Storytelling in the digital age with particular reference to YouTube as a platform

Abstract

This essay looks at how storytelling has been adapted in the digital age. Storytelling is an age-old tradition whose narrative structure transcends the technological advances that revolutionised the art, taking it from oral storytelling to the digital storytelling we have today. Focusing on YouTube as a platform for storytelling, this study compares the narrative structure used in film and television to the vlogs and short films found on YouTube. While adopting the different aspects of narrative structure, the digital age put its own twist on the art too. Today we see popular YouTubers becoming full-time influencers, as well as an obsession across social media with creating viral videos. This essay looks at some of these influencers and viral videos, while understanding YouTube as a platform by looking into its history and developments. Research done regarding storytelling, the digital age and YouTube is then applied to some YouTubers and styles of YouTube videos to see how the digital age has managed to create a new form of storytelling. It was concluded that some elements of narrative structure and plot are clearly present in digital storytelling, although different genres follow slightly different structures. Being a relatively young area, there are still gaps in the research available that need to be filled.