Tell your stories !!

We all know that with web 2.0, industries have taken advantage of consumer-generated media because it allows the company and its publics to build two-way communications. Tools like YouTube, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Stumble Upon and LinkedIn are the excellent ways to encourage consumers to be actively involved in a brand. Another practice of web 2.0 is digital storytelling. It is a 5-6 minutes multimedia story that combines digital images, sounds, narrations. It sounds hard but it doesn’t because everyone has stories to tell.

British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) has been using digital storytelling in its marketing communication strategy. Instead of bombarding people with programmes that somehow will solely benefit for the company, it encourages Wales people to participate in production methods. I think it’s really useful. Look at the example like YouTube and we will see that people love showing their identity, expressing their views, and sharing their experience. Indeed, people can tell whatever stories they like. What digital storytelling does is opening up the possibility that individuals can turn the television around to become the company’s “active master”. But in digital storytelling project.

I can’t recall the example of digital storytelling in the Capture Wales website. I don’t know. It says it’s not available in my area. However, I found a couple of examples of digital stories on YouTube. And in Australia, there is a project DigiTales that give you a lot of examples of what digital storytelling is really about.



For the BBC, digital storytelling gives fresh output because it can attract advertisers. We all know that television production works on selling people’s interests and that’s how they get profit. Then, BBC can have an original and sustainable contribution to community self-expression and open channels to reach and connect with the communities. Also, BBC can take advantage of this tactic to look for talents in journalism, script-writing and visual skills, and of course, to boost profit.

For the community, BBC provides access and education in the latest multimedia technology and promotes technology literacy. It’s also useful for people because they can make money from their contents.

Therefore, digital storytelling is a way to act socially responsible by facilitating people to participate in TV productions. BBC can make profit from this tactic and communities have tools to express their identity and escape from the boundaries of dominant images generated by mass media, which is obsessed by celebrities. In short, digital storytelling raises the self-esteem of community. And that’s how CSR works !


Reference:
Meadows, D. (2003). Digital storytelling: research-based practice in new media. Visual Communication, 2(2), 189-193. doi: 10.1177/1470357203002002004.