rituals, accidents, crime, and
natural disasters. Over the course of a few decades, radio and television sets
became part of family rituals with their continuous broadcasts. In Europe,
in the second half of the 20" century, public, state-owned broadcasting
channels swore an oath to provide credible news and high culture (e.g.,
theater productions and political debates), while commercial broadcasters,
financed by advertising revenue, broadcasted popular genres (e.g., shows,
soap operas, and quizzes). Until the 1980s, European television had the
functions of informing and entertaining the viewers. This dual funding
division has become less prevalent since the turn of the millennium, with
an increasing merging of television genres and the emergence of thematic
channels specializing in different storytelling conventions (Barbier & Berjho
Lavenir, 1996).
Narratives transmitted through technical media have an impact on socio¬
political processes, as the speed of access to information leads to more
knowledge and thus to political and economic advantage. The narratives of
the daily press can be used to manipulate public opinion; in particular, the
motion picture and later the sound film have been powerful storytelling tools
which have been used by a number of totalitarian regimes in the 20" century
to achieve their propaganda goals.
The illusion of reality is reinforced if the visual, audio or audiovisual
narrative is determined for documentation. The simultaneous live broadcast
and the spontaneous effect of the hand-held camera reinforce the authenticity
of the narrative for the viewer. Television's live narratives create a sense in
the viewer of experiencing taking part in a live event. A defining common
experience for viewers was the sensation of the first moon landing in 1969,
or the tragedy of the Challenger spacecraft in 1986, or the live broadcast
of the execution of the Romanian dictator Ceausescu on Christmas 1989.