Hey, everyone! Today, I’m going to look at a topic that has recently grabbed my attention: digital storytelling. Now, I’m not talking about the eBook market or anything. I’m talking about interactive storytelling through digital media. You can use it to build your own adventure story, play games and quizzes, or just add overall texture to your story via illustrations. At Book Summit, a publishers’ conference, I attended a panel that discussed this matter and I was really intrigued with the general idea of how storytelling is evolving and the impact it has on the publishing industry. I just had a few concerns about this area of storytelling.

One is that while I see the appeal of interactive digital storytelling, especially for children to garner interest in reading, at the same time I’m wondering how this is any different from just playing a game. Sure, I loved seeing Inanimate Alice on the screen that day and I’m not saying that it isn’t viable as a product; I’m just expressing my concern on its labeling. Inanimate Alice, an interactive story about a girl who wants to be a games designer, seems a lot like a video game rather than an actual story. If this is the case, shouldn’t all games be labeled digital storytelling? What would happen to the publishing industry as a result?

Also, in the panel, there was a discussion on augmented reality research and using it to tell stories. Instead of just reading the text itself, you can use other devices to illustrate images that would move alongside the text and the person’s reading. My problem with this form of storytelling is that you would need another device to read the story in that manner. It doesn’t seem appealing to need more in order to engage with the text. Maybe if it was optional and already available on certain devices, like a smartphone, then it would be a smarter decision… My first thought after this panel was “Is this how people felt when eBooks first came to be?” That there is no use for this medium and why fix something that isn’t broken?

To sum it up, this was an interesting topic to learn about, but I’m not sure all of it is ready for the publishing world. Maybe once there is a need in the market, like advanced technology being owned by a lot of people who can use these methods, then it might be more popular to use. Well, that’s all I have to say on the matter! Thanks for reading!

-Sumaya