Digital Storytelling: Culture, Media and Community

Abstract

This chapter considers the significance of digital storytelling as a force for community cultural development in global and regional contexts and as a means of transforming regions. The primary focus is on practice, which will prove useful to both the community informatics practitioner and ethnographic or participative action researchers. This is achieved by contrasting the traditional ‘top down’ approach to media and cultural production with the rise of community-based digital storytelling. The authors argue that community-based digital storytelling must take seriously the realities of the digital divide, and must consider the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of communities and their specific ‘relationship’ to digital technologies to ensure that communities have both access to, and the literacy and skills to engage with, the digital medium. The authors consider specific examples that illustrate this approach and conclude by reiterating that access to digital technologies should be combined with community-based training programs, community based-goals and initiatives, and a commitment to principles of regional and global social justice.