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The Digital Storytelling Project

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The Digital Storytelling Project

Welcome to the Digital Storytelling Project; a student-produced website intended to engage with the story in its digital context and to be a resource for fellow students, scholars, and those in the media industry. The Digital Storytelling Project begins with a simple assertion about digital media: We are the Media. One of the most profound consequences of the digital revolution has been the idea of public media, where participating in the media is not the provenance of a few elite reporters or commentators, but rather an open conversation; a form of participatory culture, as Henry Jenkins puts it. In that spirit, we offer this website as a resource pertaining to emergent forms of storytelling as they appear at a single moment in time (the fall of 2011).

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We define Digital Storytelling thusly: The creation, distribution and consumption of narrative through digital means. Digital storytelling is characterized by four relationships: sharing, socializing, communicating and interacting (Kavoori, 2010, 1). In the following analyses we examine these relationships in three arenas of digital storytelling: viral videos, social media (with a focus on Facebook) and video games. Interviews with eminent scholars (including Henry Jenkins, Ian Bogost, Lisa Nakamura, John Hartley and many others) are accompanied by our voices, through blogs and tweets on a range of subjects dealing with digital storytelling.

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An important disclaimer: We do not make any presumptions of completeness.These analyses are a limited, partial take on the range of stories that make up the digital moment. The Website also bears the imprint of its roots: A classroom project with differing levels of writing and research expertise. In sum, this is an exercise that by necessity is incomplete, and one that future students of this project

will expand and develop.

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Thank you for visiting the Digital Storytelling Project site. We welcome comments directed through the Contact Page.

Sincerely,

The Digital Storytelling Project Student Team

Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication

The University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602

ABOUT US

ABOUT US This website was developed by undergraduate students at The University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The website was the culmination of a semester-long research project focused on storytelling and digital culture. The class consisted of Senior Digital/Broadcast Journalism and Telecommunications majors.The website was developed in a class taught by Dr. Anandam Kavoori, who is a Professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Dr. Kavoori is the author or editor of eight books, including most recently, Reading Youtube: The Critical Viewers Guide (Peter Lang, 2011). He has been a consultant to News Corporation, Discovery Channel and CNN International.Executive Producers:Brad TetiHope JensenKasey WilliamsSegment Producers:Sasha Dlugolenski- Interview TeamDiana Shtylman- Web DesignersRolfe Norman- Social Media TeamCatherine Sheehan- Viral Video TeamJames Manos- Video Game TeamSegment Researchers:Interview:Lacey PierceKatie RainsChristie DossWeb:Hanna GriffithsMakena GannSocial Media:Molly LundyAmanda DavisAshley FernandezVideo Games:Mike KljucaricMeredith Moore

BLOGS

Blogs About Our Experiences

Hanna Griffiths: http://hannadigitalstorytelling.wordpress.com/

Diana Shtylman: http://createrefineenjoy.wordpress.com

Makena Gann: newmediastories.wordpress.com

Rolfe Norman :http://rolfetweets.blogspot.com/

Molly Lundy : http://socialmediamolly.blogspot.com/

Ashley Fernandez: http://digitalstorytellingaccordingtome.blogspot.com

Amanda Davis: http://blogsbyamandamichelle.blogspot.com/

Catherine Sheehan: http://ugayoutubestorytelling.wordpress.com

Hannah Drum: http://talesofthedigitalworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/viral-videos.html

Carmen Williams: http://cnwill3.tumblr.com

James Manos: http://golfman42.wordpress.com/

Meredith Moore: http://mooredigistories.blogspot.com/

Mike Kljucaric: http://gamestories.tumblr.com

Sasha Dlugolenski : http://sdlugolenski.blogspot.com/

Christie Doss: tumblr.com/blog/digitellingwithchristie

Katie Rains: http://daysofrains.blogspot.com/

Lacey Pierce: http://Digitell.tumblr.com

Kasey Williams: http://digitellingep.blogspot.com/

Hope Jensen: http://hopejensen.wordpress.com

Brad Teti: http://bteti.blogspot.com/

Contact Us:

Class Email: tele3410website_gmail.com

Dr. Kavoori's Email: akavoori_gmail.com

DISCLAIMER

Disclaimer

The content and opinions expressed on this Web page do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Georgia or the University System of Georgia.

ABOUT US
BLOGS
CONTACT US
DISCLAIMER

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media

Facebook

"Social Media," the term now commonly used to refer to web-based social networking websites, can be understood as digital storytelling in a number of different ways: as a platform for information sharing, as a form of "open-source" narrative about the self, and as a new kind of narrative itself. In this part of the website we examine Social Media and storytelling in two ways: First, reviewing a sample of the emerging scholarly literature on the subject and then generating a typology of Blogs and types of stories on Facebook and Twitter. Click on the boxes to your right to learn more.
Outline

Twitter

Blogs

Research

VIDEO GAMES

Video Games

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Click here to learn more about the Sandbox Narrative Video Game Structure

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Click here to learn more about the Roller-Coaster Narrative Video Game Structure

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Click here to learn more about the Retold Narrative Video Game Structure

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Click here to learn more about the Shared Authorship Narrative Video Game Structure

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Click here to learn more about the Procedural Narrative Video Game Structure

Video games as digital storytelling are linked by a central action: Playing the narrative rather than watching it passively. Video games may have begun as simple distractions from daily life such as Pong, but have grown into a rich, textured world in which actors, actions, and environments seamlessly connect into grand, fantastic stories.The study of Video Games has kept apace with the creation of games. We chose not to provide a road-map to this literature, but rather to position our site as part of what Chee Siang Ang describes as the narrotology of games reiterating a central theme: Gameplay and narrative are complimentary of each other, rather than separate. Game designers create worlds and spaces built around game rules, but this also creates the narrative world. Through interaction and simulation, the narrative is created, and the story is different for every player.To explore the narratology of video games, we took an in-depth look at five types of video game narrative structures, drawing on a typology developed by Warren Spector, a video game designer who has worked on games such as Epic Mickey. They are: Sandbox, Rollercoaster, Retold, Shared Authorship, and Procedural. Each type of narrative will be first defined and then illustrated through one or more examples.

Shared Authorship Narrative

VIRAL VIDEOS

Viral Videos

Chocolate Rain, Charlie Bit Me, and David at the Dentist -- viral videos come in all shapes and sizes. This part of the website examines viral videos as an example of digital storytelling by defining them as a new form with an entirely unique structure. It acknowledges that viral videos are a new kind of animal, with their own rules and conventions. We will focus on YouTube as the prime engine of viral storytelling and examine a few videos in detail (Bed Intruder, Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black).

Colorful-Books Presentation Colored Pencils Chalk

Defining Viral Videos

Viral Video Content

Scholarship

Case Studies

RESOURCES

Resources

Viral Video Resources:YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture Authors: Jean Burgess and Joshua Green YouTube vs. TV http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/you-tube-vs-tv_b_525005.htmlDigital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in the YouTube Generation - http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ934075.pdfGodarzl, Tanner. The Future of YouTube is Streaming Video. 01 Nov. 2011 http://www.blogherald.com/2011/04/11/the-future-of-youtube-is-streaming-video/Schonfeld, Erick. Chad Hurley on the Future of Youtube: We Will Conquer Every Screen. 31 Oct. 2011 http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/16/chad-hurley-on-the-future-of-youtube-we-will-conquer-every-screen/Kermond, Clare. Youtube Hitches Future to Internet TV. The 04 Nov. 2011 http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/youtube-hitches-future-to-internet-tv-20111103-1mxo2.html47 Alternatives to Using Youtube in the Classroom. Free Tech 4 Teachers 30 Oct. 2011 http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/47-alternatives-to-using-youtube-in.htmlThe Global Views Collection. Next Vista For Learning. 03 Nov. 2011 http://www.nextvista.org/collection-list-global-views/Parr, Ben. Youtube vs. Hulu: Which is the Future of Online Video? 04 Nov. 2011 http://mashable.com/2009/05/10/youtube-hulu-future/Citizen News Channel. 02 Nov. 2011 http://www.youtube.com/user/citizennewsYoutube is Going Live. Youtube Blog. 01 Nov. 201 http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/04/youtube-is-going-live.htmlSocial Media Resources:Kavoori, Anadam. Digital Media Criticism. 62. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2010. 61-86. Print.http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/202/1/the-social-media-revolution-exploring-the-impact-on-journalism-and-news-media-organizationshttps://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=dd83172afb&view=att&th=132a6d91382ed3f5&attid=0.1.1&disp=safe&zwhttp://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/the_drama_review/v052/52.4.westlake.pdfhttp://www.studentpulse.com/articles/202/1/the-social-media-revolution-exploring-the-impact-on-journalism-and-news-media-organizationshttp://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/social-media-reshapes-journalism-613810.htmlhttp://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/28/business/la-fi-social-media-jobs-20110929/2http://web20bootcamp.pbworks.com/f/how_twitter_will_change_the_way_we_live_time_6.4.09.pdfReferences on BloggingBruns, A., & Jacobs, J. (2007). Uses of blogs. (p. 5). New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qQrKsQ3HJhQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=blogs &ots=GcENq0ZRBA&sig=CENjvb0GeRrSPlBYzpVYiE03FBUGumbrecht, M. (2004). Blogs as "protected space". Informally published manuscript, Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. , Available from Google Scholar. ( id=)Retrieved from http://psych.stanford.edu/~mgumbrec/Blogs_as_Protected_Space.pdfWilliams, J. B., & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/13066/1/13066.pdf

Twitter

Back to Social Media

Information sharing has never been more instant. These stories are told in real time and have the potential to get instant feedback. In June 2011, Twitter surpassed 200 million tweets per day. This breaks down to 2,400 tweets every second. Tweets can be responded to in a number of ways. ReTweeting shows that a tweet is news worthy and has peeked the interest of the consumer. The digital story also continues when a Tweet is replied to. Popular topics on Twitter become trending topics. Trending topics often start stories of their own. To analyze how stories are told through Twitter, we looked at the individual who tweet instead of analyzing particular users.

Types of Tweeters

Routine
Reflective
News Sharer
Photo
Gossip
TV Viewer
Drunken
Opinion Seeking
Check-In
Music

Blogs

Back to Social Media

There are an estimated one hundred and sixty seven million blogs on the Internet. Each of these blogs tells a unique story, however we focused on four different types of blogs: Advice, How-To, Personal and Gossip/Entertainment Blogs.

Advice
How-To
Personal
Entertainment

Advice

Advice Blogs

Advice blogs are almost like having an online therapist. People may seek out these types of blogs because of the barrier created between themselves and the advice giver. By subscribing to advice blogs, a person is able to gain the knowledge they desire without having to put in any face time with a therapist or expert in whichever field that advice is being sought.Not only are advice blogs useful to the people seeking information, but they can also tell a lot about the writer of the blog. The types of blogs people create can say quite a bit about their personalities and even tell their stories. For example, a person publishing a blog about relationships may have started doing so because they were having relationship troubles of their own. On the other hand, he or she could be in a healthy and committed relationship and took it upon themselves to share with the world what makes their relationship work. A prime example of the latter is a love and relationship advice blog written by Susie and Otto Collins. There are even blogs that give advice on how to create blogs! One such blog post, titled Travel Blog Advice for Your New or Existing Travel Blog, gives advice on how to make the most of your travel blog. Just from looking at the title, one could guess that the author is an avid traveler and enjoys sharing his experiences with others. In fact, he is. He's been traveling and blogging about his experiences for the past three years.Other Advice Blogs:Empowering Parents: Child Behavior Help The Budget FashionistaSavvy Vegetarian

How-To

How-To Blogs

If we take a look at how-to blogs, especially DIY blogs, we can learn more about the person who posted them. We can often tell whether the person who posted the blog is crafty, possesses engineering skills, or wants to share their favorite recipes. There are other how-to blogs, but these seem be the most common. How-to blogs will also sometimes include video tutorials and/or pictures to guide blog readers through various processes. These blogs are a way for people who want to share their ideas and abilities with the world to, essentially, tell their story.There tend to be many different kinds of comments on these blogs: comments from fans who praise the blogger's ideas, comments from those who have done or created whatever was in the blog and rave about it or discredit it, comments from those urging the blogger to post more helpful blogs, comments from those who have questions about the blog or are offering criticism of the blog, comments on pictures and videos posted. These blogs not only acquire a large number of comments, but they also tend to be posted and reposted. Many of the comments note how the commenter saw elements of the blog on another social networking site such as StumbleUpon, Facebook, and/or Pinterest. This demonstrates the connections that are created between the many different social networking sites and the ability of people to tell their story through more than one medium.
Cauliflower

Personal

Personal Blogs

Personal Blogs can be written about almost anything, from the profound to the banal. The writer and writer alone decides on the ideas of these blogs. A blogger could talk about his business, the types of food and drink he likes, or even his favorite movies.One personal blog that we found is called, "What Would Leah Do?" Leah, the author of this blog, writes about the things she enjoys such as fashion, hair salons and even her favorite restaurants. Leah's blog is personal because it discusses the things she likes and the things in which she is involved. Within her blog, Leah tells women about her favorite products and stores. Another personal blog that we found interesting interesting and shows how widespread the topics for personal blogs can be is the blog, "Sunny Sings the Blues." This blog follows the story of a man who was betrayed by his wife and later had to deal with her death. The blog has different pictures of the couple from the good times and then, of course, details the times that were rough and hard. More Personal Blogs:Cracking the Glass CeilingSassy Two SocksMissadventures With AndiWilly SeniorAmos Wong

Entertainment

Entertainment and Gossip Blogs

Gossip blogs are some of the most visited blogs on the Internet and tend to feature celebrity news. Gossip blogs, such as "PerezHilton," focus on the personal lives of young Hollywood starlets. These blogs discuss celebrity culture, fashion, music, and all other aspects of pop culture. The narrative of these blogs often comes off as tongue and cheek and tends to poke fun at the blogs subjects. These blogs are also current and up to date. Gossip blogs focus on shorter entries and appear to focus on quantity over quality. The target audience for gossip blogs is young females. These blogs tell a story about our culture. Gossip blogs use social media as a venue to create content many people would enjoy and share with others. Gossip blogs give the reader a chance to engage in the lives of celebrities. More Gossip Blogs:DlistedTMZHollywoodlife
High Heels

Facebook

Back to Social Media

Linker

Types of Facebook Users The Linker

This type of user is constantly posting video links on their friends' walls and sharing video links on their own walls. Most of the time, these users illustrate the way they're feeling that particular day through the use of video clips and songs/music videos. These types of people seem to be extremely social and enjoy sharing their unique video finds with the Facebook world. The digital story of the linker is cluttered with videos and links. This person appears to live through their favorite links, websites, and videos.

Photog

Types of Facebook Users The Photog

This person is a Facebook user who is constantly posting pictures and creating new albums. This person posts a picture from every location and event they attend no matter how important. Also, they are always tagging people in their pictures. Their wall posts and status updates generally contain a picture, and they also check in with a picture of the location. In sum, the digital story of the photographer is full of photos.

Aspiring

Types of Facebook Users The Aspiring (musician, artist, etc.)

This type of user has a friendship with everyone they can possibly be friends with. Their status updates always pertain to music, and they constantly post events and invite all their friends to them. They are their own promoters who post their music and/or videos on their wall. Their pictures are often professional or professional looking and contain instruments or band members. Their wall posts are often by supporters/fans. Their personal info generally pertains to their music career. In sum, this person is living their digital story through their creative expression.

Reflector

Types of Facebook Users The Reflector

This type of user enjoys posting status updates prompting deep and/or critical thinking by other users. Reflectors rarely, if ever, post anything negative on their profiles. They also seem to value family and sharing positive experiences with the Facebook world. You can almost feel the love radiating from them just by reading through their status updates and even the things that other people post on their walls. The digital story of the reflector begins at their status updates. This is how they reach out to people and share what is going on in their world. The reflectors pictures, videos, and shared links are just elements to their digital story.

Gamer

Types of Facebook Users The Gamer

This person on Facebook is constantly sending "game" and "app" requests to their friends. A "gamer" is also a Facebook user who is only online to play their Facebook games. These games include Farmville, The Sims for Facebook, Garden of Time and Fishville. The gamer has a digital story like no other. A gamer's story is comprised of a lot of friends they have met and know personally, along with friends they have met through the gaming world. Facebook is an outlet for these types of friendships, and their digital story is developed through the relationships made in their games.

Dramatic

Types of Facebook Users The Dramatic

A dramatic Facebook user is one who uses their status to generate responses from their friends. They are always searching for compliments and comments. This person always posts the Facebook comment or status that is fishing for sympathy or just some kind of response. The digital story of the dramatic user is composed mostly of the comments of others.

Super User

Types of Facebook Users The Super User

A super user is someone who is the most active of Facebook users. They know everyone's business, and insist on sharing their every thought with all of their 1,000+ friends. This person is always the first person to like your status. This person also appears to readily "like" a lot of other pages. In sum, they have a digital story about their digital story.

Idle User

Types of Facebook Users The Idle User

An idle user is the least active Facebook user. This person normally has very few personal pictures. Their wall is full of app invites from friends and/or spam. They have few Facebook friends. This person's digital story is blank or just incomplete. They may have another source like Twitter or a blog that houses their true digital story but Facebook is not that place.

To look into the world of Facebooks digital stories, we've decided to break Facebook users up into eight different typologies. These typologies tell the stories of certain Facebook users. Facebook has more than eight hundred million users worldwide. There are many different types of ways people use Facebook to share stories. Facebook is an open book. A user has the ability to share stories through the use of their profile, and others can add to that story by liking or commenting on a status. Our goal was to identify different types of Facebook users and to explore what their Facebook wall says about them. What stories do they share? What is unique about each user? What do they have in common?

Procedural Narrative

video games

Procedural Narrative

The Procedural Narrative essentially means maximum control for the player in terms of story. No other narrative structure allows the player the degree of story control that the Procedural narrative does. Simply put, the story can be anything, whatever the player desires it to be within the parameters given by the game designers. Interactivity, pacing, and any elements of story are at the fingertips of the user.

Procedural Narrative Origin
Examples

Procedural Narrative Origin

Origin of the Procedural Narrative

In this narrative structure, the game designer gives the player the most freedom and control over the story created in the game. The game creator still has to develop the story world the gamer explores. Through a great deal of interaction, the player can build relationships and affect how the game evolves. Interactivity is most significant in this narrative structure because that is what the game is based on. The gamer controls how the story develops over time by how he or she interacts in and with the game world and other characters. This type of narrative is still evolving and very new, so we will see in the future how much freedom the gamer can actually have while still following the game mechanics. New artificial intelligence technology helps give this freedom to gamers.

Examples

The Problem with Examples for the Procedural Narrative

Examples of procedural narrative structures used in video games are scarce for a variety of reasons. First of all, procedural narratives have not yet been successfully integrated with financially stable platforms, such as first person shooters and sports games. This gives developers less incentive to utilize this narrative structure, which in turn stagnates the growth of procedural video game narratives. Secondly, the artificial intelligence required for procedural narrative video games is much more advanced than that of a normal video game, which (again) leads developers to shy away from the challenge and stick with more conventional types of character interaction. It is true that procedural narratives in video games, due to the complexity of creating an algorithmic narrative structure, are not common and are not necessarily easy to categorize or define. Some games, such as Minecraft and The Sims (discussed previously), exhibit procedural forms of gameplay, where variables such as settings, graphics, or events might be generated algorithmically. However, there is no such complexity to the narrative structure of these games or to the interactions that the player has with the game. A game that does exhibit these traits, the gaming industry at large agrees, is an experimental title called Façade.In Façade, the player assumes the role of a guest who has been invited to the apartment of his two friends (a married couple) for dinner. The graphics are simple, almost childish, and the environment is tiny, but it is the depth of interaction that makes this game unique. The player has the ability to touch certain objects (including his two friends), as well as the ability to type whatever he or she wishes in order to communicate with the other characters. The non-player characters use complex AI involving memory and seemingly infinite responses to create an uncommonly realistic interaction. And, though it may sound boring, this is the bulk of Façade's gameplay: socially interacting with the two hosts.

Sandbox Narrative Structure

Sandbox Narrative

video games

To best understand the sandbox narrative structure, it helps to simply think of the storytelling potential of an actual sandbox. When, as a child, you sat yourself down in a sandbox, you never experienced the same story twice. Your experience changed due to the interplay of many variables: when you played, which sandbox you played in, who you played with and how many you played with, when you played, what toys were around to compliment your game, etc. A videogame with a sandbox narrative structure, then, is one in which the player is dropped into an environment where he or she has an immense potential to not simply influence the direction of the narrative, but to actually generate the narrative.

Origin
Minecraft
The Sims

Retold

Retold Narrative

Go back to the beginning of gaming. Think about Pong, and other similar games that were fairly simple, with no apparent storyline or goal other than beating the computer in a simple game. This is the consummate example of a game employing the retold narrative structure. The primary means of creating the story is in how one interprets, and then relates, their experience to others. It is a fairly simple narrative structure, as it does not require a committed storyline for the player to follow. Generally, MMOGs(Massively Multiplayer Online Games), sports, and puzzle games fall under the category of a retold narrative.

Shared Authorship Origin

Shared Authorship Narrative

Shared Authorship is a narrative structure in which the player shares authorship with the game designer. It is different from the other narrative structures in that the player has much more freedom of choice, and that choice in turn affects the outcome of the story and game. The gamer has to make decisions along the way, and each step of the game is determined by these decisions. Games that do not have just one ending, but are not entirely free-roaming, are shared authorship. The story is created through the basic storyline that the game designer creates and the path that the gamer chooses to take.

Roller Coaster

Roller-Coaster Narrative

The form of narrative most widely used and most recognizable to the outsider in video games is the roller coaster narrative. In this format, the player has no control over where the story is going. Inevitably, they will be lead down the path chosen by the creators for the game to follow. Most choices within the game that the player may be confronted with also lead the player eventually to reaching the same place they would have been had they taken other paths. The key in this narrative structure is that complete control of story is given to its given to creators. The player experiences the story in their own way, but it is the creators who choose the story or stories possible.

Viral Video Bed Intruder

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A CloserLook: Bed Intruder

Viral Video Scholarship

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Viral Video Case Studies

Recent Viral Videos

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definining

Defining Viral Videos

Viral Videos

content

Content of Viral Videos

Viral Videos

bieber

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A Closer Look: Justin Bieber

black

Back to Case Studies

A Closer Look: Rebecca Black

Social Media Research

•According to Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, SixDegrees.com launched the first social network site in 1997 by combining social networking features of multiple websites. The term network is used as opposed to networking because networking refers to searching for new people, which is not necessarily the purpose of social network sites. These sites are primarily centered around people, but networks are often composed of people with whom we've already come into contact with in real life. We can establish relationships through these networks, but we often use them to strengthen our connections with others. These networks can also help to validate information presented on profiles centered around the individual.•E.J. Westlake (Friend Me if You Facebook, Generation Y, and Performative Surveillance) references a study in which researchers found that, contrary to popular belief, social networking has kept Generation Y even more connected to the outside world and has altered face-to-face communication. Facebook defines itself as a site to help individuals understand the world around them. The site structures itself in a way that enables users to connect to others through mutual friends, groups, and interests, which are all ways in which the users are able to tell their story to other users. •According to the Time magazine article "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live," we are becoming more and more concerned with what is going on in everyone else's lives rather than what is going on in ours, and we can find out with the simple click of a button. We like social media because it gives us answers we want, but don't have to ask for. For example, we don't have to make what could potentially be an awkward phone call to an old friend from high school when we hear the rumor that she or he is engaged, because most likely she will immediately update her status, tweet about it, blog about it, and/or change her relationship status. These media also allow us to make judgments about others. Social media allows us to asses our relationships with others. We can change our opinions about someone simply by reading something they post to the Internet or noting what types of groups they join. This article notes that social media is changing the rules of interpersonal engagement. It is being integrated into daily life and face-to-face conversation such as meetings and classroom discussions. Private meetings and discussions are becoming instantly public and leading to endless conversations about topics that we, at one point, may not have even begun to take note of until days later.•Ruth A. Harper (The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organizations) argues that many college-aged students (ages 18-24) are beginning to care less about the reliability of a source and more about getting new information quickly, causing them to turn to the Internet and social networks as an outlet for information. Social media provides information about what is going on in the here and now and what people are saying about it the moment it happens. When major events occur, we are no longer constrained to conversation with family and those closest to us when the event takes place. We can converse with anyone we'd like and find out whatever we want to know instantly. •Robert Quigley (Social Media Reshapes Journalism) suggests a shift in journalistic practice with the use of social media to obtain information. If someone finds something newsworthy, they can automatically update their status or tweet about it. Journalists will often investigate the information to create stories and will even re-tweet correct information or update their own statuses.•The State of Small Business Report listed that 1 out of 5 businesses actively uses social media as part of their marketing, 75% have a company page on a social networking site, and 69% post status updates or articles. The need for social networking within a company has led to an increase in the number of available jobs, a major plus in todays economy. An article in the Los Angeles Times reports that the number of social media jobs posted on Monster.com has increased by 75% over the past year and that an average of about 155 jobs are available per month, up from an average of 88 a year ago. According to Simply Hired, the average starting wage for one of these jobs is around $55,000. The article notes that it is hard to say what the qualifications for these jobs are, but those working in the field are gaining more and more respect. •Blogging: Blogs are a key element of digital storytelling and social media. Unlike news articles or broadcasts, blogs allow people to insert their opinions and look at issues in a more subjective manner. According to the editors of the book Uses of Blogs, even though some critics have relegated blogs to the same league as other online publications, blogs go beyond a purely informative role and provide a platform for debate, deliberation and the expression of personal identity in relation to the rest of the (blogging) world (Bruns & Jacobs, 2007). In addition, there is a variety of different types of blogs such as, advice, how-to, parenting, fashion and political, to name a few. Some people prefer blogging over face-to-face communication because it alleviates some of the anxiety felt when put into social situations, allowing the writer to express his or her emotions freely (Gumbrecht, 2004). Stories are told in blogs through the sharing of personal experiences, opinions, and ideas. By blogging, writers are making themselves part of the story they are telling which, in turn, helps readers see more of the big picture. In effect, they become a sort of inside man and can be a valuable source of information. Storytelling through blogs can become quite intricate when executed in the confines of a blogging community. These communities are comprised of bloggers with similar interests and serve as a resource for information swapping and story sharing. Posting comments and feedback on others blogs creates an extension of the story. By reading the commentary, one may be directed to other similar blogs that may help him or her to glean more insight on the particular topic. This is typically known as community building (Gumbrecht, 2004). Blogging serves many purposes outside the realm of personal blogs. Businesses have embraced blogging as a forum for learning (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). Employees may blog about happenings within the company, upcoming events and changes, as well as comment on already implemented policies. Doing so helps the average person understand more about the company from a credible source. Higher education is another area in which blogging is used to tell stories. For example, Harvard Law School implemented a blogging program in an effort to promote lifelong learning and help to bind a community around the common theme of Harvard University and scholarly discourse (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). Blogs have also been used as education supplements by providing access to study guides, class lectures and discussion forums (Williams & Jacobs, 2004).If you want to learn more about the impact social media has on our lives and the world, check out this short video.
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