Making Sense Through Story. 11. Sharing Your Story: Digital Storytelling.

Number eleven in a series of articles taken from a dissertation for degree of MA, Storytelling at Loughborough University.

What is Digital Storytelling (DS)?

Digital stories are short, 3–5-minute first-person videos consisting of still images, a voiceover, music, and film, which are created to share and connect a personal insight as a story. Stories come from deep places to motivate change and are (usually) created and shared by the storyteller.

The methodology was developed by Joe Lambert and Brooke Hessler of StoryCenter in California. They designed a five-step process in the late 1990’s which is still core to the practice today:

The approach has been adapted for different purposes. For example in healthcare situations the editing is sometimes managed by the facilitator rather than the participant, collaborating closely to avoid editor bias. This is important because ethical issues arise when the creator of the story does not have full control over it.

There are two types of learning at play with Digital Storytelling. At the start and end are collaboration and co-creation exercises. The briefing stage involves a story circle where individuals vocalise their stories for the first time within a small group. Then, at the end, final films are shared with the same group and celebrated.

The second type of learning is solitary and advances practical script-writing and film-editing skills that are required to create the film. This, it is argued, would be a fun and useful learning experience for communications professionals.

The process is facilitated, and this role is key, providing both technical and emotional support throughout, being reflective and iterative. The entire process could take several hours over a period of time. The wider group comes in from time to time to share progress and becomes a support network, and so relationships are built which go beyond the production of the film.

How DS works.

Having worked with this methodology in academic studies and as an Interact Storytelling Fellow, I have found nothing else that demands this level of exploration about how to create a STORY within an organisational context.

This exploration requires a personal tale to take on the structure of a story, starting with writing a short script. Coupled with this introspection, however, is a demand to take an identified audience on a journey in which they learn something or take action as a result of watching the story.

This is why it takes time: - there is a deep dive to find the one universal truth that the audience will fix upon and remember. They remember because something of themselves lights up – like the element in a lightbulb! Lambert[1] advocates that ‘effective filtering, indexing and repackaging tools’ in the mind are required to ‘consistently articulate meaning that reconstructs a coherent story.’

This dynamism and the cognitive effect of the viewing experience (the final part when a film is made public) can be a powerful driver of education and change in our lives and businesses.

In organisations, I advocate the use of Digital Storytelling to bring to life personal-professional stories that help influence change around strategic goals. I suggest starting with a core group of communications professionals and key influencers, perhaps six. Having been through the process, they could teach others and deploy their improved knowledge of the essence of storytelling to listen out for stories daily.

WHY DS works.

As a Digital Storytelling Fellow, I know that expert facilitation of the process is critical. There is a visceral tension in the creation of a personal story, especially while getting to grips with the technology. This requires the facilitator to show compassion and to ‘hold’ the other’s story, helping them to manage a fine line between the personal (sometimes painful) and the insightful.

Experts in DS advocate that at a time of narrative de-skilling, when storytelling skills are under threat, the co-creation and sharing of digital stories like these could be a positive foundation for ‘narrative re-skilling’[2] in a ‘collaborative space’[3] of visual vignettes – especially within social media and other communications channels. In organisations, Digital Stories have been found to reach younger people in ways PowerPoint slides often don’t.

There exist pockets of successful Digital Storytelling practice - in schools, academia and within health – but it is found less in commercial organisations. This is perhaps because of the time commitment required or because people are not thinking about the power of narrative to make change happen.

But stories make us human, and our human side is what our employees – and customers, want to see.

DS examples.

The best way to explain how digital stories work is to share examples. Thank you for permissions to share these. These are stories that have helped people to think differently, learn something new or change behaviours – and even change policy.

In schools: Max Bessesen / My Write to Draw

In healthcare: Patient Voices: Phoebe’s Story

In academic projects: Zitao Zhou: The Price of Technology

In business: Vikki Kirby: What can I do for you?

Do these findings resonate with you? Let’s start a conversation.

Next week: Narrative and AI. For more information about the references used in this article, please contact the author.

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[1] Lambert, 2010.

[2] Gabriel, 2020.

[3] Wilson, 2014.