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106 | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
media posts have been turned into books and a website which categorizes
the stories by country and by topic.“
On other web 2.0 platforms, such as YouTube, anyone can comment
on testimonies about abuse or addiction. In her research, Iyanga-Mambo
(2021) found that the comments section on Web 2.0 platforms can serve the
function ofa reflective support group. The commenters expressed solidarity
in an asynchronous but expressive way which is similar to the interactions
seen in self-help or narrative therapy groups. Social media has provided an
opportunity for survivors of similar events to express their support through
their comments and sometimes engaging dialogues which develop under
the posts.
Another form of oral history research is the study of personal oral history
narratives evoked in participatory community art workshops from a Freirean
framework (1972). A participatory public history workshop usually uses the
tools of arts-based research to engage members of a small local community
to explore the narratives of the community and its individuals collectively.
The projects end with a product that addresses the personal life stories of
the participants. Oral history narratives can take many different forms: they
can be published on different Web 2.0 platforms such as blogs, vlogs or even
podcasts, but social media is also a great medium to share such projects.
In Säo Paulo, the Museu da Pessoa (Museum of the Person)” began a
unique experiment in the early 1990s. The virtual and collaborative museum
presented individual narratives, regardless of whether they were the stories of
famous or ordinary people. The aim of the museologists and historians was
to create a collective communal memory. The narratives are not collected by
professional librarians or researchers, but can be recorded and submitted by
the narrators themselves. The community platform also allows narrators to
create their own archives where they can upload other peoples life stories.
The Museu da Pessoa has already branched out to Portugal, the USA, and the
UK. Between 2006 and 2008, the cultural and social institution, together with
youth NGOs, carried out a large-scale DST project called One Million Youth
Life Stories. The project aimed to give young people in Brazil the opportunity
to showcase their identities and understand their role in history by publishing
their stories on different platforms (e.g., social media, video sharing, and
museum exhibitions). The young participants could create their life story
narratives in any format, but the DST workshop provided an opportunity
for them to discuss their dreams as well as difficulties with their families and
cultural background in a focused way (Misorelli, 2017).
For the DST method developed in StoryCenter, Hill (2008) created a research
and education program that provided an opportunity for geographically
distant groups to reflect on their individual life situations as well as on global
46 https://www.humansofnewyork.com/
#7 https://museudapessoa.org/