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What is digital storytelling?
An overview for 2023 with examples from all over the world.
*Updated May 2023
The term digital storytelling is about 30 years old.
In three short decades the technology that facilitates our digital communications expanded at rocket speed.
Mass storytelling technologies are increasingly accessible in 2022, and to much more of the world. Digital Storytelling now has tools at hand like virtual reality, augmented reality and non fungible tokens.
Unfortunately, the academic use of Digital Storytelling as a practice today seems too often to live in the world of dusty old broken links and dated uses of technology.
When did digital storytelling start?
The current expansion in the use of the term digital storytelling can be better understood by touching on it’s history.
In the 1970s and 80s artists were challenging the idea that art was for the gifted few and wasn’t accessible to ordinary people.
By the time digital technologies were more available in the 1990s, artists were on the cutting edge of helping to facilitate the representation of more voices within the creative practices.
Collaborations and stories were being produced by a new breed of artists that loosely called them selves “Digital Storytellers”.
Examples of digital storytelling in advertising.
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Daimler AG Electric Cars - Interactive experience
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Air BNB - Short compelling animated story
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Apple watch - Authentic Stories by users
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Imperial College of London - COVID-19: six months on the frontline
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APHR World health Organisation - Pillars of strength website
Examples of digital storytelling in cool websites.
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3d interactive headers - Interactive experience
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Animation company - Super cool responsive animations
Examples of digital storytelling in journalism and the media.
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New York Times Coverage of Tunnel Creek Avalanche
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Hollow Documentary covering urban growth in the USA
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Segregation by the Sea by Black Voice News - Utilising maps
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Digital Deadly Sins, Interactive story by The Guardian
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Documentary and interactive data The Fallen of World War 2
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Saigas in distress - Video rich documentary
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The Guardian NSA files decoded - media rich site
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The Guardian Homelessness - media rich site
Examples of digital storytelling in the arts.
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Voice activated voice interactive story “My Grandmothers Lingo” on SBS
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Beautiful interactive animation by Alexander Perrin
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Interactive Film clip by the Arcade Fire - Just a Reflektor
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Exquisite Corpse style online collaborative story by 7x7
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Augmented reality Ghost Story by AR Yokai - Youtube of experience can be viewed here.
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This interactive website Pine Point is somewhere between scrapbook, memoir and documentary.
Examples of digital storytelling with data.
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Hiroshima Archive - Storytelling with data
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Radio Garden - Spin the map and tune into radio all over the world
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Fry Universe by Chris Williams - Visual animated data journey
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Why do dogs and cats - Animal behavioural data with sound and animation
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Gates Foundation - Inequality data represented in different ways
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Stories behind a line - Creative use of maps and data
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Happydata - Creative visual data
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Rhythm of food - Visual representation of Google trends
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Wine and math - animated data