Postdigital Storytelling: Storytelling (Within or Across) the Digital and Transmedia Field

Abstract

The term postdigital implies a rupture and continuity of the digital paradigm, which allows us to analyse the challenges implied by a largely digitalised society. At the same time, the term transmedia goes completely unnoticed in the postdigital literature, despite sharing key elements in its reflection on the digital paradigm. For this reason, this article reflects on the points of contact between transmedia and postdigital storytelling, as well as the differences identified between postdigital storytelling and its precedents: digital storytelling and transmedia storytelling. It is discussed that postdigital storytelling becomes an evolution of digital storytelling in congruence with the challenges posed by the postdigital paradigm and, simultaneously, that transmedia storytelling can adopt a postdigital perspective under which to balance the media it uses, while maintaining its essence of narrative expansion, which is a dispensable condition in digital and postdigital storytelling. Finally, an analogous reflection to the digital term emerges that more and more the transmedia nature is intertwined and diluted in the context that surrounds us to the point that it ceases to make sense.

Teaching about Marginalized Groups Using a Digital Human Library: Lessons Learned

“…We began our exploration with a project that was inspired by digital storytelling (Chan and Sage 2021;Meyerhofer-Parra et al 2024) and human library practice (Lam et al 2023), cumulating in an online human library focused on marginalized groups. Based on the observations from this case study, this paper argues that, rather than authentic contact or the amount of information, the dialogic cognitive processes embedded in narrative activities may explain the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of prejudice reduction.…”

“…Referring back to the discussion on HL and DST (Chan and Sage 2021;Lam et al 2023;Meyerhofer-Parra et al 2024), it seems that a constructive discussion should not focus on debating the effectiveness of HL or DST, nor on looking for "orthodox" HL or DST. Instead, we may posit these practice concepts as inspirations, examining how specific technology-enhanced storytelling activities using authentic live stories (human books) can result in specific outcomes.…”

“…However, their rhetoric does not always align with actual practices, and their shared goals appear more substantial than their differences. Reviews indicate that DST is not entirely digital or online (Chan and Sage 2021;Meyerhofer-Parra et al 2024), and, with regard to HL, it has not been convincingly theorized as to how and why face-to-face contact leads to positive changes (Lam et al 2023;Wong and Lin 2023). Thus, we see these concepts as inspirations and have considered how specific, digitally enhanced storytelling activities using authentic live stories (human books) can achieve intended outcomes.…”

“…This means that the format of digital storytelling (DST) does not have a universal consensus, and its effectiveness also depends on the specific types of DST design being referred to. Meyerhofer-Parra et al (2024) have provided maybe the most innovative review of DST thus far. The article discusses the evolution of storytelling within the digital and transmedia fields, highlighting the transition from digital to post-digital storytelling.…”