Digital Storytelling – Makin it Real! September 5, 2006
Posted by dean in PW Classes, week 4.trackback
New media applications and the internet enable people to share their
stories across the web. The use of social software such as “Our Story”,
“Flickr” and the citizen journalism site “Now Public” provides an opportunity
for individuals without high level computer skills to be a part of the emerging
new media culture. Arguably, user generated content (UGC) is changing
the way that we interact as a society.
More and more people are choosing to spend their viewing time online,
rather than watching the idiot box (television). Does this make for a more
rewarding experience in the long run? Well, that is yet to be seen, but in my
opinion it’s hard to ignore a correlation between reality t.v. and the growth of
the UGC market. Suddenly the viewing public realised that their own lives could
be just as shallow, sensational, inspiring or dull asthe cast of Big Brother.
The “You Tube” website is jam packed with instant stars that can capture our
imagination for a fleeting moment. Just think, who would have thought that
3 million+ people would watch a kid playing a guitar in his bedroom.
Is this the fabulous future of entertainment for a newly empowered audience,
or merely a step towards a new medi(a)ocrity?
For more info look under “Digital Storytelling” in the “Favorite Websites” section
of this blog. Please share your thoughts on this matter.
Mmmmmm. The only thing is desired effect for the artist, is it no more then a promotional tool for potential talent. Burger King employees strutting their stuff on YouTube for want of what? The regular channels have in place complex capitalist systems for distributing wealth for artists keen to make a living from their work, on the other hand being championed by the people may spark off successful careers. What do people ultimately want to be happy? Do my videos on YouTube actually mean anything to the viewers as a mass audience or would they mean more if screened to the lengthy lines fishing around for forty bucks to go see some visuals at the Melbourne International Film Festival -
Or do we put each outlet of representation of our ideas into perspective just as we might when asking what a short film in itself does, as opposed to the rewards of making a feature. Or do we all become Voltaires, writing, producing, creating lots of Contes to get our ideas across. Are they even ideas? Will light entertainment become the future of culture (from the Dark Age and thus to the Light Age) whereby a novel if too thick is considered not viable.
What about censorship on YouTube? Does a seventeen year old playing Pachabel’s Cannon really amount to much when hundreds of musicians have played quite amazingly classical music on electric guitars, or did someone miss Hooked on Classics in the seventies? Or is this medium a rather lazy way for people to access cultural documents – become “slippages” and no longer physically seek out creative talent and ideas. Is more access a means of slowing down the mind just as txt messaging and email has lessoned people’s writing ability by the speed of the process and deliverence?
Will advertising intercept? Were hard-copy magazines produced in their millions ever a ‘great new way to discover world events and be entertained or informed’ as a difference from books? Is it just a theory that applies to who shouts loudest in the crowd?
Where will the artists gain their livelyhood or are these mediums just waiting for the bright sparks to use them efficiently and together with the traditional nodes of creation.
Should I have fish or chicken tonight? I’ve defrosted the chicken but need some Portuguese olive oil.
All these are questions that should be asked not necessarily answered, because no-one really has the attention span to answer them, just upload the closest to what you think onto YouTube or become an academic and once you have some impressionable minds trapped in a classroom, go for your life.
Rups
Well, you did have a lot to say. You could argue that we are all merely navel gazing, and perhaps the immediacy of digital technologies provides a convenient distraction from the more pressing issues such as global warming and world poverty.
Most of the world is not online and perhaps never will be, and the notion of impressionable minds trapped in a classroom could easily be applied to all of us as we ask ourselves who is the teacher, our conscience or our ego?
“The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.”
Buddha
Yeah but Dean, I didn’t end up having fish or chicken, instead I had “pie and chips” because the chicken really needed to marinate overnight.
rups