Page 82 [82]
Part II. Storytelling in the Information Age | 81
4. The Gift of A means of personalizing the story to help the audience
Your Voice understand the context.
5. The Power of | Music or other sounds that support and enhance the story.
the Soundtrack
6. Economy Using just enough content to tell the story without
overloading the viewer.
7. Pacing The rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it
progresses.
The most important characteristic of digital stories is that they all reveal a
narrative pattern, the key dramaturgical elements of which are visualized by
Ohler (2013) using the Story Map (Figure 7).
Middle
(Tension) A (Resolution)
fr N
Problem Solution
— question — ques. answered
— opportunity — opportunity met
— challenge (Conflict, growth) — challenge met
— goal — goal met
“The call to
adventure..." Closure
"Life" resumes...
Ordinary life... Transformation?
x >
Beginning End
Figure 7. Story map. Visual representation of a narrative (Ohler, 2001/2013)
The elements of the narrative outlined above are in a causal-logical order.
In the exposition, the initial situation is presented which is changed by an
obstacle, a conflict, an opportunity, or a problem. The challenge escalates
and culminates in the middle of the narrative. In a digital story, the main
character attempts to resolve the situation, even from multiple perspectives
and the development of the characters can be observed as the problem is
solved and the digital story concludes.
Digital stories can be differentiated based on the subject matter of
the narratives and the author's relationship with the narrative. Lambert
(2002/2013) grouped the digital stories produced in StoryCenter workshops
by theme, classifying them into the following categories: (1) Personal Stories
(Digital stories about important individuals which - reveal the creator’s
relationships; these include Memorial Stories, Recovery Stories, Coming- of¬