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158 | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education The following chapters focus on how storytelling and the use of digital tools can be subordinated to the objectives in different fields of higher education. The types of digital narratives listed in the second part of the book are compact verbal, visual or audiovisual (re)presentations with a linear or branching structure. In higher education, these narratives can be used as tools for illustration, but their most effective application is when students themselves create digital narratives. Such work is important not only because of the experience gained through the use of digital tools and the professionally relevant content of the created product but also because of the collaboration and interpersonal communication involved in its production, which also supports the development of various competencies. Whether students are creating memes, dashboards, infographics, interactive digital narratives or digital stories, the process requires them to select, communicate, interpret and use ICT tools in an appropriate and purposeful way. CHAPTER 1. BUSINESS STUDIES Storytelling techniques are relevant in marketing and market research contexts on several levels. On the one hand, companies build their brand from their clients’ product-related narratives, which they use as a basis for further visual, verbal or audiovisual promotional narratives. In business, narratives are also used in the development of organizational culture and in the analysis of macro-level economic processes. When developing organizational culture, it is important to assess the experiences and needs of employees through their stories. Musacchio Adorisio (2009) examined the internal and external narratives that emerged within a micro-community. The research found that the everyday events which occurred at the workplace were framed by bank employees in a narrative structure (i.e., chronologically and causally). The researcher conducted narrative interviews with the bank managers (n = 14), recording metacommunicative signs and collecting data from the local history museum, the bank’s brochures and its website. A full background narrative of the company emerged from the data, the story of the acquisition of a family-owned bank, which was further subdivided into sub-narratives. The local Fargo myth associated with the bank emerged in the narratives in addition to the clichés regarding big and small banks, as well as the family stories that shaped the collective memory and workplace identity of the employees. The researcher also revealed a complex picture of the logic of bank decision-making and problem-solving, which was characterized by operationalized cost-effectiveness. Exploring an organization’s characteristic narratives is a source for image building and a tool for developing organizational identity. Employee narratives outline the extent to which they are loyal, their ability to identify with the
