Digital Narratives and Storytelling

I spoke to an older art teacher from my elementary school recently. We were at a memorial that showcased a lot of my friend’s (incredible) artwork. The art teacher remarked how ours was the last generation of creatives. Kids these days are just on their phones.

 

But are they? Just about every “kid” has developed some solid videography skills. They have a suite of tools at their their fingertips, after all. Content creation, and the associated skills necessary for it, is rampant and infesting each corner of any given primary school. All these kids have a talented eye for composition just because of the sheer exposure they get to other creatives. I don’t think we were some mythical “last generation of creatives.” Creativity is just different now, I think.

 

During this past couple weeks, I have been working on a video for my fellowship for the purposes of submitting to grant funds. I got a new lens and microphone, so I’m pretty excited about what these new tools offer me. While I don’t think I can post it here before I even submit it to my fellowship heads, I think I can consider the readings in terms of my videography and the rapid-form content creation that I see people do now (think TikTok, Vine, Instagram stories, etc.).

 

In particular, the Punday article’s concept of reader positioning almost mirrors the videographer’s/photographer’s (from hereon referred to as the artist) intent in composing the subject. Though arguably more difficult in photo- and video-journalism, where getting “it” on camera is the first priority, properly composing the subject in line with the background and other details is to intentionally deliver a part of the story. To clarify, the subject in frame should be carefully composed and positioned in relation to the rest of the objects in the actual area to deliver appropriate story to the “implied reader” as Punday puts it.

 

More interestingly, Punday notes that the reader can “become the ‘implied reader’ of such narratives depends on recognizing not just the intentions of the narrators, then, but also how these links have been constructed” (Punday 28). This concept reminds me of something I heard in a talk this past weekend at NeMLA on video game narratives: a player must actively seek out elements of the story to get the complete narrative. If a player doesn’t investigate further, they will have a different total experience. There seems to be a level of choice when engaging with media, such as  Punday’s idea of being aware of the intent, but then attempting to recognize the construction of this intent. When I composed my video for my fellowship, I am attempting to communicate a message that clearly says “Look at what we’re doing! Fund me!” If I have to zoom in to hide some empty seats, then so be it.

 

The question of intent becomes rife with new meaning, I think, when you consider algorithms that match the “reader” with what the application thinks the reader will like. TikTok employs this strategy. When I downloaded the app, my friends told me I need to wait a few days for TikTok to figure out my algorithm so that I enjoy the content more. The algorithm messed up, I think, and all I saw were videos supporting Trump 🤮 How does the “implied reader” function here if the videos are delivered to a reader, as opposed to making a video with the audience in mind? These might be questions that require a full article to discuss, so maybe I’ll write it down the line. It’s definitely too big to unpack here, though.

One thought on “Digital Narratives and Storytelling

  1. A new (very strange) kind of narrative could be to try to trace the way that AI builds a profile. You could imagine the AI that tries to infer your intentions (usually, your intentions to buy) the way a human would. Or perhaps it is more interesting to try to imagine how a machine actually thinks. This could make a very strange novel, indeed. As far as guessing my political views, often the AI has been pretty accurate–and when I began shopping online more, the advertising started to pick up those stores so the selections seemed more wonderful to me. With political websites, if you are white and over 30 and you do make a habit of complaining actively about him online, I think the AI assumes you prefer Trump. We should ask the younger students in the class if the AI thinks they are “socialist” (ie, Sanders supporters).

    I know very little about TikTok, and am beginning to think that I should know more. I just opened the website (although it definitely seems like it should be seen on a phone), and what came up for me (first-time user) was mostly very young teenagers of color. I would imagine that is because it doesn’t know my algorithm in the least. Were you a Snapchat user? I wonder how this is different. Guess I’ll check it out for a few days.

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