Why do people choose to tell specific stories? Understanding the narrative impulse in digital storytelling workshops with elderly people across Romania Camelia Crisan and Mark Dunford

About Digital Storytelling Telling personal stories through story circles, and an inter- disciplinary approach, using drama, photography, drawing, music, video clips. During an intensive workshop people learn to: write a script edit pictures, drawings, photos record a voice over and sound-track

Communications Programme including conferences, websites and publications On going evaluation by CUCR Locally based workshops in all the participating countries A Train the Trainer Workshop programme

Adapting the approach Links to local elderly people established through the Library system. IREX and the Progress Foundation adapted the method and combined it with introductory work on computers such as basic keyboard skills, image use, file saving etc Created over 200 digital stories across Romania in a four year period A means to overcome social isolation within communities and build ICT literacy amongst older Romanians A means to establish connections within Romania and to link people to relatives living abroad Romania – June 2011 Fieldwork across Romania

Sample Story

Developing our Understanding Revisit the storytellersFocus on specific stories

Understanding the Participants AgeTerminal age of Education

Understanding Benefits RankFirstSecondThirdFourthAverage Being Part of a Community Express Myself Doing Something Creative Learning IT

Moving On Plummer (documents of life 2) suggests a life narrative possesses:  A sense of ordering – usually linear – of events  A sense of the person behind the text  A sense of the voice and the perspective belonging to the narrator  A sense of causality

Digital Storytelling as Mediation Couldry (2008) proposes three main angles to explore digital storytelling by studying How digital storytelling’s context and processes of production are becoming associated with certain practices and styles of interpretation How the outputs of digital storytelling practices are themselves circulated and recirculated between various sites and, and exchanged between various practitioners The long term consequences of digital storytelling as a practice for particular types of people in particular types of location, and its consequences for wider social and cultural formation, even for democracy itself

Digital Storytelling as a form of life narrative

Understanding the Stories Reasons for telling a particular story in the digital storytelling format The significance of saying something, of being seen and heard How the digital storytelling format shaped story choice Personal and professional experiences after the course

Reasons for Stories “I chose the story because it was about me, about my whole life and it felt interesting that my children and grandchildren hear who I was and how I lived” “I wanted to keep the memory of my parents alive”

Significance of saying something, of being seen and heard “I wanted it to be public, not solely for myself” “The fact that my story will be published has not influenced me” “I approached the subject from a real perspective, ups and downs, the life with good and bad because they are all part of life and I realised that the negative can be presented in a positive way”

How the Form shaped the Story “Only the photographs that I had or didn’t have for my story” “I could use pictures of the old Focsani. It aroused so many beautiful and sad memories. To hear my voice recorded has been super”

Personal and Professional Development “I posted my movie on Facebook and I have sent it on to my family by . I have done a movie for my friend on her birthday” “I can teach my friends a thing or two about the computer, now I am their teacher.”

Conclusions Narrative emphasis on closure, affect and universality

Thanks for Listening