11.2 Digital storytelling and online folklore

Digital storytelling blends traditional folklore with modern tech, creating new ways to share and preserve stories. It uses multimedia elements to enhance narratives, democratizing storytelling and challenging notions of authorship. This digital approach allows for wider participation and faster spread of folkloric content.

Online folklore manifests in various digital forms, from urban legends to memes and viral content. Social media platforms act as incubators for these new folkloric expressions, fostering community-specific traditions and enabling rapid evolution of content across global networks.

Digital Storytelling and Folklore

Digital Storytelling Fundamentals

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Top images from around the web for Digital Storytelling Fundamentals

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  StoryTelling Network | SkillsCommons View original

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  From making toast to Co-creation principles - Classroom of Many Cultures View original

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  StoryTelling Network | SkillsCommons View original

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• Digital storytelling uses digital tools and media to create, share, and preserve narratives
• Incorporates multimedia elements (images, video, audio, interactive features) to enhance narrative experience
• Combines traditional storytelling techniques with modern technology
• Enables adaptation and reimagining of traditional folkloric elements (myths, legends, folktales) in contemporary digital contexts
• Democratizes storytelling through digital platforms, allowing wider range of voices and perspectives
• Challenges traditional notions of authorship and authenticity in folklore
  • Stories easily modified, remixed, and recontextualized in digital realm
• Fosters new forms of audience participation and co-creation
  • Blurs lines between storyteller and listener

Relationship to Traditional Folklore

• Shared emphasis on narrative structure, cultural transmission, and community engagement
• Digital storytelling parallels traditional folklore in:
  • Emphasis on oral traditions (now translated to digital formats)
  • Use of repetition and variation (facilitated by sharing and remixing online)
  • Reflection of cultural values and beliefs
• Diverges from traditional folklore in:
  • Speed of transmission (near-instantaneous online sharing)
  • Scope of audience reach (potentially global)
  • Degree of interactivity (audiences can directly modify and respond to stories)
• Allows for preservation of traditional folklore in digital formats
  • Digitization of oral histories, myths, and legends
  • Creation of interactive archives and databases

Impact on Folkloric Practices

• Transforms storytelling techniques to suit digital mediums
  • Use of hypertext and non-linear narratives
  • Integration of user-generated content
• Influences the evolution of folkloric themes and motifs
  • Emergence of tech-centric folklore (AI myths, digital urban legends)
  • Adaptation of traditional stories to reflect modern concerns
• Alters the role of the storyteller
  • From sole creator to facilitator of collaborative narratives
  • Emergence of influencers and content creators as modern folklorists
• Impacts the lifecycle of folkloric elements
  • Accelerated spread and evolution of stories and motifs
  • Potential for stories to go viral and reach global audiences quickly

Online Folklore: Emergence and Spread

Digital Manifestations of Folklore

• Online folklore encompasses digital versions of traditional forms and new internet-specific genres
• Urban legends evolve to include technologically-themed narratives
  • Stories about haunted websites, cursed files, malevolent artificial intelligence
• Memes represent digital folklore characterized by rapid spread and mutation of cultural units
  • Often combine image and text to convey humor, social commentary, shared experiences
• Viral content refers to rapidly spreading digital artifacts
  • Videos, images, text-based stories capturing widespread attention
  • Undergo frequent replication and variation
• New genres unique to internet emerge
  • Copypastas (repeatedly copied and pasted text)
  • Creepypastas (horror stories shared online)
  • Image macros (images with superimposed text)

Mechanisms of Spread

• Social networks facilitate rapid dissemination across diverse online communities
• Content aggregation sites amplify reach of folkloric content
• Sharing platforms enable easy replication and modification of digital folklore
• Vernacular creativity allows users to adapt and remix existing content
  • Creates new meanings and expressions within specific cultural contexts
• Lifecycle of online folkloric content typically involves stages:
  • Creation
  • Spread
  • Peak popularity
  • Decline
  • Potential resurgence or transformation into new forms
• Algorithmic amplification on social media platforms influences visibility and spread
  • Can boost certain narratives or memes while suppressing others

Cultural Impact of Online Folklore

• Reflects and shapes contemporary digital culture
  • Provides commentary on current events, social issues, and shared experiences
• Serves as a form of digital vernacular expression
  • Allows individuals to participate in cultural production and dissemination
• Creates shared reference points and in-jokes within online communities
  • Strengthens group identity and cohesion
• Influences offline culture and media
  • Memes and viral content often cross over into mainstream media and advertising
• Challenges traditional notions of intellectual property and authorship
  • Raises questions about ownership and attribution in collaborative digital creations
• Serves as a form of digital cultural memory
  • Preserves and transmits cultural knowledge and experiences in digital formats

Social Media and Digital Folklore

Social Media as Folklore Incubator

• Social media platforms serve as primary venues for creation and sharing of digital folklore
• Provide tools and affordances shaping form and content of folkloric expressions
  • Character limits influence concise storytelling (Twitter)
  • Visual-centric platforms foster image-based folklore (Instagram, TikTok)
• Online communities act as incubators for digital folklore
  • Forums, subreddits, fan groups foster shared interests and in-group communication
  • Development of community-specific lore and traditions
• User-generated content allows rapid iteration and evolution of folkloric elements
  • Each share or repost potentially introduces variations or new interpretations
• Algorithmic nature of platforms influences visibility and spread of digital folklore
  • Amplifies certain narratives or memes while suppressing others
• Global reach enables cross-cultural exchange of digital folklore
  • Emergence of transnational narratives and hybrid folkloric forms
• Ephemeral content (Stories, temporary posts) creates new dynamics in transmission and preservation

Community Dynamics and Digital Folklore

• Online communities develop own folkloric traditions
  • Inside jokes, recurring themes, community-specific memes
  • Contribute to group identity and cohesion
• Social media facilitates formation of niche interest groups
  • Allows for development of highly specialized folkloric content
• Participatory culture encourages active engagement with folkloric material
  • Users remix, reinterpret, and respond to folklore in real-time
• Digital folklore often reflects and reinforces community values and norms
  • Can serve as form of social commentary or critique
• Online communities may develop their own folklore-based rituals and practices
  • Annual events, challenges, or traditions unique to the platform or group
• Folklore can serve as boundary marker between insiders and outsiders in online communities
  • Understanding of specific memes or references indicates group membership

Evolution and Transmission of Digital Folklore

• Social media accelerates the lifecycle of folkloric content
  • Rapid creation, spread, and potential obsolescence of memes and trends
• Cross-platform sharing leads to adaptation and evolution of folkloric elements
  • Content may be modified to suit different platform affordances
• Influencers and popular accounts can significantly impact the spread of digital folklore
  • Act as modern-day storytellers or folklore gatekeepers
• Hashtags and trending topics facilitate the organization and discovery of folkloric content
  • Enable users to participate in and contribute to evolving narratives
• Social media analytics provide insights into the spread and reception of digital folklore
  • Allow for quantitative analysis of folklore transmission patterns
• Platform-specific features shape the form and content of digital folklore
  • (Snapchat filters, TikTok challenges, Twitter threads)

Digital Technologies and Folklore Preservation

Digital Documentation and Archiving

• Digital technologies enable large-scale documentation of folkloric traditions
• Preservation of oral histories, customs, performances that might otherwise be lost
• Online platforms and digital archives increase accessibility to folkloric materials
  • Enable researchers, practitioners, general public to engage with diverse cultural traditions
• Digitization facilitates new forms of analysis
  • Data mining and visualization techniques reveal patterns and connections within and across traditions
• Challenges traditional notions of authenticity and context in folklore
  • Content easily decontextualized, recontextualized, or manipulated in digital realm
• Global reach of digital platforms allows for revitalization of endangered or marginalized traditions
  • Connects dispersed communities and facilitates cultural exchange
• Enables new forms of participatory folklore
  • Audiences actively contribute to creation, interpretation, dissemination of content

Technological Challenges in Preservation

• Rapid pace of technological change poses challenges for long-term preservation
• Raises questions about data storage, format obsolescence, sustainability of digital archives
• Need for ongoing migration of content to new formats and platforms
  • Ensures continued accessibility and usability
• Challenges in preserving context and metadata alongside folkloric content
  • Risk of losing important cultural and historical information
• Issues of digital rights management and copyright in preservation efforts
  • Balancing open access with respect for cultural ownership and sensitivity
• Preservation of born-digital folklore presents unique challenges
  • Capturing ephemeral content (social media posts, interactive web experiences)
• Need for development of best practices and standards in digital folklore preservation
  • Ensuring interoperability and long-term viability of digital archives

Impact on Folkloric Research and Practice

• Digital technologies transform methods of folkloric fieldwork and data collection
  • Virtual ethnography and online participant observation
• Enable collaborative research projects across geographic boundaries
  • Facilitates cross-cultural comparisons and analysis
• Provides new tools for organizing and analyzing large-scale folkloric datasets
  • (Natural language processing, network analysis, machine learning)
• Challenges traditional definitions and boundaries of folkloric study
  • Blurs lines between folklore, popular culture, and digital media studies
• Raises ethical considerations in digital folklore research
  • Issues of consent, privacy, and representation in online environments
• Facilitates public engagement with folkloric research and collections
  • Online exhibitions, interactive databases, crowdsourcing initiatives
• Enables real-time documentation and analysis of emerging folkloric forms
  • Capturing the evolution of digital folklore as it happens