Every week when I conduct a Google search to find articles on “digital storytelling”, I come up with a variety of links. At the top of the search page came this piece posted yesterday: “Who is Trying To Destroy Digital Storytelling?” It comes from a website created by a Boston-area digital marketing firm called Skyword. Personally, I’m a little suspicious of for-profit organizations that describe digital storytelling in terms of “brands”, “markets” and “entertaining experiences.” I’ve come to believe that true storytelling should be influenced by factors such as personal desires rather than corporate profits.
Still, I decided to delve into the reading. The author, a content marketing specialist named John Montesi, gives some compelling examples of well-know tech companies making investments and taking risks in far away lands to give people an opportunity to tell their stories online. Montesi cites YouTube’s relaunch in Pakistan to meet the government’s rules about illegal content while striving to ensure that the citizens there still have an opportunity to upload and view content. In addition, Montesi mentions Twitter’s battle with ISIS after it shut down many terror-related accounts. It’s a tightrope that Twitter must balance between confronting the promotion of terrorism but not to the point where the company denies account users’ rights to freedom of expression. Much of the article praises the efforts of these social media companies dealing with very tighly-controlled governments and radical organizations. I wish Montesi would have said something about how many of these same companies are blocked completely in China. I guess that will be something for another article.
Much of what is considered digital storytelling, whether for-profit or non-profit, would not be possible without the efforts and investment of companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Definitely something we should all “Like.”