What is Cross-Media Storytelling - A Storify experiment

*Google Photo - Creative Commons

If you have a computer and you have searched the web, you have unconsciously been reading and experiencing cross-media storytelling for years! Using multiple platforms such as: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and other social media platforms, digital technology has slowly been changing the way we read, interpret and experience the world.

I undertook to explain to an average person the concept of cross-media storytelling using a multi-modal approach through the use of Storify as a visual pathway to understanding the concept, execution and reasons for the changes in our storytelling world.



Research resources chosen: I attempted to conceptualize/visualize my research using information from both experts and professionals in the media/social media/marketing fields.

Platform resources included: Twitter, Blogs, Infographics, YouTube, TedTalk and resources from our course. My Research tools: Storify medium for searches. 

•  Twitter Hashtag tracking: Used to find interesting conversations and posts about my topic matter: #Digitalstorytelling, #Transmediastorytelling #crossmedia. Although difficult at first due to a sensitive case issue with hashtag searches, I finally found a number of sources that proved fruitful and selected one that would fit the educational and entertaining experiential tone of the piece.
• Google: Used Google search in Storify by searching terms such: Digital Narrative, Cross-Media Storytelling, Trans-media and finally found some great blogs and videos that would be appropriate to the flow and information set I wanted while being visually compelling where possible. Pictures - I used Google to search for creative commons pictures.
•  Links - I also attached Hyperlinks where I wished to provide an outsource to the information and finally provide a link to my Twitter site for following with a call to action to conclude.

Storify Experience- The platform has been purchased and therefor has changed a great deal in the last few months and has taken away some of the customization options previously offered. I certainly found it a lot more cumbersome to work with than previous projects. I certainly think that the topic could easily expand into a paper and the possible inclusions are endless.

Using Twitter - Alternative Medicine

Using Twitter to Market an Alternative Medicine Practice - Storify Elements

1. I used a few different approaches to find the Storify elements.  I searched Twitter, YouTube, Flickr specifically on Storify.  I also used google searches and copied the urls to the hyperlink drop down box in Storify.
Through trial and error, I searched keywords, hashtags and simply visited some websites I had previously viewed. Keywords: marketing, alternative medicine, social media tools, holistic, analytics

2.  To determine which elements to use, I intentionally showed a variety of social media platforms to illustrate a tool that perhaps the reader was familiar with.  I also wanted to show how the platforms can all be supported with Twitter use.

3.  This post doesn't give the full picture but provides some basics on the use of Twitter.  It's intention is to show Alternative Medicine Practitioners how they may make use of the tool.  The links and samples are applicable to their industry and provide some real samples.

4.  The Storify would be a starting point for a longer academic essay.  It provides an outline in which additional text could be added to further illustrate and explain concepts.  This topic relies on other posts and activities which already exist on the web therefore it lends itself to using Storify.  
If the "story" relied on information that I was organically creating myself, I would not use Storify.  

Comments on Assignment B - Storify "Twitter Fiction"

Storify allows you to tell a story using your own words along with curated items from various social media platforms. I wanted to explore the topic of Twitter fiction, so I searched for the words/hashtags twitter fiction, twitter stories and microfiction.

Since my Storify article was meant to be a basic introduction to Twitter fiction as a creative writing genre, I chose social media elements that would best exemplify this concept. I added simple photos from Google and Pinterest, YouTube videos of authors discussing their Twitter fiction creative process, a tweet linking to examples of Twitter fiction, and a slide deck of Twaiku posters. I also searched for user discussions about their Twitter fiction experiences, but I couldn't find any relevant Facebook posts since its a relatively new art form.

Twitter fiction, like any literature genre, is a broad topic and difficult to encapsulate in a few sentences or examples. While my Storify captures the pithy nature of this particular fiction format, I doesn't tackle how this story writing format could impact our societal view of what defines worthwhile literature. 

Good writing requires practice and exposure to good literature. But today's students are from a generation that grazes for snippets of ideas on line and trades cryptic text messages with friends. Why read a book, when you can wait for the movie to come out? 

But ironically, as Carla Raguseo point out, “Twitter fiction can provide learners with a rich language experience in easily digestible fragments. It challenges them both as readers and as writers to attempt and explore multiple meanings and to develop academic skills.” 

Twitter fiction has the potential to incite students to write in a coherent, creative and grammatically correct manner. Some people argue that it might even be a gateway to exploring more traditional literature. However, this would be the topic for a longer academic essay.

Assignment B: Storify

Assignment B (15%) - Storify

Due by 11:55 PM on June 19^th, 2014

Choose any one of our Module topics and create a Storify post in which you explore the issue using pieces of information drawn from social media. Make sure you include a variety of different modes (video, audio, images, blog posts, tweets etc). Embed your Storify within your blog post on the class blog. In your blog post be sure to respond to the following questions:

1.     How did you approach finding the different elements that you included in your Storify post? What keywords, hashtags, or other methods did you use to narrow or expand your search?

2.     Why did you decide to include the elements you did? What were the criteria you used in order to decide an element was worth including?

3.     Do you think your post gives a “full picture” of your issue? Why or why not?

4.     Do you think you could use your Storify post as a starting point for writing a longer academic essay? If so, how? If not, why not?

Assignment B Grading Criteria

Students will be assessed based on the following criteria:

●      Demonstrates effective knowledge production skills with a coherent and well-thought through Storify that informs readers about the topic and the range of perspectives on the issue (4 marks)

●      Storify has well-written contextualizing paragraphs (2 marks)

●      Demonstrated writing ability and critical thinking in blog post write-up (6 marks)

●      Demonstrated transliteracy skills to locate and embed multimodal elements in Storify (2 marks)

NOTE: our eclass does not accept links so please paste a link to your assignment blogpost into a word document and upload that to moodle.